Put Politics/Religion/Hot Topics into Private Forum

[Soundwaves]

Lots of communities have a politics/religion/debate forum but it's private forum and you must opt into it. Outside that forum, there is no political/religious discussion allowed. It allows those a place to engage who want to but also provides those who don't with a clear rule that technical threads or off-topic must steer clear of it.

 

[pucho812]

Are we not adults who can choose for ourselves without having to belong to a separate sub forum?
Seems to me the big debate here is if certain members departed because of such talks. So far evidence suggests that is incorrect.

 

[crazydoc]

Lots of communities have a politics/religion/debate forum but it's private forum and you must opt into it. Outside that forum, there is no political/religious discussion allowed. It allows those a place to engage who want to but also provides those who don't with a clear rule that technical threads or off-topic must steer clear of it.

So was it you who deleted John's poll (very briefly up today) about whether he should continue as moderator?

 

[scott2000]

whether he should continue as moderator?

Is Elon going to step in?

 

[pucho812]

So was it you who deleted John's poll (very briefly up today) about whether he should continue as moderator?

Would hate to see him step down. Would hate to lose another valuable resource

 

[AnalogPackrat]

My observation is that the problem is people who can't tolerate others discussing topics they don't approve of or revealing viewpoints that aren't aligned with their own. You can only control your own thoughts and actions. Sweeping "disagreeable" ideas under the rug doesn't make them go away.

 

[crazydoc]

Would hate to see him step down. Would hate to lose another valuable resource

I posted in that thread that he was doing a good job and should stay - just frustrating that threads I thought were entertaining were deleted or locked, and then that thread was deleted right after that.

 

[pucho812]

I posted in that thread that he was doing a good job and should stay - just frustrating that threads I thought were entertaining were deleted or locked, and then that thread was deleted right after that.

We have rules, who violated them? That’s why they get locked or deleted. It does seem to go from an adult discussion to off the rails, fairly quickly at times.

 

[sahib]

My observation is that the problem is people who can't tolerate others discussing topics they don't approve of or revealing viewpoints that aren't aligned with their own. You can only control your own thoughts and actions. Sweeping "disagreeable" ideas under the rug doesn't make them go away.

Fully agreed.

I do not like to be shepherd into making a decision to opt-in for another forum to be able to discuss politics or religion just because somebody does not like it.

As John rightly said, it is very easy to avoid it. Very simple. Turn your head round and walk-away.

There are people on this forum I do not agree with a lot of their views. But at the same time I agree with a lot of their views too. The key is to accept the possibility that you are not the only one on this earth who is right. If I do not agree, I make my point and bow out. If I agree, I give the credit due by either written response or the like button.

I would like John to remain as a moderator.

 

[midwayfair]

For a forum about electronics it's off topic and therefore off putting. It started as mildly annoying and over the past several years has just become ulcerous.

It's not about "seeing opinions I don't agree with" or whatever other nonsense, it's all equally irritating. My dad and I have similar politics (now, we didn't used to) and I threaten to turn the car around and go home if he won't stop talking politics at me in the car.*

Seems to me the big debate here is if certain members departed because of such talks. So far evidence suggests that is incorrect.

I've said in other threads like this that I post here less often and visit less often because of the brewery discussions. (It's been years since I put a project up here, though to be fair I don't think anything I've made in the last couple years was worth making a PCB for. But people still regularly download my microphone project.) I've seen other people in threads say the same thing. And people who have actually left obviously can't speak for themselves -- that's survivorship bias. I don't think there's any way to collect evidence on this, much less enough to make a statistical observation about it. We've had people come onto the forum before for seemingly no purpose EXCEPT to talk politics. Is that okay with everyone? Because it didn't sit right with JR at the time, but he couldn't boot the person because they weren't breaking any rules. And JR's big on the "just don't look" philosophy.

You folks can make all sorts of justifications for the behavior ("oh we're all adults here"), and call those of us who don't want to even see the thread titles babies if you like, but right now the vote's at 70% and I'm curious whether it's even worth leaving things the way they are if those percentages are flipped. Pissing off 30% of the population for no benefit just seems silly. Soundwave's idea seems to give everyone what they want: Those of us who don't want it to be part of our experience won't see it, and those who want it can indulge to their heart's content. The only way I see this hurting anyone is the people who insist on *broadcasting* their opinion, like people who start threads because they know people will see them and get riled up. Who does *that* help?

I would also like JR to remain moderator though I suspect if he's poling the community he's tired of dealing with the crap that comes with that job. I bet you'd make his life easier if the quagmire was cordoned off, though. Just let everyone have at it and say anything they like to each other, see how long the collegiate attitude of the "just don't look at it" crowd in this thread lasts.

*Oh how the turn tables.

 

[Soundwaves]

I don't think JR is going to step down as I have compromising photos and often threaten to release them if he doesn't keep dealing with everyone's riff raff.

While it's 70/30 now, there is a whopping 11 votes out of hundreds of members who have been online since I posted this, so my takeaway so far is that it's not much of a priority/thought for most people.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I don't think JR is going to step down as I have compromising photos and often threaten to release them if he doesn't keep dealing with everyone's riff raff.

that scam about having photos won't work with me, it was already tried years ago.... I didn't buy any bitcoin that time either.

While it's 70/30 now, there is a whopping 11 votes out of hundreds of members who have been online since I posted this, so my takeaway so far is that it's not much of a priority/thought for most people.

whatever...

I haven't seen the vote count for my poll...?

JR

 

[DarthFader]

I am just so glad that the Brewery posts don't appear in the Latest Posts / New Posts list. That was the best change. Now moonbats and wingnuts can yell at each other and I don't have to see it.

 

[crazydoc]

I haven't seen the vote count for my poll...?

JR

That's because it was deleted.

 

[iampoor1]

How many people actually post in the politics/religion threads in the brewery? Seems to me like it's really only 15-20 members that keep most of the threads going.

 

[JMan]

I've often wondered why forums dedicated to specialized areas of inquiry and expertise even have a "brewery"-type section to begin with. I understand that in theory it provides the opportunity for community-building outside the confines of whatever the primary subject matter is, but inevitably and invariably it leads to the same predictable nonsense, even when the community is made up of a very intelligent group of people, like this one. It would seem that we are all at the mercy of our human nature in the end, and (especially on the internet) the only way to counteract that is to implement basic structures that consciously avoid open opportunities to indulge in it. There are seemingly endless online spaces to espouse these other ideas (or rail against them, whatever the case may be), so why does it also need to have a place on a DIY audio electronics forum, or a home brewing forum, or a deep sea fishing forum, or whatever? The only possible answer I can see is to diversify the site's content to increase traffic, and whether it is successful in that endeavor I am not sure. Or just to tickle that need that every person seems to have to state their opinion. And look, here I am, doing it on this thread.

 

[scott2000]

Have to admit the political and random other information and discourse in the brewery is pretty good. Won't find that kind of stuff on nextdoor....
John would be engineering a device to eliminate poop left in the neighbor's yard from the uncaring pet owners if he were on there...

 

[living sounds]

I would like to know about the mechanism that forces people who don't like political discussions to read political Brewery threads. It must be a very valueable marketing tool indeed...

 

[pucho812]

For a forum about electronics it's off topic and therefore off putting. It started as mildly annoying and over the past several years has just become ulcerous.

It's not about "seeing opinions I don't agree with" or whatever other nonsense, it's all equally irritating. My dad and I have similar politics (now, we didn't used to) and I threaten to turn the car around and go home if he won't stop talking politics at me in the car.*


I've said in other threads like this that I post here less often and visit less often because of the brewery discussions. (It's been years since I put a project up here, though to be fair I don't think anything I've made in the last couple years was worth making a PCB for. But people still regularly download my microphone project.) I've seen other people in threads say the same thing. And people who have actually left obviously can't speak for themselves -- that's survivorship bias. I don't think there's any way to collect evidence on this, much less enough to make a statistical observation about it. We've had people come onto the forum before for seemingly no purpose EXCEPT to talk politics. Is that okay with everyone? Because it didn't sit right with JR at the time, but he couldn't boot the person because they weren't breaking any rules. And JR's big on the "just don't look" philosophy.

You folks can make all sorts of justifications for the behavior ("oh we're all adults here"), and call those of us who don't want to even see the thread titles babies if you like, but right now the vote's at 70% and I'm curious whether it's even worth leaving things the way they are if those percentages are flipped. Pissing off 30% of the population for no benefit just seems silly. Soundwave's idea seems to give everyone what they want: Those of us who don't want it to be part of our experience won't see it, and those who want it can indulge to their heart's content. The only way I see this hurting anyone is the people who insist on *broadcasting* their opinion, like people who start threads because they know people will see them and get riled up. Who does *that* help?

I would also like JR to remain moderator though I suspect if he's poling the community he's tired of dealing with the crap that comes with that job. I bet you'd make his life easier if the quagmire was cordoned off, though. Just let everyone have at it and say anything they like to each other, see how long the collegiate attitude of the "just don't look at it" crowd in this thread lasts.

*Oh how the turn tables.

It is off topic but it’s off topic in a sub forum that is described to be off topic.
I don’t know who you are referring to, who was here just to talk politics and who jr “wanted” to remove but couldn’t. I can speak for the old guard because we have spent time together away from the computer in real life. Aes, namm, nab, there was a big camaraderie from forum folks at conventions, we did dinners, we hung out and I once snapped a photo of a specific individual butt on a bet for inductors. The times we had were great. We also disagreed on the forum in the brewery but yet at aes and elsewhere, we would hang in the after hours. I learned about egg creams that way. There still is that camaraderie but it’s toned down a bit. Mainly because I don’t see those folks at shows like I used to.
The political discussions, we Always had them. Nothing new or shocking. I saw this place back to when it was tech talk, through the prodigy pro days and beyond. I watched people come and go. I saw the rise of intellectual circuit thoughts from guys like Brad, Jackob, Keith, Paul (both of them), and Dave. Brad shuffled off this mortal coil, others moved on. I don’t fault them. But their biggest issue was the loss of intellectual discussing of circuits to the paint by numbers crowd. They lost interest in the “my gssl does this, how do I fix it” being asked over and over. It also didn’t help that original circuits which were shared freely were being nicked and used in commercial designs. Why do you think so many companies all of a sudden had stereo vca compressors, fet comps, la2a’s and so on. What was a learning tool for many became someone else’s commercial product.
I wouldn’t blame the brewery. I also would say it is easy to avoid any topic you like. Read the thread title. Should be enough to say yes or no.

 

[Matador]

Ignore is your friend. Super easy to opt out of the Brewery completely (just mark that sub forum as ignored), or just ignore posters you aren't interested in reading. It works wonders!