OT: who wants politics on this board? | Arthritis Information

don't read 'em...surprised  myself that I even clicked on this one!

In all actuality to me, I stopped even thinking about politics after I learned that my absentee vote didn't even count.

I correct myself. And I do apologize. I am involved with politics come to think of it. My daughter wants to become a teacher and will be going to college and in the midst of things became pregnant. SO she has applied for assistance. She didn;t want to, she wants the American Dream of being self supportive. THe assistance part is temorary, but in that...well never mind, it is an entirely other subject I will rant about later.

jode

[QUOTE=Linncn]

You can post on political threads and not want them without being a hypocrite.  Sometimes the things you see on them are so outrageous you just can't help responding, even though you might like it better if they just weren't on in the first place.  I mean, even on this simple yes no thread, Pip can't help slamming LevLarry, Gimpy, without much subtlety calls Blessed a hypocrite and Lorster laughs it up.

All the while acting like conservatives are the nasty ones.

[/QUOTE] < =text/> _popupControl();

I don’t think being a member of any political party determines nastiness in a person.  Either you are a nice person or you are not a nice person.  Liberal, Conservative, Green Party, Independent, or whatever party you affiliate yourself with, nasty is just nasty.  I personally thought the purpose of the latest Conservative/Liberal threads were for the people of each of those parties to discuss amongst believers of each party, the issues etc. they believe in.  Not to tear each other up.  You want to argue politics?  Fine.  I really feel these threads would be better received if there wasn’t so much low down dirty things said about one another.  If people could be NICE maybe these threads would be better received here since politics do affect our lives when you have a chronic illness because the Healthcare issue is so important to us.  All this nastiness really reminds me of what people really dislike about politics.  All the candidates saying and doing nasty things about the other candidates when the true focus should be on the issues.  I wish it could be different because like I said before, politics do affect people with a chronic illness. 

It really would not matter if we had moderators here or not.  The nastiness in these political threads would continue but it would be more subtle and underhanded.  Just what we need, heh?  It doesn’t matter whether or not we feel these threads belong on the board.  People are forgetting the one most simple, important, and treasured right.  The freedom of speech.  I don’t see how a majority rules vote would make any difference.  As far as I am concerned if you take away the right for someone to post what they want and what they feel, then you are practicing censorship.  At first I was like there is no way these political threads belong on this board.  Then I really thought about it.  If we tell people no you can not post that, we are taking away the freedom of speech and practicing censorship.  So I really have to go with the old standby of if you do not like the topic of a thread…then do not read it!!!  So I guess I fall somewhere in the middle zone of neutrality on this issue.  As I have said before about this type of thing…we may not be able to moderate others on the board as far as what they post, but we can moderate ourselves and we can chose not to read a topic that does not interest or would fan the flames of nastiness.  We are grown ups here.  Surely people can moderate themselves and really read what they are going to post before hitting Post Reply.  All this nastiness only shows that people can and will stoop to a low level.  Not only does it make the poster look bad, it scares off the newbies looking for info.  Can you imagine what newbies think when they read any post that is nasty?  It really is not that difficult to disagree with someone without making it nasty. 

i dont see a problem w/ political thread, if you dont like it then dont read them. i really cannot understand why this concept is so hard to figure out.

Gramma,

In the beginning I was like you...I didn't care what people posted we live in a free society where freedom of speech is protected.  But the problems come when the posters involved in these threads can't keep their nastiness confined to one or two threads.  They carry over their dislike of anyone who disagrees with them into every thread they touch.  Then of course new threads have to be started to continue the bashing of each other.  Some days it looks more like a political site than an arthritis one.  Like you pointed out that is likely to scare newbies away. 

It is a long time until the U.S. presidential election if it is this bad right now how bad will it get by Nov '08.  Many of the main people who participate in political threads have already proven that they are not mature enough to exhibit self control about what they post so the only way to stop it is to stop the subject.  Of course they have also proven to not care what anyone else thinks ( and none of them believe that they are part of the problem...its always the other guy) so they will keep on posting and being nasty anyway.   

I just hope that the people with arthritis can find their support somewhere else cause by next year the whole arthritis part of this board will be gone.

i dont see a problem w/ political thread, if you dont like it then dont read them. i really cannot understand why this concept is so hard to figure out.

The point of separating the political posts was multifold.

If cons and libs posted in their own forums, they could keep the rancor to a minimimum.

If they posted in the opposite thread they would, in theory, be a bit more caring in the choice of their words so as to 'play nice' and not be offensive to the keepers of the respective thread.

Fuel for both sides could be attained in the opposites thread, the info taken back to their own thread, and rehashed over there. 

There would be minimum hassle for the next year! 

The political threads would be minimum.  How many threads on the main page?  20?  So 2 out of 20.  Then the RA threads would not get bumped down the page.

However, the idea of lack of conflict seems to upset some people.  Before we could even work this out amongst ourselves, some people decided to exaserbate (spelling) the problem. 

The at the time of this poll, first page consisted of a:

• thread to keep politics off AI.
• The Lib thread
• The Con thread
• Lev's out of any thread attack on Lorster (hence my smack cuz that man can't abide by ANY rules).
• A thread asking Blessed to remove 'hate mail'.  Probably a joke but how does that look to newbies?  Now knowing it's a joke?
• This 'poll' thread

If we do not keep the Con and Lib threads this stuff is going to seep into every thread for the next year!

If we can find a way to 'minimize collateral damage' we can keep this board functioning as a unit.  I'd like to point out how we are probably the most learning and excepting RA forum out there.  Do we want to work this out like adults?  Or do we want to let the differences of opinion seep into every thread? 

Again, if you ask yourself the question, 1) is it political and 2) is it going to upset people, then posting it in your corner 1) gets the info out and 2) keeps the rancor to a minimum.

Pip

Edited for spelling.

I'm a member at other forums and things such as this are seperated into different areas. It works so well. I wish we could some how get everyone in the habit of posting OT things in a different area maybe? I mean if you'll look at the opening page there are sections such as Daypro that haven't been used in a long time and others such as the meeting & events section that's only been used for spam. If we could somehow get everyone posting these OT things in areas such as this is would actually be a really popular area of the board.

There's no denying that there is a craving for OT threads whether their about politics or dogs. More times than not they are the most popular threads of the day....even when there nasty.

It took a while for the "OT" notice to take off on these threads but after a while it has worked. Let's all put our heads together and see if we can come up with a way of making this work for everyone. It really shouldn't have to be so difficult.

Let's put our differences aside and work together to make a place we all love a better place for all.

Sure.. and politics has lots to do with our everyday  issues of RA..

Why cant we get decent universal health care.. why  do people in honest to god need have to go without  medication. why is the ADA observed more in the breach than in the action? why is the diagnostic criteria for  SSDI   for RA so stringent.. must be seropasitive..

If I dont want to read a political thread I sure dont.. you can always  hover your cusor over the topic and get an idea of the discussion you dont even have to click on it.

 politics is part of our lives.. RA is part of our lives..