The Participation Guidelines have also been updated with the following new item:
Political discussions are allowed only in the private, members only forum set aside for that purpose. Strong political sentiments should be kept out of profiles, signatures and other content.
If you wish to opt-in to participate in the politics forum, instructions for doing so are available here:
politics-forum-opt-in-vt8736.html
Some of you will be wondering, why is this change happening? Political discussion tends to draw very passionate reactions. This can make them a dividing element among online communities, especially when such division does not limit itself to politics topics and spreads to other areas. Some people also find politics to be an off putting subject and actively avoid such topics because those same passionate reactions can easily go overboard into arguments or personal attacks. Political discussions that get out of hand can be very harmful to the harmony of an online community, so many communities prohibit such discussions entirely.
In our own experience here at Fringes, the politics forum has been the off topic area that has required the most moderation to date. It has also included some useful, informative discussions. After reviewing this history and considering various options, the decision to make our politics forum opt-in was reached. We hope this will allow the good and useful topics to continue, while reducing the frequency in which discussions lead to unfortunate incidents.
Going forward, please keep in mind that the Participation Guidelines do still apply to the Political Ponderings forum in their entirety and guideline violations will still be handled as normal. We are not relaxing any moderation stances in this forum because it is now opt-in. This change does give us additional options for dealing with repeated incidents that are limited to the politics forum, which we will use as necessary, but it should not be taken as an indication that flaming or other inappropriate behaviors are allowed in that forum.
Thanks,
Thoul
Fringes of Algo Administrator
