No Politics?

Suppose I would like to know how liberal orconservative the general laser-sailor is. Apparently I am not allowed to ask this as the introduction to this "open" part of the forum states:
"This section is for non-laser related posts. Introduce yourself. Have fun. Chit Chat about anything. However, no discussion of politics will be allowed."
So, you can chit chat about anything but politics. What is the rationale behind that? Is there some corporate / governmnental interest that needs to be protected (I am all into conspiracies)? Or ... what?
Political issues do concern us as sailors, especially if that involves closing or polluting bodies of water. What is the danger in letting us discuss politics?
GWF
 
Political discourse is one thing. I am sure we are all too familiar though with the downward spiral that an anonymous message board can create for heated issues.

People feel the need to go to extremes to prove a point, and they get an equally extreme answer with no one learning or exchanging ideas, just venting and yelling.

As a parrallel, I make it a point to never talk politics to people I don't know.
Not because I'm afraid I'll offend someone (my stance is simple, I hate all politicans :) ) but just because what's the point?

I'm here to talk boats and share similar passions with sailors. I agree with Bradley that there are probably much better avenues to discuss politics than the Laser Forum.

[edited for grammar]
 
Your point is well-stated and I agree. Political discussion can and up in some extreme "yes-no debate" and there are many topics that I will avoid, because of the issues you mention.
However, it seems that less and less people care about politics, and people seem to agree that it is not their concern. For example, no one seems to care about the fact that political discussions are not allowed here. In theory we can discuss how good the flowers of my grandma smell, but not how I lost my job because of some corrupt politician.
For the record, I would not start a thread about a political situation on this forum. Probably I would not even respond to one. On the other hand, it seems rather extreme to prohibit such a discussion in the first place.
Don't get me wrong: I love this forum, and I appreciate the efforts of the administrators. I am just a bit surprised by this rule as it suggests a censorship.

GWF
 
More in general, I am no fan of the "Open Discussion" part of this forum and would be glad to see it go. This is a Laser forum with more than enough activity on things that truly matter :)
 
Okay. It was a pretty simple decision. I created the Open Discussion section at the request of several members of the forum. The intention was to allow some random friendly discussions to help us all get to know each other. However, we are all different people, and there is no reason to start making enemies on this site due to political beliefs. There are plenty of websites where one can participate in political discussion or yelling (SA for example; I will not allow this site to become anything like that).

For those of you unfamiliar with The Laser Forum's past, we used to have an open discussion area a couple of years ago. It turned into a firestorm of political yelling and nonsense. It provided no benefit to the end user or to me as a forum administrator. While I do consider the opinions of all of our members when making decisions and I always welcome comments and feedback on all aspects of this website, on this issue my position remains unchanged. There will not be [non-laser] political discussion on this forum.

Thanks for understanding,
 
Wavedancer said:
More in general, I am no fan of the "Open Discussion" part of this forum and would be glad to see it go. This is a Laser forum with more than enough activity on things that truly matter :)
Hi,
I'm the opinion, that installing the "Open-Discussion"-area was a good idea. And Bradley is right also in that what he says.
The last month have shown to me, that this area has a right to exsist at TLF. It cleans the other areas of TLF from discussions, that are not wanted there.

If someone wants to start a non-Laser-political-discussion, I would aprreciate if the admins close such disussions. I go here to have fun with others, that love the same sport, for a while or if I needed: some help for doing my sport correct and sometimes: discuss things that run beside my sport - but never any sort of politics that not belongs to Laser-sailing. This I can do often enough somewhere else.

I think we can do any strong in disscussion (but fair, like real sailors do) with our class, class-rules or -officers or sailors or original-out-of-the-box-boat-builders round the world etc., but nothing else, please.

Ciao
LooserLu
 
Bradley, that is clear, and makes sense. I was not aware of the history you describe and SA is indeed not very attractive. Probably it is a good policy and at least we have a friendly forum, with only minor hostilities.
GWF
 
Lance Armstrong has a passion for cancer research related fundraising.
He is very good at raising funds and some folks have tried to get him to run for office.

His response seems appropriate to me as a decent partial explanation why the Laser forum and its members ought not to mention their political leanings.

Loosely quoted>>> Lance said, "I have a lot I want to accomplish. People from all walks of life and all political persuations have been wonderful and have helped me achieve many of my goals. Politics are too devisive. The minute I name a party affiliation I lose 50% of my supporters."
 

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