I don’t think we should have dedicated threads for divisive topics like politics and religion.
- Encourages arguments and bad feeling
- Nothing to do with Go
- Not a fun forum game
- Doesn’t teach a skill
But I’m not a mod, so shrugs
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So instead dedicated threads, you propose we should start talking bout politics and religion in other random threads?
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I agree with you for the most part but I don’t think we should protect ourselves entirely from hard subjects, though there needs to be some simple guidelines and moderations so as things will not get too far out of hand. I considered this already with the corona crisis thread… the main reasons I’ve stayed off of it is because it’s hard for me to not want to lead the conversation into something closer to ‘why’ you are worried, not ‘are’ you worried… Unfortunately, in my neck of the woods, divisiveness is the current standard. People need a way to reach a middle ground with their ideas, perspectives, notions, and all else. For some reason it’s a struggle for some people to get there.
You’d like to think in that a forum from a server dedicated to a board game users could come to terms with the fact that everyone has a different and unique perspective to life… and that listening and learning can get you a hell of a lot further then instantly taking the offensive/defensive.
Maybe I’ve already gone too far.
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I don’t think we should have dedicated threads for divisive topics like politics and religion.
Most fora used to outright discourage such topics because they escalate quickly and never end well and they usually moved them to “off topic” or somewhere were people could go bananas without actually disrupting the rest of the boards.
PHPbb boards that I was most familiar of the past usually had a “bickering section” located in a corner somewhere in the back, behind the courtain, down the stairs and after you knocked on the correct combination of taps on the 3rd brick over the medieval portrait stored in the basement 
, but I do not think that OGS boards are build to have such “out of the way” sections.
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no >.<
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It doesn’t seem to me that there are many “neutral” places on the internet for polite exchange on some topics. Facebook? Twitter? YouTube comment sections? Why don’t those places work?
Are there any places online for civil exchange?
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Probably netiquette would be enough to stop escalations in a thread even if the topic is something distant from a Go related discussion. At the end of the day, if someone don’t like a thread topic, he can simply ignore it.
For sure, netiquette suggests avoiding new threads where just in the title you can inflame the spirits.
Regarding what @You_Know_Me wrote, I think that the thread “Are you worried about coronavirus” was really informative and helped a lot of us to be prepared earlier to the incoming restrictions and events. What we should have done? Do ignore completely the worst event in recent world history that is changing our daily life so deeply? Probably it will change our lives forever. Imho it wouldn’t be normal.
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More just suggesting there are already sensitive forums and it seems like they are mostly staying calm and orderly. (More-so I stayed clear because I felt I had little to add).
Yes, this is an option. But this is a community. At least I think it should be. It is normal to discuss among us rather than outside in another forum where you don’t know anyone.
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Let OGS Forums remain a beacon.
I am reminded of a comment by G. K. Chesterton, when he began writing his weekly column for for the Illustrated London News. He said, “I am not allowed in these columns to discuss politics or religion, which is inconvenient as they are the only two subjects which seem me to have the slightest element of interest for a sane man” (April 7, 1906). He was exaggerating, of course, but had a serious point.
I appreciate the unfettered Forums for humanizing our community of players. Several mods (not me) do spend a lot of time here keeping an eye on things. Players have been chat banned and threads have been closed, but generally the discourse has seemed admirably civil. Perhaps I am not sane by GKC’s standard, because I usually don’t read threads on politics and religion. To each his own, right?
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Alright, I can see that community consensus is to allow these threads. I’ll go with the flow, even though I’m against it.
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Well you know, the only guidance to this “general chat” part of the forums is “Use this category to discuss anything not directly related to Go”
I guess politics and religions fall under that ^___^
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They could be placed into a #heavy tag where they can be filtered out. But I don’t even know how to do filtering out of one channel.
I think the current community guidelines do a good job of outlining what’s acceptable.
Instead of restricting based on topic, I think it is good that the moderators filter based on civility. There have been threads entirely about Go that have gotten a bit too heated and closed. On the other hand, we’ve also had political, philosophical, and religious discussions here that have been very civil.
Further, a blanket ban on things like “politics” or “religion” would be difficult to enforce, since those topics can be a bit vague. For example, is climate change a political topic? I think in some places it is widely accepted science, but in other places it has become harshly divisive.
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I think you can look at the COVID-19 thread and see that we are capable of talking about politics rationally.
Besides, while you may not want to see it, others will.
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More to the point, one could quite easily argue that Go is (or at least was) a spiritual pursuit… And from there, it’s not much of a leap at all to say that a Go forum is already a religious forum 
As others have said before me, we don’t ban topics, but we do closely watch them to make sure they stay civil.
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It would be a lot easier to just ban them so I thank you and all the mod team for your efforts.
Regardless of how ‘Not Go Related’ a topic is, we are a community and it can be interesting to see what my Go Community thinks about something else. Music choices for example.
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