Didn't come here for that. Ta-ta!
Tell me about it. It's almost as bad as the censorship here.
There used to be a lot of politics discussed here. But certain people couldn't play nice. So Wendell forbid it to preserve his sanity.
There was a block feature, I don't know if you can still do it. You could block a subject or a poster. I had P&R blocked so I didn't care what happened there. This site is for surveying, politics might naturally sneak in at times, but it shouldn't be the focus of what happens here. And like Norman opined, we should all respect Wendall's time and not make him monitor adult professionals. There is plenty of other interweb sites to have "fun" with politics.
Thank you, @bobm4360 for bringing this up. It's right there in the Terms of Service and the Community Guidelines -- NO POLITICS. There is one exception: I've created a P&R group, but you have to be a paying member to use it. I figured that would have a better chance of staying civil, but no one is using it. However, that doesn't hurt my feelings at all.
So, for all those who don't like the NO POLITICS rule:
I got tired of the threats of violence, childish name-calling, death threats, and other ridiculous behaviors that just makes the profession look bad. Shortly after I shut down P&R, the traffic on this website nearly doubled once word got out. If you want to discuss/argue/fight about politics, perhaps try Facebook. This site may have Facebook-like features, but it will NEVER be Facebook, i.e. we will never disrespect your privacy or sell your data. But part of what separates it from Facebook is that we have rules, and we enforce them, but with heart, not bots.
Also, you can call it censorship all you want. Everyone has rules, so are you going to call them out for censoring, say, sexual content or human trafficking? This website is essentially my living room in an online environment -- do you allow people to do anything they want in your living room? Probably not.
From the Community Guidelines:
A word about censorship and freedom of speech
The US Bill of Rights allows citizens the right to free speech in a public forum without limitations imposed by the State. (“Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.”) This forum is not a “public forum”; it is a private forum that is open to the public. As a general rule, however, we uphold the ideals of the Constitution and do not condone the censorship of ideas. We allow relatively free and open discussion about just about anything. However, we do adhere to a simple tenet of respect. There is no place here for personal attacks, trolling, racism, sexism or other forms of discrimination. Debate, fault, discuss the action and don’t abuse other members of the site. When in doubt, please remember this golden rule of message forum etiquette: It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.
I apologize for the OP and will refrain from posting anything political in the future.
THANK YOU, Wendell. Well stated as usual.
Was out of town and am just now seeing the responses here.
The censorship thing was more of a snarky dig than a serious criticism since I do know this isn't a public space.
The no politics rule isn't even remotely close to new. I can remember internet forums coming up with that rule 25 or 30 years ago. I've put up with it for that long but I've finally grown tired of being dragged down by idiots. Because that's what the actual problem is, idiots, and not the topic of discussion. It's not unlike the second amendment situation in this country actually where a small number of bad actors threaten the enjoyment of a much larger group of people.
Anyway, it would be nice if the bad apples were simply plucked, but at the same time I don't doubt being an unpaid babysitter would suck and I probably wouldn't want to do it either. Personally, like I say I'm simply tired of being dragged down by the lowest common denominator. If I have to go elsewhere to be able to talk about adult things then that's fine, I'm just making a few observations along the way.
