Can the politics forum be hidden from guests or even better removed?

[Draconian Guppy]

Man, I am seriously aggraveted on how this thread keeps going  can I hide it from guests or even better, remove it ?

[techbeck]

2 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

There's also no need to act like it's the end of the world...

I didnt.  You are making more about my comment than I did initially.  But do what you want.

[FloatingFatMan]

Just now, techbeck said:

I didnt.  You are making more about my comment than I did initially.  But do what you want.

Given the way you phrased it, yeah... You did.  You made a whole mountain out of what is really a teeny tiny molehill. Someone said something mean on the internet.  Go figure.

 

Quote

There was even recently a few weeks back where a member posted a derogatory/racist term (twice) in RWN. 

 

[techbeck]

1 minute ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Given the way you phrased it, yeah... You did.  You made a whole mountain out of what is really a teeny tiny molehill. Someone said something mean on the internet.  Go figure.

 

 

Ok, got it.  Making a comment...simple statement.... on how I didnt think a racist comment was appropriate for this site is taking things to far.  Thanks for correcting me.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

On 23/08/2016 at 0:47 AM, techbeck said:

Why should I be limited on what I view and have to weed through a bunch of crap in order to find good posts?  You have threads that are 6 pages long and most of the posts are of a few members arguing back and forth about stupid things.   A lot of the of the problem people are the same offenders over and over again.   I hate to see how many reports the MODs get on a daily basis.

 

I really would have no problem with the RWN section if things were under control.

Without going into detail, it is a surprisingly low number (especially once you remove spam from the total count). Which leads me to believe a lot is probably going unreported and driving more people away from the sections or stressing out the active members. Unless something catches a mod's eye / they are part of the discussion, we'll be unaware to any issues without reports.

 

Which probably makes it look like we don't care or are happy with the way discussions go in RWI. If anything, I'd say to those of you who visit / post in RWI to use the report button more. However, not as a means for point scoring against one another because abuse of the feature is also not accepted. If there are genuine issues report it and do not assume mods have seen it or that someone else will report it.

[kalel83]

I hope to god Politics are removed from this website.

 

I have been coming here for 14 years. Never had an issue until all the Hillary/Trump crap started spreading across the forum. Now I have gotten like 6 points, 3 warnings and probably a permanent ban soon.

 

 

Politics have no place in a Tech website. AT ALL. If you want to go talk how great your satanic racist sob is then go somewhere else.

 

 

Some people think it is just a conversation. But other people have suffered and had terrible things happen to them relating to politics and decisions. Coming in here and being an arrogant jerk cause you think you have a right to run your mouth is completely offensive. I shouldn't have to be reminded that my future is going to include more suffering every time I come to this website. All this pro-Trump ###### pushes people to the brink of sanity.

 

Also having one of the moderators on this site be a Trump supporter will probably not help the goal of this thread. Only one mod has bothered me, and it always for the same issue, I attack Trump and he gets mad.

 

it needs to stop. Neowin used to be respectable.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

4 minutes ago, kalel83 said:

All this pro-Trump ###### pushes people to the brink of sanity

That you are correct on.

[metallithrax]

16 minutes ago, kalel83 said:

Also having one of the moderators on this site be a Trump supporter will probably not help the goal of this thread. Only one mod has bothered me, and it always for the same issue, I attack Trump and he gets mad.

 

it needs to stop. Neowin used to be respectable.

But has he/she abused their powers?  If not then it isn't a problem.  Even Mods are allowed to have opinions - even about politics - it is when they start abusing their powers that the problems start.

[Joshie]

23 minutes ago, kalel83 said:

 

Politics have no place in a Tech website. AT ALL.

 

I remember having this exact same opinion about The Verge a couple years ago when the number of tech stories (not discussions--front page articles) started being overshadowed by political blah blah. Verge staff took a position like "technology is culture, so we have to be a culture site, and that means all culture" or some other blatant logical fallacy.

 

So anything "culture" and "social" and "global" and "political" that was marginally related to technology became a fair topic.

 

The truth is, a lot of tech-minded people are obsessed with politics anyway, and have let politics take over their hobby. From video game censorship to the Snowden circlejerk (that seriously has to be chafing people by now), people online are addicted to their own outrage as much as people anywhere else. The difference is, of course, they don't know how to do anything but post about it where they see an audience.

 

It's funny, because there have already been entire studies about crap like this. These threads--these political flamewars and opinion orgies--aren't productive at all. They give people a sense of accomplishment despite accomplishing nothing. It's a giant pit of wasting their time and feeling indignant at anyone who points that out.

 

And there's no stopping it. Like The Verge, people who have better things to do just have to pack up and go somewhere else.

[kalel83]

1 minute ago, Joshie said:

It's funny, because there have already been entire studies about crap like this. These threads--these political flamewars and opinion orgies--aren't productive at all. They give people a sense of accomplishment despite accomplishing nothing. It's a giant pit of wasting their time and feeling indignant at anyone who points that out.

And now it is driving people away from this website.

 

Honestly nothing is gained by having politics be open season here, nothing. And the negatives are very strong.

[adrynalyne]

11 minutes ago, kalel83 said:

And now it is driving people away from this website.

 

Honestly nothing is gained by having politics be open season here, nothing. And the negatives are very strong.

Not really. The forums here are like most sites; money sinks. The front page articles are what really matter. Only one has been political so far--hopefully that never happens again. 

 

What really hurts Neowin is the lower quality articles of late along with the apathy towards fixing the commenting system. Their loss I guess. 

[kalel83]

10 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

Not really. The forums here are like most sites; money sinks. The front page articles are what really matter. Only one has been political so far--hopefully that never happens again. 

 

What really hurts Neowin is the lower quality articles of late along with the apathy towards fixing the commenting system. Their loss I guess. 

You obviously don't know what Neowin used to be great for. We used to have one of the most competent forums around.

 

I used to recommend the forum on this website to people for specific things. For years.

 

 

Articles were always the secondary part of this website.

 

We used to have a solid community. Now people spend more time attacking eachother and trying to force their viewpoint. All cause of Politics.

[adrynalyne]

Just now, kalel83 said:

You obviously don't know what Neowin used to be great for. We used to have one of the most competent forums around.

 

I used to recommend the forum on this website to people for specific things. For years.

 

 

Articles were always the secondary part of this website.

You obviously are looking at it from a user standpoint and not reality. Businesses are in it for the money. The forum is not the source near as much as the front page. 

[LimeMaster]

1 minute ago, kalel83 said:

Articles were always the secondary part of this website.

That's because articles back in day were just copy pastes from other sites.

[kalel83]

6 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

You obviously are looking at it from a user standpoint and not reality. Businesses are in it for the money. The forum is not the source near as much as the front page. 

The forum kept us coming here. Which kept their ads or donating coming. Which kept the website alive.

 

Like LimeMaster said, articles didn't help this website survive up till now. Any business would be aware of that.

 

 

Yes, those front page things that allow Neowin and some company to sell whatever are probably giving them more money then anything else. But again, no one is coming to their website for those flash sales on the front page. You seem to forget that what makes money isn't always what causes repeat customers. You have to balance the two.

 

 

 

 

Amazing you say others are overlooking reality when it is in fact you doing so. Just because you refuse to consider you might not know it all, doesn't mean you actually do.

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

42 minutes ago, metallithrax said:

But has he/she abused their powers?  If not then it isn't a problem.  Even Mods are allowed to have opinions - even about politics - it is when they start abusing their powers that the problems start.

I believe the problem is when Moderators/Supervisors allow their personal feelings to get in the way of keeping discussions clean. I've seen this in other parts of Neowin as well. Sure we all have our opinions, however, as a Moderator/Supervisor, you are held to a different standard, you have to draw a line personally, and keep your feelings in check. This goes for Managerial/Supervisory roles outside of Neowin as well.

[adrynalyne]

3 minutes ago, kalel83 said:

The forum kept us coming here. Which kept their ads or donating coming. Which kept the website alive.

 

Like LimeMaster said, articles didn't help this website survive up till now. Any business would be aware of that.

 

 

Yes, those front page things that allow Neowin and some company to sell whatever are probably giving them more money then anything else. But again, no one is coming to their website for those flash sales on the front page. You seem to forget that what makes money isn't always what causes repeat customers. You have to balance the two.

 

 

 

 

Amazing you say others are overlooking reality when it is in fact you doing so. Just because you refuse to consider you might not know it all, doesn't mean you actually do.

If I was overlooking reality, I wouldn't have noticed the hypocritical nature of your complaint in the first place.  You complain of the political forums but I've seen you participate plenty in them. The very thing you rail against, you have helped grow. 

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

16 minutes ago, kalel83 said:

We used to have a solid community. Now people spend more time attacking eachother and trying to force their viewpoint. All cause of Politics.

I'd like to add that the community is now being polluted by borderline racism from some members. It's usually the same folks that are vocal in the political threads as well. If Neowin is predominately a Microsoft source for news, knowing Microsoft strives for diversity and would never represent such ideas, then these threads that stereotype different minority groups, should be thwarted immediately. Or move these topics to the Back Stage Pass. I personally prefer eradication from Neowin entirely.

[kalel83]

9 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

You complain of the political forums but I've seen you participate plenty in them. The very thing you rail against, you have helped grow. 

So what? Are you my keeper or my parent? Is my specific opinion or response paramount in regards to this topic? No.

 

My having complained in political topics does not make my not wanting political topics any less relevant.

 

 

 

Curious to see what other big word you come up with to try to deflate my statement with. BTW you already used hypocritical.

[adrynalyne]

4 minutes ago, kalel83 said:

So what? Are you my keeper or my parent? Is my specific opinion or response paramount in regards to this topic? No.

 

My having complained in political topics does not make my not wanting political topics any less relevant.

 

 

 

Curious to see what other big word you come up with to try to deflate my statement with. BTW you already used hypocritical.

Nope no keeper of yours. Just hard to take your complaint serious when you helped make it what it is today. 

[adrynalyne]

8 minutes ago, JHBrown said:

I'd like to add that the community is now being polluted by borderline racism from some members. It's usually the same folks that are vocal in the political threads as well. If Neowin is predominately a Microsoft source for news, knowing Microsoft strives for diversity and would never represent such ideas, then these threads that stereotype different minority groups, should be thwarted immediately. Or move these topics to the Back Stage Pass. I personally prefer eradication from Neowin entirely.

That or encouraged acts of violence such as assassinating Trump. It's disgusting. 

[Joshie]

26 minutes ago, kalel83 said:

The forum kept us coming here. Which kept their ads or donating coming. Which kept the website alive.

 

Like LimeMaster said, articles didn't help this website survive up till now. Any business would be aware of that.

 

 

Yes, those front page things that allow Neowin and some company to sell whatever are probably giving them more money then anything else. But again, no one is coming to their website for those flash sales on the front page. You seem to forget that what makes money isn't always what causes repeat customers. You have to balance the two.

 

 

 

 

Amazing you say others are overlooking reality when it is in fact you doing so. Just because you refuse to consider you might not know it all, doesn't mean you actually do.

Just for a fun conspiracy theory, what if all the people who come here for the tech-focused community are more likely to use adblockers, and the people who don't use adblockers are more likely to be lowest-common-denominator clickbait-addicts, forcing the site to care more about derps than their core users?

 

I'm sure that's not totally right (nothing ever boils down to a single cause no matter how many times people start a sentence with "The problem is..."). But it was the first theyz-alienz thought I could come up with.

[Ian W]

3 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

That or encouraged acts of violence such as assassinating Trump. It's disgusting. 

I did not want to participate, but it is interesting how that Neowinian did not mention his assassination comments in the context of the warnings he received.

[adrynalyne]

7 minutes ago, Joshie said:

Just for a fun conspiracy theory, what if all the people who come here for the tech-focused community are more likely to use adblockers, and the people who don't use adblockers are more likely to be lowest-common-denominator clickbait-addicts, forcing the site to care more about derps than their core users?

 

I'm sure that's not totally right (nothing ever boils down to a single cause no matter how many times people start a sentence with "The problem is..."). But it was the first theyz-alienz thought I could come up with.

I think the days of tech blogs being self

sustaining is dwindling due to ad blockers. I used to be a moderator of a pretty busy tech forum/download site that i am pretty sure is holding on for dear life partialdue to ad blockers amongst other reasons. 

[kalel83]

10 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

Nope no keeper of yours. Just hard to take your complaint serious when you helped make it what it is today. 

The point of this thread is on the community as a whole. This is a forum to share people's opinions, like I did.

 

Why are you making it about me and trying to distract the topic?

 

 

Even if you show I am a joke and a liar it doesn't change the point of this thread or the relevance in regards to it.

 

You came here to stop the thread. Then were called on it. Now you are attacking the person who called you out.

 

Don't forget the whole point of the topic. The focus isn't me.

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Ian W said:

I did not want to participate, but it is interesting how that Neowinian did not mention his assassination comments in the context of the warnings he received.

Actually it was wanting a legal fund started to defend whoever assassinated Trump.

But this is a rich comment considering Trump asked for people to assassinate Hillary.

 

 

If you want to make a point, don't dance around. Make it.

 

 

 

Honestly I don't know why I am writing this. The people that turn the forum into a Political nightmare are now here to protect their investment.