Forum - View topicModeration question
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I'm putting this here because it doesn't seem to fit in any other section, apologies if it is misplaced. Based on erratic moderator posts on the matter, I would like clarification on "political" discussions on the forum. Mostly, I just want to call attention to the fact that many moderators SEEM (altho I could be wrong) to espouse a "left" viewpoint and thus clamp down on opposing views. I know there was a past thread that was threatened with moderation and post deletions when a political debate fired up so the "right" side stopped but the "left" side continued and nothing happened. Since it seems like "left" viewpoints KEEP popping up, including FROM the moderators on occassion, I was just wondering if I could get a firm answer on that aspect of discussions. I realize thread derails are considered bad-form, but it seems like people with an opposing viewpoint should have the right to respond OR both sides should have equal moderation.
So, to put it simply, IS there a policy regarding political discussion? Or is it simply "moderator discretion", which lends favoritism to the moderator viewpoint? |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Bottom line, this is not the place for political discussion of any kind, unless it somehow relates to anime or manga. American politics should be kept to an absolute minimum.
That said, we have some hardcore righties and hardcore lefties on here and it does come up from time to time. For my part, I usually tell both sides to knock it off (but not without espousing a bit of my own take on the matter, which I probably shouldn't do), but that's only when I catch it. Political discussion in a thread is almost always a derail anyway. Sometimes, though, you have a case where someone makes a completely benign comment - like the one recently where someone said offhandedly that the war in Iraq wasn't going well - and for whatever reason one or two people took offense to that. That's kinda where I draw the line - anyone who remotely follows the war or politics or any of it knows that not only is that a very reasonable and extremely common statement to make, especially among Americans (and, oh, every other country on the planet) but it's hardly a political comment at all. Not only that, but it was a small, one-sentence, throwaway comment that didn't need any further attention. I couldn't believe someone would take "offense" to it. So, as a moderator, I made my point and told both sides to knock it off. We try not to favor any political position here and when it does pop up, we try and shut it down. Sometimes I'll catch some rightie spouting something in an unrelated thread (like the guy who rabidly tried to defend disgraced ex-congressman Mark Foley, clearly using rightwing radio talking points); generally if I catch it quick enough, I'll offer a short opposing view and then shut the derail down. I'd rather have brief mention of both sides and then an end to it rather than some one-sided random political post floating in the middle of the discussion. So that's how I tend to handle that situation. |
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