A new section of the board.....

[barrysloate]

What we need today is people with fewer opinions about what is wrong with the country. Once the two sides get at it we have nothing but shouting and noise. Nothing gets accomplished today when the left and the right start debating points. The politicians and the radio loudmouths have failed abysmally, and we won't do any better here. Do what you can to be a better person, and turn off the television and the radio.

[BleedinBlue]

My opinion is pretty close to many others stated. There are a plethora of avenues for these often heated discussions. I go to those sites when I want to go to those sites. This site is a totally different and generally peaceful area for me to spend some time avoiding work. I'd prefer to keep it that way. Now, if there were a way that I could avoid even being aware of this little corner of the site then I wouldn't care. However, given that there is always a most recent thread title shown from the main board I'm not sure how I would avoid it. While I might try to stay away and keep this site as my apolitical area of release, I'm not sure I could avoid the temptation to join in on a Sarah Palin flame thread and that's just not the point.

Besides, do we really need to know what each of the Bruce's opinion is on politics or religion?

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

I put don't allow either. Discussing politics is too toxic these days and I'm done with it. And it wouldn't be a bad idea for others to sit quietly and do the same.

Originally Posted by barrysloate

What we need today is people with fewer opinions about what is wrong with the country. Once the two sides get at it we have nothing but shouting and noise. Nothing gets accomplished today when the left and the right start debating points. The politicians and the radio loudmouths have failed abysmally, and we won't do any better here. Do what you can to be a better person, and turn off the television and the radio.

Sit quietly and have fewer opinions? People are not robots.

I voted yes to both by the way.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

Sit quietly and have fewer opinions? People are not robots.

Nowhere did Barry say to not have opinions.

[triwak]

I voted no on both, for the reason stated by several others: Spill over! Animosity and oneupmanship would surely bleed into the real board - and I don't wanna hear it!

[baseballart]

Originally Posted by triwak

I voted no on both, for the reason stated by several others: Spill over! Animosity and oneupmanship would surely bleed into the real board - and I don't wanna hear it!

Agreed. Disagreements on the p/r board will surely spill over.

Max

[barrysloate]

Daryl- I have plenty of opinions, and others do too. I would love to see a political discussion that was both civil and constructive. But we've had them on the board in the past and they end up becoming shouting matches. That's all I meant.

I think it's great for people to express themselves, but look at the political discourse in America today. It's really horrendous what is going on, and I don't like it one bit.

That said, I was just chatting with Leon and we both agreed there is nothing wrong with starting a section to discuss politics. If it gets too nasty it can always be shut down.

[Leon]

I want to post a new post about a very, very important distinction I obviously didn't make clear. This new section, if instituted will NOT be on the main board, will NOT be on the memorabilia section and of course will NOT be in the BST section. It will be its own section where the Post War Cards and Watercooler talk already are. So, if you come to the board to get away from it all, as long as you don't click on that section for Post War and Watercooler talk, you will never see a thread about it. I just want to make that abundantly clear.

Also, it looks like the voting is approximately 2-1 to not allow politics and religion but there is also an equal amount that don't care. If it is not more overwhelming than that I could see potentially (not for sure by any means) starting out allowing them and seeing how it goes. We can always make it taboo if it gets out of hand. So, we will see where this leads us. Good thoughts so far. One last thing, it will be assumed that if you don't vote NO to the section, and vote for something else, then you are ok with the section itself. Regards

[barrysloate]

And I doubt we will have any discussion about religion. I mean, what about religion would people want to talk about? Probably wouldn't get any posts.

[timzcardz]

Originally Posted by ibuysportsephemera

I have been part of forums where all of the OT stuff leaks into the rest of the threads. Although I might not want to read the other topics, I always click on new posts when signing on, so I would have to see the titles of those water cooler topics. I come here to get away from "real world" stuff. JM2¢.

Originally Posted by Leon

I want to post a new post about a very, very important distinction I obviously didn't make clear. This new section, if instituted will NOT be on the main board, will NOT be on the memorabilia section and of course will NOT be in the BST section. It will be its own section where the Post War Cards and Watercooler talk already are. So, if you come to the board to get away from it all, as long as you don't click on that section for Post War and Watercooler talk, you will never see a thread about it. I just want to make that abundantly clear.

Also, it looks like it is being about 2-1 to not have politics and religion but there is also an equal amount that don't care. If it is not more overwhelming than that I could see potentially (not for sure by any means) starting out allowing them and seeing how it goes. We can always make it taboo if it gets out of hand. So, we will see where this leads us. Good thoughts so far. One last thing, it will be assumed that if you don't vote NO to the section, and vote for something else, then you are ok with the section itself. Regards

Leon,

Not correct.

As ibuysportsephemera pointed out, if upon entering (or anytime) click on "New Posts" in the menu bar at the top of the page you will get the new posts since your last visit from all sections of the forum including the Water Cooler and other areas.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Daryl- I have plenty of opinions, and others do too. I would love to see a political discussion that was both civil and constructive. But we've had them on the board in the past and they end up becoming shouting matches. That's all I meant.

I understand, and also don't want to see any shouting matches.

[FrankWakefield]

After putting the little green dot in "don't allow either", I moved it to allow both. We'd be better off to talk cards, and not all of the other stuff. There are places for that, and on the card board isn't the place. But to help keep it 'not the place', allowing that stuff in the water cooler gives it a place. So anyone wanting to soapbox to that stuff can do it at the water cooler, and NOT in a regular thread. Maybe it you give it a place to go, it will go there, if it must be at all...

And thanks for asking us!

[ibuysportsephemera]

Thanks Leon...However, I still think that you are inviting trolls to the party. I hope it doesn't become too divisive.

Jeff

[MooseWithFleas]

My experience with religious and political discussions on forum is pretty poor. No actual discussion ever occurs and it's just people trying to force their ideas down someone elses throat.

That being said, as a long time reader and new poster, this forum has one of the classiest user bases around

[glchen]

I voted "Don't care" but after reading some of these votes, I'm tending to side with No for both also. Even though you can always skip the threads and not respond, there is always going to be some thread so provocative that people will feel compelled to respond to even though they don't want to get involved, and then things can get personal. For example, if there is some thread that says "Obama sucks" or "My neighbor had more qualifications to be President than Sarah Palin," one side or the other will feel that they just cannot let that train of thought go without a response. As someone else said, this forum is about cards and fun. There are plenty of other forums for those real life issues.

[rdixon1208]

I voted Yes to both. It's not like Leon is talking about adding a Politics/Religion section to the board. A water cooler section with less rules would be cool with me. The key is prohibiting these conversations/debates from spilling over to the main board.

[Tcards-Please]

I voted to allow both. For those that don't want it, they don't have to go into it. Why not provide an avenue for all and those that don't want to venture into that topic certainly aren't required too. Why negate the opportunity for those that would like to carry on an adult conversation about things other than cards with like minded card collecting members?

Just my .03

r/
Frank

[Kawika]

I vote no way, Jose. We'll still have our occasional train wrecks; that ought to suffice. In my six decades of life I can never recall a time when there has been such polarity in this country. The "Generation Gap" of the sixties has nothing on the right vs. left divide of today. I remember once when people of Democrat and Republican persuasions actually got along for the most part - it wasn't that big of a deal. Nowadays we have marginalized each other to the point that I sometimes wonder what it had to be like in America in the 1850's - it's scary stuff. I don't want to know that Ted Z. is really a communist sympathizer or that Jim B. is actually an Exalted Cyclops in the Imperial Klan. I just want to talk about baseball cards, and, unlike T206, I want to relate to them as normal folks just like we would have thirty years ago.