Well, once every four years something happens that affects our site in an unusual way. It overtakes a lot of the US of A as well as the rest of the world. What am I talking about? The US Presidential and Term Elections is what.
Now before you hit the report button and report me for talking about politics outside the Pit, please read on.
As many of our long-term members know, and I imagine new ones as well, politics can be very divisive and polarizing to everyone on our site and in some of our lives. They also can be a joining of ideas and learning how others see things opposed to our own views.
Outside of the US you may feel what does this have to do with the day-to-day running of GA? The reason for this blog is that unfortunately in US Presidential Election years, the negative side of politics can rear its ugly head and the few can ruin things for the majority. We, unfortunately, have lost long-term and new members over their ambitions to make GA politicized with their ideas and how they posted them. Sometimes members don't have ambitions, but they can also get swept up in the environment and don’t know where or how it is best to express those ideas.
The site’s wish is to have everyone here today and here next year at this time, and hopefully that no one leaves the site due to something political said on the site by someone else or themselves. We've tried different approaches over the years, from the wild west of the early years where anything went, to absolutely nothing on the site anywhere about politics at any time.
I want to particularly acknowledge all the people who participated in debate of the recent Brexit and UK elections. These participants have kept discussion to the Pit and been respectful of the people and took issue with only the opinions. I do not believe the Site Moderation Team (SMT), had to review any issues of this political hot potato in Europe. This goes out to all our members, UK and elsewhere.
I thought I would highlight for everyone the political pit falls that could lead to you having an interaction with the SMT.
· Politics are only allowed in the Pit or in personal blogs. · Status updates on politics are not allowed, nor status updates to visit a blog with some reference of the topic of the blog. · When engaging others in the Pit or a blog, you must address the issues brought up, not the person bringing it up. Doing so will be considered a personal attack. If you so choose to join the Pit, it is a closed club and when your request to join is approved I strongly suggest you read Myr’s pinned topic: The Pit Rules. This will give you guidance to how to positively engage in this area where politics are okay.
The SMT will monitor the Pit, and we do have some members who actively participate in there. We will investigate if someone reports someone else for a personal attack, but if we investigate and find someone made a false accusation, we will also suspend the reporter from accessing the Pit. In other words, don’t report someone just because you don’t like their view.
The SMT is monitoring around the site for Political Content, and we also rely heavily on members to report political posts outside the Pit or blogs. Your anonymity will be kept private and only the SMT will be aware of your report. The biggest suggestion here is to hit the Report button at the top of every single post on the boards if you find one with political content, rather then hit the reply button to call out the original poster. Usually hitting the reply button will bring yourself into the review by the SMT.
As mentioned earlier, some may have received a verbal warning in the past for political content, but as we ramp up toward November, we will in most cases have to take a stronger stance in warnings. Whereas a verbal warning is 5 points for 3 days or until they expire, we will be using the warnings for Political Content outside the Pit or Blogs as well as the Abusive Behaviour for personal attacks. These are progressive warnings that get more severe with the number of instances and/or severity of the offense. Sometimes these are just points but as the severity or repetition of warnings increases, it could include site suspensions even up to a site ban.
Just so everyone knows, just like all the membership here, we do have different political leanings on the SMT especially as the team is global. At times, I wonder if we should have a Pit for the SMT discussions What I’m trying to say is that we do address all reports or findings and we talk as a group. Seldom does anyone dig in for their political beliefs, and we can usually come to a mutually agreed upon plan of action. If you feel that the SMT has left or right leaning people only, I can assure you that isn’t the case. All of us are middle of the road when it comes to politics and can put that aside when looking at the issue. To be honest, I’m proud of our team and how we address politics on the site.
All of us, as in the whole site, would like to see less of the SMT having to deal with issues that can be avoided as the year progresses. That is entirely up to you though.
If we can go through the next year or so like we have with the current UK issues, then the SMT can sit back and do what we enjoy so much, reading, interacting and enjoying everyone here on all of our site.
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