Political discussions moving forward...

[Jluke]

btw...whats up with all the active users viewing this thread...lot of random names keep showing up. Spammers?

I've been referring members of the "other forum" to this one

[StormRichards]

I've been referring members of the "other forum" to this one

Well played.

But doesn't look like any of them like it enough to join

[FLA]

I think we're all adults here and should be able to discuss politics in a political thread and agree not to carry these discussions into other threads. Is it really more complicated than that?

[feh]

I am less likely to visit SA these days, simply because of the more frequent political comments.

I come hear to discuss finances. If I want to discuss politics, there are other sites for that purpose.

[kork13]

I've been around long enough to see many iterations of this -- every 4 years right around the presidential election season, political threads become omnipresent, people get insulted/miffed/upset/otherwise, and there's a brief push to ban it all. Eventually people calm down and it goes away, and everyone is happy again.... until the next election cycle.

I do agree that straight political arguments along the vein of "this candidate is a @%#$~!" and "this candidate's proposal is !&*$^#%" have no place here. I actively ignore political rant threads, because I don't believe they have a place here. However, in order for there to be a valid discussion on financial topics, government policy is a necessary theme at times. The impact of taxation, regulation, trade, and currency policies serve as a bedrock to many of our discussions -- for example, what is a Roth vs. Traditional IRA discussion without taxes? ... Or what value is a discussion of stocks/bonds vs. currency/precious metals when the inflationary effects of currency & lending policy is barred? We need discussions about policy...just not about politics.

My proposal would be to simply define and adhere to an "Off Topic" policy for the forums. If a discussion starts out on trade policies but veers off to "Trump is the new Hitler", it's clearly gone off topic and it's time to be closed. If ever a thread veers off and starts gathering personal attacks, it's clearly off the mark.

We can police ourselves -- first by asking individuals to stay on topic (whether in PM or in-thread), and failing that, flag threads that have clearly gone off the rails with a request to lock it. Our moderators are reasonable, and I've personally seen them make good judgement calls on if/when it's time to wind down a thread that may or may not have veered off-course, or in the case of persistent offenders, ban a user if needed.

We don't need to be draconian...simply respectful.

[Captain Save]

I think BANNING political discussions is rather extreme.. naturally financial topics lead into political exchanges..

How about asking the members not go over the top.. we are adults after all..

[TexasHusker]

I am assuming that it is purely coincidental that the call for this gag order came shortly after Trump won.

[greenskeeper]

I am assuming that it is purely coincidental that the call for this gag order came shortly after Trump won.

...X2