Input requested on P&R spillover

Should we limit this type of content from status updates?

  • Yes

    Votes: 5 100.0%

  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    5
Enhance

Enhance

Administrator
Hi all, a few of us would love to get everyone's opinions on the following issue. This branches out from the LOMS/Dewiz status spat thread in this forum.

We're debating whether or not it would be advantageous to approach the board about limiting the amount of politics/religion discussion in status updates. It has recently caused one suspension and a Warning to be issued. However, it's been somewhat of an ongoing issue for some time, particularly following the most recent presidential election.

A majority of the posts are well-mannered. Most of them, from my POV, take a more liberal lean and tend to criticize Trump and the current administration. Sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. Dewiz, before his suspension, had spent months casually trolling the board with some of his more conservative political opinions in the status updates.

I've been an advocate of letting political updates continue, but with the football season starting, new members joining, and several members having voiced opposition to the political status updates, I wonder if now is a good time to address the problem. We have a sub forum for these discussions and there are plenty of other outlets for people to discuss and/or read about politics if they choose.

I'm genuinely 50/50 on the issue. I've typed up I think a well-reasoned draft for a way of approaching the board.

I'll post my draft below.

 
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Updated Draft. Removed the language that suggested we'd receive feedback from board before making the change.

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Hello all,

The leadership team on Huskerboard has been discussing some potential tweaks to the status updates on the main forum of the website; particularly, adjustments to the content our members should and shouldn’t share on that page. If you’d like to offer your feedback, please do so in a way that’s respectful of your fellow members. We’d like this to be honest but reasonable.

As many of you know, the political landscape in our country is perhaps at one of its most critical times in history. Many of us carry strong opinions about elected officials and different policies at our city, state and national levels. Huskerboard has a Politics & Religion forum that allows members to discuss all of these issues so long as the commentary sticks within board rules. Some of this discussion has made its way into the status updates on a routine basis. These conversations have resulted in heated political debates outside of the P&R forum, as well as Warning Points and suspensions levied out to members who chose to attack or troll other members based on political viewpoints. We’ve also had several members (new and old) complain that these discussions are a turn off from the board.

As such, since football season is here and this is primarily a Husker board, the leadership team is requesting members limit their political/religious discussion to the P&R forum and keep it out of the status updates. What does that mean? For example, no more daily updates on policies or actions taken by our president or elected officials. No more lambasting an elected official or another poster’s political views for their opinions on candidates or policies. The P&R forum is the perfect outlet for airing these grievances or discussing opinions on a candidate, elected official or policy.

People are coming here first and foremost to discuss their interest in Nebraska football. Social media, newspapers and broadcast already offer plenty of opportunities to share or discuss politics. We don’t want to turn off current or potential members from the board this season because of political spillover into the main parts of the board.

Does that mean one can no longer say anything politically or religiously themed in the status updates? No. However, we ask each and every one of you to maintain good judgement when posting something. If you think what you’re going to post could cause members of the opposite political party to argue with you, posting your thoughts in P&R might be more advantageous. Should a political/religious-themed post start to generate discussion in a negative way, a member of the leadership forum will likely lock and/or move the discussion to P&R. 

Anyways, the key takeaway is football season is here and we all love the Huskers. Let's do what we can to keep P&R in P&R as we focus on the 2017 Huskers.

Thanks,
Huskerboard's Leadership Team

 
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I think that's a fantastic way to put it. Very well written Enhance!

My only suggestion is that I don't think we open it up for member review. We've never really done it before for rules, so i don't think we need to invite more drama/arguing. If it's something that the admin/mod team agree on, I think we do it. A few people will get mad, but if they care about the community, they'll get over it pretty quickly.

 
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saunders45 said:
I think that's a fantastic way to put it. Very well written Enhance!

My only suggestion is that I don't think we open it up for member review. We've never really done it before for rules, so i don't think we need to invite more drama/arguing. If it's something that the admin/mod team agree on, I think we do it. A few people will get mad, but if they care about the community, they'll get over it pretty quickly.
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That's my opinion as well. Once we all weigh in we can make the decision and move forward with whatever is decided. I do see Enhance's reasons for doing this and understand that's a diplomatic way of doing so, but experience has shown that not everyone will agree with such a move either. Nicely worded post by the way. :thumbs

 
Thanks for the early feedback everyone. I made a couple of tweaks to the above post (the one for the board) so let me know if there are further thoughts or suggestions about it.

A couple of thoughts - do we add something to official board rules about this, or just make the announcement and see how it plays out? I'd lean towards doing the latter. If it becomes an issue and people blatantly wish to violate it, perhaps making it a board rule would be worth discussing.

I'm also wondering if we phrase this as somehow temporary for the season or something we're essentially testing. I.e. does it make sense to provide slack in the off season?

 
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I was going to suggest something about "football season is here so let's talk football" but I see you already included that.

IMO that's the key to selling it.  For now, we're saying we're going to stick to as much football as we can and keep the P&R in the P&R.  Then (hopefully) it will just become a habit or down the road one people are pretty used to it we can just say we've decided to keep it that way.  

 
Seems like in the past topics that needed to be changed to enforce the rules or reduce conflict were for the most part, adjusted to without too much gnashing of teeth.  A minority disagreed but their rationale was based on emotion and not logic.  The good of the many outweigh.............

 
Made a few other little adjustments to the copy to try and sell the "it's football season" point a bit harder. Appreciate Mav/Rawhide weighing in. I'd like to get this out on Thursday (probably in the morning) since I imagine Fridays usually have lower activity and Saturday is the first game. If you haven't had a chance to vote or weigh in yet, I'd love your feedback.

Thanks!

 
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