Everything Else

Recently a thread discussing a current world event was locked, I understand that the forum terms of service preclude discussion of politics, but I don't think that should include world events. Do the moderators have a forum, that regular users can't see, where they can discuss these issues and come to a consensus or are locking decisions made unilaterally by individual moderators per their understanding of the TOS? Enquiring minds want to know!

Thanks Vishnu for this question!

Since i was the person locking the thread, allow me to reply.

The thread about the Paris attacks was a moment for people to express their thoughts and feelings about the incident. I fully sympathize with the people stating their sadness and disgust about this act of violence.
Because threads like these have a lot of emotion expressed, there is always a danger that things derail into verbal fights, anger, Godwin's Law and proof of extraterrestrials. Keeping a close eye on the thread and issuing warnings is one of the instruments we moderators have. I hope that people posting on this forum understand the need for open, constructive discussion, common sense and keeping moderator activity to a minimum.

Unfortunately in the Paris thread i felt the need to intervene and diffuse the build-up of political laden posts. I locked the thread. If i was too terse by not stating any decision i apologise. I thought it was clear after the warning post i stated in that thread. Apparently it was not.

The issue is that there are not that many moderators and thus we rely on reports of other forum members. For me, moderation is something i do "on the side" since i am here because of my experience and appreciation of IRIX and SGI machines.
After i resurfaced in oktober i naturally discussed my moderator status with Nekonoko via PM and how the forum is the same/different from previous days. Moderator-wise it's relatively quiet, so it's not a full time job. Which means i can spend more time to hacking software for IRIX, excellent!
Which also means, a moderator forum would see few traffic.

Regarding your comment about the Paris attack being a world event: I don't want to sound condescending but since everybody has their own opinion about the definition of a world event, a discussion is largely moot. If it really is a world event, you most likely would be doing something else than browsing the forum. On the flipside, if all world events would be discussed here, we would have a daytime job weeding through posts. So we have to strike a balance, but we have to post it with common sense in mind.

There are other forums and means of communication about these matters. Please use them!

As a moderator i am always willing to discuss and explain forum matters via PM, with users and other moderators.
In the end Nekonoko has final say in these matters.

I hope i made things a little bit clearer. Please contact me if i missed something.

Thanks for the clarification, you make many good points, I'm not sure I agree with all of them but Pete trusts your judgment and that's what counts. I think our membership does a very good job of staying on topic in the technical forums, but there should be a certain leeway allowed in "everything else," I for one am very interested in our memberships opinions on world events, however bombastic...

I agree with neko and dexter1 - no politics here. Such world events should be discussed elsewhere. Nekochan has a great community so please don't blow it up with such topics

this is a tricky one and i can relate to everything that has been said so far.

of course the main purpose of this forum are tech matters but why do we have an "everything else" section then at all?
also, i think it's safe to say that the niveau of the members and posts here is well above average so it might be particular intersting to read what these people have to say about non-tech matters ... for as long as it's in a civilized way of course

as dexter1 said already there's no staff section available so discussing general guidelines regarding what's okay and what's not turns out to be rather tricky as well as talking about something with more than one other mod. for that reason most calls are made by whoever is on the task first.
so if anyone should think a certain action was not fair please do feel free to say so. this is a great place with tons of unique information and people and it's up to all members no matter which rank to keep it that way

I agree with "no politics," especially since our membership is so international, why should anybody care about what I think about the congressman who represents the 4th congressional district in Minnesota? Nobody should, so I shouldn't be allowed to waste everyones time and Pete's disk space and bandwidth blabbering about it. However, in my opinion, how the international community reacts to a world crisis does not fall under the category of politics. If posting something heated about the crisis in Syria is a violation of the TOS, then the TOS should explicitly say so. So instead of saying just no politics, how about "no politics, nothing contentious, libelous, religious, sacrilegious, sacrosanct, heretical, antithetical, bellicose, partisan, polemical, or anything that might cause irritable bowel syndrome to erupt in any other member. In short, keep it to rainbows, ponies and the like. Thank you! The Management."

vishnu wrote: I agree with "no politics," especially since our membership is so international, why should anybody care about what I think about the congressman who represents the 4th congressional district in Minnesota? Nobody should, so I shouldn't be allowed to waste everyones time and Pete's disk space and bandwidth blabbering about it. However, in my opinion, how the international community reacts to a world crisis does not fall under the category of politics. If posting something heated about the crisis in Syria is a violation of the TOS, then the TOS should explicitly say so. So instead of saying just no politics, how about "no politics, nothing contentious, libelous, religious, sacrilegious, sacrosanct, heretical, antithetical, bellicose, partisan, polemical, or anything that might cause irritable bowel syndrome to erupt in any other member. In short, keep it to rainbows, ponies and the like. Thank you! The Management."

Really? You agree with "no politics" but you still want to talk about it If you're in doubt what topics fit then check the discussions of the last year or two ...

Only problem with that is that what seems to be allowed will of course depend upon each moderator's interpretation of the rules, and how much of an accommodating mood they're in.

A year ago for example, there was a discussion about the upcoming Scottish independence referendum over here in the UK which Ian started and which he did admit probably fell a bit foul of the "no politics" rule, however the debate didn't get at all heated or unpleasant, and just consisted of a few people sharing their feelings about it. As a result, it was allowed to stand and wasn't locked, which was nice to see.

There will always be big events cropping up from time to time which some people will want to discuss. We're only human and it can sometimes feel a bit robotic not to acknowledge a major world event and just keep talking about tech-only things in a community that some people have been part of for quite some time. On the other hand, some topics do attract flame-wars like nobody's business (politics being a main one), so I can fully understand why Nekochan has the "no politics" rule.

Overall, I suppose I'd like to see a careful but relaxed approach here. If threads do degenerate then warnings and lockings of course have to happen, but I do prefer when thread locking only happens as a last resort, and that conversations are allowed to continue in general so long as they're performed in a mature and sensible manner and don't clearly violate the forum's rules. As well as being a forum, this is also a community and communities tend to work best when people are able to discuss things (within reason of course).

Ultimately though, I fully appreciate that this is Neko's forum and he obviously has the final say. I also have the utmost respect for the mods and the work they do. Above is just my opinion on the matter in general...

vishnu wrote: In short, keep it to rainbows, ponies and the like. Thank you! The Management."

That would only make the site at least 20% more awesome...