Political Threads - Please Read

[ashbury]

Moderator's Note: The Twins Daily Comment Policy pertains to all forum areas at the site. Of late, the site's moderators have looked the other way regarding some posts in political threads found in the Sports Bar forum. Effective immediately, such posts will again be held to the same standards as the rest of the site - warning points will be issued in cases of violations, and the offending posts may be deleted from view or otherwise dealt with as circumstances warrant. Moderator activity may not be apparent to the readership at large, and as always discussion of moderation policy within topical threads is not allowed.

 

The key rules at the site have always been no personal attacks and no trolling. Please review the above link if you need to. Let me be a little clearer about how these principles apply to political threads:

• We expect respectful discussion. If you are about to address fellow posters or public figures with an attack on their ethics/morals/intelligence, either find a different way of expressing yourself, or refrain. If you are uncertain of what constitutes disrespect, a more conservative plan is to simply never make it personal about anyone (including yourself!), and keep it about the topic.
• Trolling amounts to posting primarily to get a reaction, in any of a multitude of ways. While most posts in political discussions are sincere enough on the surface, the intent too often is as much to inflame other posters as to make a point. When in doubt, make your points straightforwardly, rather than colorfully or ironically.

Disagreeing with a fellow poster is not inherently a personal attack - otherwise there could be no discussion of any topic. But if you characterize another's opinion as ignorant, racist, et cetera, you inescapably imply the same characterization of the poster, and that is off limits here. I recommend you do a proofreading pass before clicking "Post" when arguing politics, to check that your words are not overly personal or overly inflammatory.

 

If you see a post that flagrantly violates the site's standards, use the Report button rather than compound the problem with a bad post of your own. If the violation is minor, consider just ignoring it and moving on; the moderators are not here to help you settle scores via warning points with those with whom you disagree.

 

Twins Daily is a baseball site, not a politics site, and the Sports Bar area is not central to the site's mission. If you find that the site's policy is too restrictive for your purposes in a political discussion, there are other sites to try.

 

It ought to go without saying, yet seems to need to be said, that this policy is independent of the place on the political spectrum that anyone's views sit. Most political posts here have been OK, and thus a little additional forbearance by everyone should take care of the problem. As always the moderators welcome private discussion via PM if you are unclear on aspects of the policy.