I think a lot of people here are missing the point of why this rule was created in the first place. It wasn’t created because some people don’t like to see news or political content. Frankly, we’re not going to ban non-harmful content that people don’t like to see. That’s 100% subjective, and I don’t see a way to make that fair. The rule was created because we had several people whose primary function in life seemed to be to start political arguments.
It seems a lot of people here don’t remember how bad the politics channel on SGM was, but it was really, really, bad. People were able to post borderline disinformation and things that were clear dogwhistles against minority groups. When it wasn’t that, it was just constant arguments - people hated each other because of that channel. It’s really hard to moderate a politics channel without appearing biased towards one side, or just heavy-handed in general.
Another issue is how do we actually define politics? You told me to fuck off from shoutbox earlier for posting content about the war between Russia and Ukraine. I don’t see that as political, I see it as breaking world news. I don’t think there’s much to argue about the political side of the conflict — it’s pretty clear that Russia is the aggressor. Since you called it “politics”, I’m interested to know if you disagree?
Anyways, this brings us to our current situation. I enforce the rule in a limited way, but haven’t publicized that criteria because it’s easier to justify enforcement if I can just point to the rule. The way I currently enforce rule 13 is as follows:
- Warn people who post disinformation/deliberately deceptive news (satire is okay if it’s clear)
- Warn/ban people who post hate speech masquerading as news
- Warn people who start political arguments
- Warn people who post way too much political content
The worst this has resulted in, I think, is occasional links to political news in shoutbox. As long as it’s not starting shitbaby fights, I really see no problem with this. You’re going to see content you don’t like in shoutbox — that’s a consequence of sharing this planet with others. But as long as it’s not hateful, deceptive, or starting arguments, who is anyone to say what’s allowed to be discussed?
