[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by James

I agree with some of your points on the political posts but you've got to remember that Big Brother was off the air for five years, and people were looking for something else to talk about.

It could have been (and a lot of it was) about other TV, general and personal topics, but they also chose to post about political issues, and politics is divisive.

It probably not for the best that we have it on here, and it obviously puts some people off it, but it is tricky to say we are going to disallow it and drawing the line is tricky.

I am pleasantly surprised that the forum has kept going, even when Big Brother wasn't on, and when it came back others returned. Also when I think about it the friendships and community that have been created over the entire history of the forum is something to be proud of I think.

Another thing is people might not be aware of is all the drama that has gone on over the years, not just in the last few. Ridiculous stuff in some cases.

.

I'm not really taking about political posts, I'm talking about the stream of abuse thrown at minority communities on a near continual basis. If anyone goes into a political thread and gets upset because of political name calling, then that's on them (to an extent), but if I'm a new member just browsing the forum, and I see a constant stream of black people are stabby stabby, or Muslims just want to blow everyone up, or this country lets in the trash, then that's on the site.

I feel it's partly because of long standing forum rules. As another example. lets say Ammi calls me a clown and got an infraction for it, but lets say she calls me that because every single one of my posts were about black fathers being absent, then surely Ammi is in the right? I feel there's a disconnect between what's really harmful for the reputation of the site (the bigotry), and what the site perceives as harmful - bit of stupid name calling.

I don't think anyone has left the site (although I could be wrong and stand corrected) because they didn't like how the left/right were being spoken about in the political section, but I know lots have left the site because of how their personal minority communities have been spoken about, and the tacit approval provided by TIBBS failure to address these issues.