[Administrator]

Hi everyone,

Yung here. After much well-thought discussion between the mods/admin and I, we have agreed to create a new forum area strictly for political discussions.

It is live now but accessible to users with at least 250 posts.

Please cease creating new threads in here relating to anything of political nature. I've posted the rules of the political forums area here for you to review.

Yung

P.S. If you are a gold/silver sponsor with less than 250 posts and would like access to this forum area, send me a PM please.

 

[Administrator]

Rules of the Political Discussions Forum

1. This will be on a trial run of 3 months first. If after the 3 months, the mods/admins and I are unsatisfied with the behavior and affairs of this new area, we will close and delete this forum area. AND ONCE THAT HAPPENS, THERE WILL BE NO MORE POLITICAL NATURED THREADS ALLOWED HERE.
2. To gain entry to the political discussions area, you MUST HAVE A MINIMUM POST COUNT of 250 posts. GOLD and SILVER sponsors receive automatic access to this forum area.
3. No politics-related threads will be allowed to be posted anywhere else on GRF except in here. If you post a thread about politics in the wrong area, we will move it to the politics forum PROVIDED you meet the condition of rule #2. If you do not meet this condition, the thread will be deleted without notification to you.
4. If you continue to post political threads in any other area of the forum, we will send you a warning ONCE. Anything after that will result in a suspension of your account (duration will be determined by us) and/or permanent suspension (i.e. banning).
5. This new area will be moderated like any other forum area on GRF. HOWEVER, you must know that political discussions of nature can get heated. You have to have thicker skin when you enter this forum area. That doesn't mean users have a blank cheque to do as they please in this area.
6. No profanity, foul language, personal attacks, flaming, you get the idea, etc. 1st offense is a warning. 2nd offense is removing your privileges to use the political forums area. 3rd offense -- well, don't be surprised if you can't log into your GRF account.
7. We will add rules as the need or situations we learn from arise.
8. DO NOT spill your disagreements from political discussions into any other area of GRF. If this happens, you will be suspended indefinitely.
9. DO NOT use political avatars and signatures in your member profile. If you do, you WILL be asked to remove them for more board appropriate material
10. Political discussions related to dogs (i.e. laws passed regarding your ownership of a dog, new policies that may affect your dog, etc..) CAN be posted in the general golden retriever discussion area. If the discussion gets out of hand, it will be moved to the PD area.

 

[Duke's Momma]

I want to be post #3. : Thank you!

 

[GRZ]

Wow. Good luck with this.

 

[Merlins mom]

Glad to see it! I don't think there's anything wrong with discussing politics here, but glad it will have it's own section.

 

[Pointgold]

Well, at least there will be no excuses for people to complain about PD threads. It will be absolutely impossible for anyone to just sort of randomly wander in... lol

Should be an interesting experiment.

Thanks.

 

[Abbydabbydo]

Excellent, thanks.

 

[sharlin]

 

[Faith's mommy]

a helpful tip for those who would want to now exclude the PD forum from showing up as part of their forum choices -

go to your User CP

choose Edit Options

look at the bottom for the section called Miscellaneous Options and look for the section titled Forums to Exclude from View

pick the PD forum and save changes


if you do this, the forum won't show up off the main page and the threads in the forum won't be included in the "get new" search. i'm not sure if they will still show up as part of the top 10 on the front page.

 

[MillysMom]

I was wondering where we will have to post dog related issues that are political? There have been many positive threads regarding legislation that could affect us pet owners, but would this have to be on the new discussion? Or, could that go under main discussion?

 

[missmarstar]

Will the PD's still show up in the "latest posts" lists on the main page?

 

[Rob's GRs]

I was wondering where we will have to post dog related issues that are political? There have been many positive threads regarding legislation that could affect us pet owners, but would this have to be on the new discussion? Or, could that go under main discussion?

I would say that if one is discussing the dog laws or potential laws that can be dicussed in the open main Golden Retriever Forum. If it turns into "the Right side vs the Left side" dicussion those posts then might have to be moved.

 

[Administrator]

I was wondering where we will have to post dog related issues that are political? There have been many positive threads regarding legislation that could affect us pet owners, but would this have to be on the new discussion? Or, could that go under main discussion?

Very good question. See rule # 10.

 

[missmarstar]

Very good question. See rule # 10.

Maybe I'm slow but I don't see a rule #10.

 

[GoldenJoyx'stwo]

a helpful tip for those who would want to now exclude the PD forum from showing up as part of their forum choices -

go to your User CP

choose Edit Options

look at the bottom for the section called Miscellaneous Options and look for the section titled Forums to Exclude from View

pick the PD forum and save changes


if you do this, the forum won't show up off the main page and the threads in the forum won't be included in the "get new" search. i'm not sure if they will still show up as part of the top 10 on the front page.

I never read the options in this section before. Thank you...

 

[Administrator]

Will the PD's still show up in the "latest posts" lists on the main page?

It should still show up as I am not hiding the forum area.

 

[jwemt81]

This is an excellent idea! I personally don't care to discuss politics on here at all and I get a bit annoyed when I log on and almost the entire top 10 is taken up by PD. At one point, I actually stopped coming here for a while because of that. Now I'll be able to block that category entirely from showing up on my screen. Thanks so much for doing this!

 

[missmarstar]

It should still show up as I am not hiding the forum area.

Ok good, thanks.

 

[GRZ]

Just a couple of suggestions for rules...

I think there should be a ban on the complaints of "condescending," "rude" and the like. If someone feels personally attacked, DON'T REPLY TO THE PERCEIVED ATTACK or statement that you feel is condescending or rude, contact a moderator immediately and let them deal with it.

The reason I suggest this is that many times people feel attacked personally (and it does happen) and then the thread goes down hill fast from there. We should all have to wear our big girl and boy pants and stay on topic and not take things so personally. Argue the content of the post, not the poster.

I think the #1 reason why political threads go into the crapper here is because people get offended so easily.

You agree, through your use of the political forum, that you will not use this forum to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate (back up your statements with citable sources), abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, or obscene.

Again, don't reply to the post you perceive to be any of these things, but report to a mod.

Keep individual threads ON TOPIC.

This relates back to the first two. If the Constitution is the title of the thread - the thread should be about the Constitution; if the thread title is about HC reform - the thread should be about health care reform. Start a new thread when something in another thread prompts you to want to begin a conversation on a different topic.

That's my 2 cents, for whatever it's worth.

 

[GRZ]

PD threads shouldn't be in the top 10. My opinion. This is a Golden Retriever Forum. People who want to discuss politics will find the political forum if they want to read it.

ANd if you really want to make it known that this forum is about Golden Retrievers, Chit Chat should not be in the top 10 either.