I feel that the politics thread, was largely conducted in a very seemly manner, and that is the reason I far preferred it to specific politics forums. If individual posts are offensive, remove them, rather than removing an enjoyable place to chat for people in between chatting about their gardens. Of course the forum hosts can do whatever they like, but I disagree that they are doing us a favour by hosting the forum. If it did not make money, they wouldn't host it.
Unfortunately if they only remove the posts they don't like, that in itself becomes the controversy.
There are issues being brought to the surface right now which must be quite difficult for some people to grapple with, as they tap into some deep traumas and present unsettling reassessments.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
I am not noticing a "new forum regime". There is still plenty of discussion of politics on lots of threads. As far as I can see the mods deleted about five threads. Mods delete threads sometimes. It seems to me that lots of complaints were made to the mods and they responded. That doesn't strike me as any kind of regime change.
I am sorry that Hosta and Punkdoc find a gardening forum bland for discussing gardening. I think if offers high utility, if not to the old timers. So many, many joiners have left because they felt offended and upset by rude behaviour over the years. It doesn't surprise me at all that the pool is getting smaller. I would say that if members see themselves as hosts rather than gatekeepers and are welcoming and encouraging, more newbies are likely to stay around and contribute. I don't see that it behoves anyone, least of all the forum, to be caustic and stand on personal rights to be offensive or start shouting about "censorship", how their rights of expression are stomped upon.
If Punkdoc wants to introduce a slew of "proper gardening" topics and resources, I will be the first to cheer him along. Perhaps ask what we can offer rather what we can derive. There is no obligation to stay on groups for decades; sometimes they no longer serve us; we want new things; we want to open up space for others.
Perhaps I've lived a sheltered life and I don't go on many other forums but it took me a while to get used to this one. You would think that a forum based on gardening would be full of friendly helpful folk but there are so many people who make the forum very difficult for new members and it's my guess many just can't be bothered with it. It may be that being new we can't understand some posters humour or have misinterpreted their meaning but the amount of seemingly snippy or snide remarks can be very off putting and it takes quite some time to work out who you wish to listen to and those you wish to dismiss. I'm greatful for those kind and helpful posters and their many years of experience, it's the only reason I stick around.
I agree with this. Pansyface, who some people miss having left the forum, had been aggressive on occasion, including to new people. At least one even left because of that...... I'll probably get banned now.....sigh
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
I agree with some posts on this thread and strongly disagree with others. This does not offend and I have no desire to silence those with whom I disagree. In fact it's quite stimulating to engage in a sensible discussion. It's pretty easy to avoid the non plant based threads - much like the shelves in Sainsbury's. You don't have to surf the meat aisles of you don't want to.
I just went to update the thread about environmentalism and realised I can't really without touching on politics even though it has a lot of gardening/wildlife content. Similarly someone mentioned the peat compost ban which is also skirting the edges of politics. I'm not going to waste my time typing out anything like that just to risk it being deleted.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
What I think I perceive is in the answer by thevictorian (a poor sample size to draw conclusions from eh?). It seemed to me that it was more likely that a gardening thread/set of posts flared up over gardening than a thread/set of posts on politics. But I also then think that it's more likely for posts about non-gardening topics to be reported and to then be actioned/sanctioned by the mods. If the purpose of mod action is to stop flare-ups and inconsiderate posts, then the process seemed wrong and ineffective (I don't recall flare-ups on political threads - I do recall disagreements - which are not necessarily the same thing) to me - BUT - if the purpose is to stop political posts then it seems vaguely more effective.
Posts
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Unfortunately if they only remove the posts they don't like, that in itself becomes the controversy.
There are issues being brought to the surface right now which must be quite difficult for some people to grapple with, as they tap into some deep traumas and present unsettling reassessments.