Political comments on the Binoculars and Spotting Scopes forum (1 Viewer)

[Ignatius]

When I started going to the pub many moons ago, there was a simple rule I was recommended to adhere to: don't talk about about politics or religion. Anything else is fair game. That has stood me in good stead. (However, who gets to define where the realm of politics starts? A simple mention of something in the general conversation? We are presumably all adults and don't need mummy to tell us to shut up. Or a party political broadcast? Maybe continually denigrating other countries? And as far as opinions go - they are famously like aholes ... everyone has got one.)

 

[dries1]

How so? The OP requested moderation and a mod indicated that as long as they were notified they’d be more likely to do something. Seems pretty useful to me.

It was not directed to you, I was being sarcastic.

 

[Trinovid]

It was not directed to you, I was being sarcastic.

It followed my post, so I mistook its intention. Still, don’t you think there have been some good points made, especially by Hermann and Binocollector?

 

[has530]

I think of it like a sports club. Say you are member of a gym and went to a lawn bowling area and starting throwing dogeballs. The people attempting to lawn bowl would be rightfully irritated with you. They would tell you to go play dodgeball in the gymnasium in the area set aside for that activity. They may even take your ball away or kick out out of the club if you refuse. In that case your rights are not being infringed upon. No one has even told you you can't play dodgevall! It's just not the time or place for such an activity and it is perfectly within the rights of such an establishment to enforce their ground rules for the sake of their members.

There are plenty of places on the internet to discuss politics or other contentious topics. There is even a space set aside on this very forum for it! The optics subforum is not the place for it and attempting to insert off topic comments and ideologies detracts from the community.

 

[Patudo]

It'd be interesting to know how many who posted on this thread/post on this subforum also "contribute" to Ruffled Feathers. But I have no intention of signing up to find out.

 

[Maljunulo]

It'd be interesting to know how many who posted on this thread/post on this subforum also "contribute" to Ruffled Feathers. But I have no intention of signing up to find out.

When I started here, I read it a few times, and may have posted, but quickly lost interest.

 

[tenex]

I should clarify that I used the term "censorship" because I suspect the issue here to involve not merely the political nature of some remarks, but distaste for their specific content.

"Don't talk politics in the binocular forum" is a straightforward enough principle, no?

No. The forum Guidelines say "Avoid racial, religious and political comments"... but birds fly and binoculars are used in a world full of politics involving environmental concerns, international trade, and many other factors that can't simply be proscribed subjects. And as everyone knows, all sorts of off-topic comments occur all the time, in jest or not. So enforcement will involve concern with context, motives, degree or extent, how a thread develops, etc, not straightforward at all, but involving considerable discretion.

The Birdforum's owners have every right to enforce their own house rules.

This thread is not about the owners' rights at all, but a complaint that they aren't enforcing a rule in the precise way that some(!) members would like.

There are a very few members here who do not miss an opportunity to grind their political axe, and their "politics" are so misinformed or self-contradictory that they are a provocation.

Thank you for using that word, it's just perfect for what's involved here. For me, it applies equally well to the other handful of members I was thinking of whose idiosyncrasies I find perverse, annoying, and repetitive, yet aren't political. Where is the rule I can invoke to request moderation of their posts, for my own peace of mind? I seem to be obliged to manage that myself...

 

[CharleyBird]

For me, it applies equally well to the other handful of members I was thinking of whose idiosyncrasies are no less perverse, annoying, and repetitive, yet not political. Where is the rule I can invoke to request moderation of their posts, for my own peace of mind? I seem to be obliged to manage that myself...

Use the ignore function.

BTW, for those with a sense of humour, Ruffled Feathers has a most amusing thread, Joke Of The Day

 

[Maljunulo]

Thank you for using that word, it's just perfect for what's involved here. For me, it applies equally well to the other handful of members I was thinking of whose idiosyncrasies I find perverse, annoying, and repetitive, yet aren't political. Where is the rule I can invoke to request moderation of their posts, for my own peace of mind? I seem to be obliged to manage that myself...

If you see me as a member of “the other handful” please feel free to put me on ignore.

I have absolutely no desire to upset your peace of mind.

 

[Jos Stratford]

it applies equally well to the other handful of members I was thinking of whose idiosyncrasies I find perverse, annoying, and repetitive, yet aren't political. Where is the rule I can invoke to request moderation of their posts, for my own peace of mind? I seem to be obliged to manage that myself...

If someone is not being abusive or political, etc, why should moderators step in and moderate posts that you find perverse, annoying and repetitive? If moderators starting deleting posts because this member or that found a post annoying or boring, there would be no forum left


Of course it should be down to your own management of this - that's what the ignore button is for

 

[Tringa45]

Thank you for using that word, it's just perfect for what's involved here.

Perhaps I should have qualified that by saying deliberate provocation.
A member here has a political slogan in his avatar, another has "hunter" in his nick on Birdforum but calls himself "farmer" on CN.
A recent thread on prices in the UK got derailed by a member, who in his aversion to the EU had not registered that Britain left three years ago.
The same member recently posted the word "Br----n", a synonym for a vulgar insult to a prominent politician.
If members post scientific nonsense on the optics forums then someone is going to step in and correct them, and if they persist there is always the option of the ignore button.
However, the political flat-earthers are immune to some truths and liable to be repeat offenders. Most of us don't want the discussions here anyway.

John

 

[Scott98]

When I started going to the pub many moons ago, there was a simple rule I was recommended to adhere to: don't talk about about politics or religion. Anything else is fair game.

It must be a quiet pub! Without sports & politics....what is there?

 

[Trinovid]

There are a very few members here who do not miss an opportunity to grind their political axe, and their "politics" are so misinformed or self-contradictory that they are a provocation.

Yes there are, and they like to put themselves in the position of saying this about others in order to give validation to their politicized content. Very many pots calling kettles black, so to speak.

 

[mwhogue]

It must be a quiet pub! Without sports & politics....what is there?

Not at all my good man. Optica y la ciencia sucre por ejemplo.

Miguel de Hierro

 

[GrampaTom]

Trying to figure out who "they" are.

"Let ye cast the first stone...."

 

[Paultricounty]

It seems to me considering nobody has really been vulgar posting a political poke in some discussion , that most of the people who are complaining about it , are a little thin skinned, and generally seem to be on one side of the political isle, I think that’s called a snowflake. If you don’t like it change the channel or hit the ignore button, basically grow up. Somebody is uses the word Chyna or Brandon (a persons name) or some other every day word that somehow offends them , a whole bunch get their feathers ruffled.

Sometimes people can get offended when someone says you wasted or through your money away because you spent a lot of money on binoculars that they think are only 2% or 5% better ,yet never tried them.

 

[henry link]

Paul, maybe you should examine your own sensitivities. Tom's innocent mention of a non-political article by Maureen Dowd apparently pushed your buttons enough to require a grumpy dressing down of everyone here who reads the NYTimes. I think that's called a crazy uncle.

I do wonder why you can't resist making these little political "pokes". Do you imagine that we all agree with you or that you're persuading us rather than just being irritating?

 

[Paultricounty]

Paul, maybe you should examine your own sensitivities. Tom's innocent mention of a non-political article by Maureen Dowd apparently pushed your buttons enough to require a grumpy dressing down of everyone here who reads the NYTimes. I think that's called a crazy uncle.

lol, it’s your opinion that he pressed my buttons, and you know opinions are like that body part. I voiced my opinion of of not wanting to register to read something in a trash newspaper. I was around when the New York Times was an exemplary outlet for information. And if you call that dressing down, that makes me smile, because I have gotten threats of bodily harm for disagreeing in someway with some on a different ideological platform. Can you relate to a scary uncle, hmmm.

I do wonder why you can't resist making these little political "pokes". Do you imagine that we all agree with you or that you're persuading us rather than just being irritating?

Why does everybody have to agree with me , do you think that I think everybody has to agree with me, what do you think, does everybody have to agree with you. If somebody brings up binoculars made in China, and I respond by saying that I think that it’s a bad idea for anybody to buy anything from China in this current environment, that I can’t share that with like-minded people, because it offends some. This is part of the problem. Again if something somebody says hurts your sensibilities, there’s always the ignore button. There’s very little that anybody would write that would hurt my feelings so much that I have to use some technology not to read the words, I’m not that sensitive. I’ll read what they have to say even when I disagree with it it because it rubs me the wrong way, but that’s just me , and probably tens of millions of other people.

Thank you 🙏🏼

 

[Paultricounty]

I think of it like a sports club. Say you are member of a gym and went to a lawn bowling area and starting throwing dogeballs. The people attempting to lawn bowl would be rightfully irritated with you. They would tell you to go play dodgeball in the gymnasium in the area set aside for that activity. They may even take your ball away or kick out out of the club if you refuse. In that case your rights are not being infringed upon. No one has even told you you can't play dodgevall! It's just not the time or place for such an activity and it is perfectly within the rights of such an establishment to enforce their ground rules for the sake of their members.

There are plenty of places on the internet to discuss politics or other contentious topics. There is even a space set aside on this very forum for it! The optics subforum is not the place for it and attempting to insert off topic comments and ideologies detracts from the community.

So should we apply that sports club analogy when somebody posts a reply in a specific discussion , that deviates from the specific OP? If somebody is asking questions when the discussion is about coatings, and somebody responds about how heavy some binoculars are (things like this happen almost every day) should that be deleted or censored somehow. And who would be the person or group of persons that would be the arbiter of when something crosses that line needs to be deleted? There was one fellow in one of these posts, in this discussion that made a recommendation , that if you don’t like somebody’s posts, then they probably don’t have anything worth to offer when it comes to optics, wow.

 

[Ted Y.]

Please, can someone close the thread?
Or move it to Ruffled Feathers?