Can we get a minor rule change by the mods?

Only very basic maintenance is done to the site. No enhancements have been done for many years, and none will be done. The site is kept going purely through the good graces of the remaining founder, Ben.

If you look at 3 of the 4 questions below this one, you’ll see there are currently many problems with the site, and they’re not being fixed quickly.

We can change how it is modded though. Designate one of the three channels as being politics free

Hahaha, I love how all the “Related” Qs there ——> are political.

Life is political.

This site isn’t getting updated. I’m just grateful it’s still up and running at all. Scroll on by any question that doesn’t pique your interest. Simple enough.

I have an idea. We can make another acronym. Like NSFW, but for no politics please? (NPP) that can be tagged by the OP and/or topic.

@Blackwater_Park Do you have any idea how much work that would cause the moderators? They’re overworked as it is and do this all in their free time for free. That’s why membership is closed – they have to approve of everyone and it lets the trolls and spammers in. It was chaos not that long ago.

Scroll on by ! !

I can’t be more polite when I say that perhaps it’s time for flutherites to pull back on the politics. I’m well aware of the work the mods have and that this site will not be updated.

I’m with @Tropical_Willie on this. Obviously lots and lots of jellies enjoy this, so asking them to “pull back on the politics” simply for your comfort seems a bit much. You always have the option to not click on the Q.

Unfortunately that leaves practically zero content.

Then ask some questions.

Hm, that’s not so minor. There definitely won’t be any new sections. Maybe if we got a sponsor and then after going through the list of existing problems. At this time, definitely not. I don’t think we can designate one of the existing channels as “politics-free”, either. We need them all for their original purposes.

I feel your pain, though. It’s grating. I like @RedDeerGuy1‘s idea for a collective agreement on a tag for politics-free questions. That’s a practice you could start, and just see how it goes. Because of the overall Fluther guidelines, we’d only be able to remove answers based on your request if you asked in the General Section. You could still use an “NPP tag” in Social, but it would be more of a request for people to (hopefully) honour voluntarily.

If you ask your question in General, you can add the tag or just politely state in the details that you don’t want any political discussion. We would then remove any politics as “off-topic”. If your question is about, for example, economics, this is difficult to enforce. However, if you’re asking a question about anything that’s not directly politics-adjacent, you can flag any answers threatening to turn your thread into a political debate. It’s best to flag early, so we can remove just a couple of posts. Once the whole thread has been taken over and everyone is mad at everybody else, we might not be able to get the discussion back on track. Feel free to message a mod for urgent requests.

Hope this helped. Let me know if it didn’t.

Now, speaking of enjoyable Fluthering: let’s keep our tentacles crossed that Ben can fix the technical issues over the weekend.

If I’m not mistaken, you can also flag off-topic answers in General threads, even if you’re not the OP.

@longgone How would doing the “NPP” work? So every question that’s not related to politics would need an “NPP”? Isn’t it pretty much like that already? If you read the question, you can tell if it’s political or not, so you just pass it by if you don’t want to see a political question. Having to add “NPP” to every question that’s not political makes no sense at all, imo. EX: What would you do with half an egg? There are no political answers in that thread nor should there be. But you’re saying the OP needs to put NPP with the question? smh

How about this. If a question seems to be political, just keep scrolling. Easy peasy.

It’s an election year so of course there will be more political questions. It’s always been this way.

@smudges Or we can do the opposite. Politics is welcome (PIW). For questions designated to be political.

^^ Understood, but why add anything? It’s almost always obvious that a question is political so just pass it by. Occasionally someone will insert a political comment in an unrelated question, but I just flag those and they get deleted.

@smudges I don’t think there has to be a rule but I think that if people want to add an NPP to the details of a question that isn’t obviously political, there’s no harm in that. And it may make flagging those posts easier.

@Brian1946 Of course, very good point. Worth bringing up, thank you.

@smudges No, you’re right, that would not make sense. Questions about eggs are usually very obviously non-political and anyone talking about politics on that egg thread would be modded (probably even in Social).

I think the NPP idea was meant to be a solution for the less obvious threads. I can imagine the following questions leading to a heated political debate even though the OP needs something else:

* How do I talk to my preschooler about active shooter drills? (this would soon be about gun control, no longer about kids)

* What can I do to support a friend who is currently unhoused and unable to work? (OP would need practical information such as a links to welfare programs, not a general discussion about “socialism”)

- It’s Pride month! How are you celebrating? (meant to inspire creativity and share fun ideas, one snarky comment could turn this into a flame war about LGBTQ+ rights)

We definitely aren’t thinking about making this a rule, so no one would be required to add this tag. Fluther has many traditions that are not in the guidelines, because they evolved naturally in response to a need the community had to meet. Avoiding a constant stream of politics may seem valuable to a large part of this community – or not. Things will certainly simmer down after the elections, in any case.

^^ Those example questions make sense. Phewww I was futzing about having a new rule.

If you ask your question in General, you can add the tag or just politely state in the details that you don’t want any political discussion.

People are really good about writing that in the detaqils now, mainly in General. Like if someone only wants people who have experience to answer, or request no politics.

omg I didn’t know futzing was a real word! I just had to look it up, and it is! I knew putz was.

Well, only 45 days til the election. Then we can have too many discussions of the abundance of Christmas hysteria.

If only it would be over on November 5th.

@Jeruba I typed the same sentiment, then deleted and sighed.

@jonsblond, so did I. And then I typed it again, without further comment, and posted. Just as if writing my wish would cause a Good Fairy to stop by and grant it.