The previous thread addressing this got mangled in the move.... so here is a report of it....
With the current issues in the Middle East, I felt that I should restate the remit of these boards clearly.
I am deliberately posting this here as it applies to all members and all boards, and this issue has occurred in a couple of threads (and in the future will potentially continue to appear in other threads).
To start, a quote from Warmaster Nice...
Quote:
This leaves us with a big problem: What sort of opinions are "the right ones" that we can allow on a board like this. I think even touching this subject will cause a big argument as people will have widley different opinions of what is acceptable.
Basically I would just hate to see threads about racial or religious issues simply because of the argument "if you don't like it, don't read it".
Another important thing to remember is that although most of us are mature people with a nuanced view of the world, some forum readers aren't that old and are only starting to form their own opinions. I've been to gaming forums that had political sections which allowed some pretty nasty ultra right wing bigots to air their opinions. Although it was easy enough to tear their arguments apart I still felt horrified that kids might read this sort of thing and think that it was the truth. After all gaming forums for a large part is aimed at the younger audience.
Now of course this is a worst case scenario and the relaxed discussion we've had here cannot even begin to compare to that.
Sensitive issues should be avoided not because they are not important, but precisely because they are important. Even in (very rare) cases where there is a 'right' and a 'wrong'.
It is always difficult to cut political discussion from a wargames board - since I certainly believe that war is a progression of politics, but we should be careful that volatile discussions over a 'cold' medium such as this (where misinterpretation is very easy) does not fragment the general community and undo the purpose of the boards.
We are blessed with very mature and understanding regulars here, and I thank everyone for their discussion and contribution so far.
I am sorry if this stance is disagreed with by people, but this disatisfaction is small compared to the potential for large scale disagreement as a consequence of this type of discussion.
Anyone who would like to comment on this is welcome to contact me and I am open to discourse on this.
I would also like to state that this post is not made in response to any problems which are around, as the discussion is so far excellent, but rather as a preventative against what could result.
Thank you.
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