Hi everyone. ![Smilie](/community/images/smilies/smile.gif)
I've been hinting around about this for awhile, and have been thinking of it even longer, but today I'm going to make it official: we will no longer permit political arguments. They have a way of taking over forums, usually because enmity about political or cultural differences colors discussions on other parts of the forum, too. It's also not realistic to expect people to stay perfectly civil in these exchanges, even though that's what we generally require.
There are, I think, two reasonable questions that arise from this, which I'll address preemptively:
This rule has been sort of low-key in place already for months now, so I don't expect a big functional shift, but I wanted to be totally clear about it going forward. This place is a movie forum first and foremost, and always will be, and I think this choice is necessary to preserve that.
Now turn off the news and go watch a movie!
![Smilie](/community/images/smilies/smile.gif)
I've been hinting around about this for awhile, and have been thinking of it even longer, but today I'm going to make it official: we will no longer permit political arguments. They have a way of taking over forums, usually because enmity about political or cultural differences colors discussions on other parts of the forum, too. It's also not realistic to expect people to stay perfectly civil in these exchanges, even though that's what we generally require.
There are, I think, two reasonable questions that arise from this, which I'll address preemptively:
- Art touches on political issues. This is obviously true, and so some glancing discussion is inevitable. But he discussion has to stay on (or at least quickly return to) the cinematic side, and not branch off into its own discussion.
- What counts as "political"? Anything you'd generally avoid in polite conversation with mixed company. Stuff you wouldn't go near on a first date or job interview.
You know the usual suspects: politics, religion, culture war stuff, such-and-such movie is just exploitative/emblematic of our cultural hegemony/decline and loss of legitimacy/morality.
This rule has been sort of low-key in place already for months now, so I don't expect a big functional shift, but I wanted to be totally clear about it going forward. This place is a movie forum first and foremost, and always will be, and I think this choice is necessary to preserve that.
Now turn off the news and go watch a movie!
![Smilie](/community/images/smilies/smile.gif)