11 months without politics (1 Viewer)

[timschochet]

I'm on record as missing the PF even though I wasn't a frequent contributor. It was the one place in the world where I could get honest discussion with people outside of my bubble. I have yet to find an adequate replacement.

That said, FBG forums are decidedly better without it. I just think the struggle was worth the value but the powers that be believed otherwise.

I would have really liked to discuss some of the more important Supreme Court decisions that were handed down this last session.

I don't find FGB forums better or worse. They are the same as they've always been, just without the PSF.

I miss political posts from people like @IvanKaramazov who had a way about his posts that made me internally reflect. Heck, I even miss posts from @timschochet. We didn't always agree, but we were civil and respectful with each other.

Miss you too GB

 

[Todem]

Don’t miss it for a single solitary second.

 

[Schmeabs]

The Discord political forum is unreadable and a collection of the worst posters from the PSF. Probably a good decision for Joe to shut it down.

 

[Terminalxylem]

Ignoring politics has served me well irl. I believe many people could benefit from a detox period from all the negativity spoon fed to us by most media outlets.

All that said, I did like the psf for discussions not centered around contemporary politics - it was a contained place to go for a measured, and relatively civilized dose of conflict, while gaining a superficial overview of “the news”.

 

[dkp993]

The Discord political forum is unreadable and a collection of the worst posters from the PSF. Probably a good decision for Joe to shut it down.

Well we love you too.

 

[massraider]

Why?

Because it's not much of a cross section here. It's about as diverse as a Facebook group.

 

[Terminalxylem]

I know to some this sounds crazy, but it's where I got my "news."

I am sure this was true for some people. That's not good, IMO.

Why not? I was in the same boat. Now I basically ignore the news.

ETA Oops, just saw your response. While it’s certainly not perfect, the forum is diverse enough to provide some contrasting viewpoints, and the level of discussion tends to be a bit more thoughtful/sophisticated than run-of-the-mill media, and certainly something like Facebook.

 

[massraider]

Why not? I was in the same boat. Now I basically ignore the news.

Only referring the depth of the news we get/share here.

There's a lot going on out there I want to at least hear about.

I'm not talking about ignoring part of/all news for mental health, which I am not opposed to in any way. Or just cause one doesn't give a ****. That's fine too.

 

[ChiefD]

I've ignored the news for a couple of years now. Canceled my newspaper. I don't really go on twitter. I've filtered out any people on Facebook who always post political crap (which leaves me pictures of fishing or sports). Never watch the nightly news. Never read any news online other than major things that get posted here.

It's glorious. Couldn't be happier.

 

[GroveDiesel]

I dont know why you guys didnt just open a subreddit for your politics. It's so easy.

There is a Discord that was started, but I gotta admit, Discord is the first "tech" that makes me feel like an old guy. A subreddit would be nice, but then I already spend too much time on Reddit.

This is totally off topic, but I’m glad I’m not the only one with that experience with Discord. I’m usually able to pick up and adapt to tech pretty quickly, but I honestly could not figure out Discord at all.

 

[Psychopav]

It might be fun to open it temporarily for the presidential election season (say 3/1 - election day), then shut it back down. I wasn't a contributor but I would stop in and read it from time to time, and the presidential election talk was always pretty informative, especially the poll-watchers and analysis.

 

[Keerock]

I've ignored the news for a couple of years now. Canceled my newspaper. I don't really go on twitter. I've filtered out any people on Facebook who always post political crap (which leaves me pictures of fishing or sports). Never watch the nightly news. Never read any news online other than major things that get posted here.

It's glorious. Couldn't be happier.

I've got a friend on FB who is from here. Not sure how we became friends and no idea what his UN is here, but man are his posts politically cringing. Not sure why I haven't de-friended...

 

[Sand]

I still miss the SCOTUS thread. Learned a ton in there about the law. I'm still split about whether such a thread would stay alive in the FFA.

 

[The Commish]

I still miss the SCOTUS thread. Learned a ton in there about the law. I'm still split about whether such a thread would stay alive in the FFA.

Given the letter of the law here, not a chance.

 

[Mitchie]

Still don’t understand how a specific forum made the whole place worse or how it is better now for any users who didn’t like it. If you didn’t like it just don’t go in there, it’s easy to avoid . Just doesn't make sense to me.

Now from Joe’s or a moderator perspective, well that’s completely different as they had to deal with any of the downsides that came with it.

It’s gone and never coming back, but like some others here I do miss it. While the slap flighting was constant and annoying, There was also a lot of really good information and thought provoking posts.

I actually had the same view and posted that many times, now that's it gone I believe it was the right decision. I really don't miss it at all. I couldn't help myself from going in there and getting into back and forths with people that was mostly pointless. now was there a benefit, yeah probabaly, I mean I do like to hear opinions from the other side and sometimes the discussions were worthwhile, but i do believe the downside of getting into some of these discussions outweighed the benefits.

 

[Terminalxylem]

I've ignored the news for a couple of years now. Canceled my newspaper. I don't really go on twitter. I've filtered out any people on Facebook who always post political crap (which leaves me pictures of fishing or sports). Never watch the nightly news. Never read any news online other than major things that get posted here.

It's glorious. Couldn't be happier.

This is my strategy, except I’ve always been this way. Amazingly, I’ve become a productive adult despite the ignorance.

To be fair, you always hear about ”big news”, one way or the other, if you interact with other humans. And I occasionally check the weather.

 

[Murph]

It brought out the worst in people (myself included). But it was still a better place to discuss politics than anywhere else on the internet. The Forum is better off, but the users are worse off.

 

[PIK95]

I voted yes, but I never really went there. I honestly have zero interest in what the other side has to say. Call me a snob or whatever, but my mood and day to day is much better not having to listen to opinions I would never agree with 99.9% of the time.
I axed just about everyone on my facebook who was politically on the other side. Just seeing them post would ruin my day. That was the best thing I ever did. Facebook is still ridiculous in so many ways, but at least I don't have to see things that would upset me on the reg. I don't miss any of them fwiw.
The yoga pants thread was WAY worse of a loss for this place than the PF imo.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I’m a political junkie so of course I miss it. But I can’t fault Joe and the powers that be for removing it.

I wasn’t posting here at the time the forum was removed, so I’d like to apologize if my posts there ever offended anyone. I was rude at times and didn’t intend to be. Lots of regret now for certain things I wrote. But I wish everyone whom I interacted with there well. Enjoy your lives and may good things happen to you always.

You miss getting banned every few months?

 

[Ghost Rider]

Definitely much better now without it. I have noticed that many of the posters who frequented that subforum and often butted heads with others rarely post here anymore (or at least I do not see their names much in the threads I peruse), so you get the double win of getting rid of that kind of talk and seeing the numbskull posters scurry somewhere else.

 

[Mitchie]

I’m a political junkie so of course I miss it. But I can’t fault Joe and the powers that be for removing it.

I wasn’t posting here at the time the forum was removed, so I’d like to apologize if my posts there ever offended anyone. I was rude at times and didn’t intend to be. Lots of regret now for certain things I wrote. But I wish everyone whom I interacted with there well. Enjoy your lives and may good things happen to you always.

You miss getting banned every few months?

Good point i also don't miss getting banned based on seemingly arbitrary decisions.

 

[MAC_32]

I dont know why you guys didnt just open a subreddit for your politics. It's so easy.

We did, it’s on Discord. Its nothing like how it was here, but truth is is it’s actually an echo chamber over there vs what the PSF was constantly called. There are one or 2 dissenting voices over there but it’s not combative.

I am significantly under-informed with politics now vs this time last year. Was the sub forum on FBG a cesspool? Oh, yeah. Generally those with the highest post counts in that forum were the cause and on the receiving end of mostly correctly applied suspensions. That said, since it was housed on here there were enough +EV contributors that picked and chose their spots to pop in for me to justify dipping my toes in there on occasion. When Joe dropped the hammer (don't disagree why either) there wasn't any doubt in my mind what would happen when the topic of the discord group emerged - those same high volume schmos would migrate over there, but the +EV contributors would not, so I didn't bother. Thank you for tickling my confirmation bias, but I certainly miss the days when I felt like I was soaking in information from all areas of the spectrum. It was always easy to spot the toxins in the PSF as they were the ones that foolishly kept calling it an echo chamber. Now that it's shut down they have what they craved all along - an actual echo chamber.

 

[Ilov80s]

I've ignored the news for a couple of years now. Canceled my newspaper. I don't really go on twitter. I've filtered out any people on Facebook who always post political crap (which leaves me pictures of fishing or sports). Never watch the nightly news. Never read any news online other than major things that get posted here.

It's glorious. Couldn't be happier.

Yeah I am like 80% of this. I think politics and all that is very important but it's just too toxic right now and I don't want any part of that. I will still vote and everything because I actually do think there are some clear wrong values being put forward but I want no part of the daily cycle or conversations around it all. I will focus on what is in front of me and making the part of the world I interact with a better place.

 

[Ilov80s]

It brought out the worst in people (myself included). But it was still a better place to discuss politics than anywhere else on the internet. The Forum is better off, but the users are worse off.

Yeah it's crazy how it was the best version of what it was while also being horrible.

 

[Zow]

Why?

Because it's not much of a cross section here. It's about as diverse as a Facebook group.

I strongly disagree. Despite our general board demographic being older, upper middle class, white men the politics forum had a been wide cross section despite the general board demographic suggesting the consensus would be moderate to slightly conservative.

I mean heck, we had a poster advocating for civil war. We had a variety of views.

 

[skol asylum]

I said it was a mistake then and I still believe it to have been a mistake. I didn't frequent the PSF as much as most during its heyday, just couldn't keep up. From what I did though I really enjoyed it. I thought the good outweighed the bad. I always thought the problem was a very small number of posters who behaved like trolls and when they couldnt honestly defend a trollish position would start whining and reporting things and beg for the place to be shut down. Those posters should have just left on their own id they didn't like it or have been asked to leave instead of ruining it for everyone. I always thought there was sort of misapplication of the rules of the forums with the PSF. I totally get and support the idea of not personally attacking and insulting other posters. The misapplication came about where users slowly were not allowed to say bad things about outside people or groups (politicians, parties, etc). If you did the users here who identified with those groups would take it personally and whine and complain. That's what broke the PSF in my opinion. Thin skin and victim mentality.

All that said, as others have mentioned I've also pulled back from politics and world events quite a bit lately, for good or bad. I think a lot of it for me personally is. It having a certain divisive person in a certain position of power stirring the pot daily. It probably has been a lot better for me. I tend to go in waves though with my interest. When election season starts ramping up again I'll probably start following things closer. I'm really hoping we get some new people working for positions of power and responsibility in this country. I am disheartened by alot of the social issues and backsliding I see on progress that we had begun to make. This personally affects me and my family in ways I'm not going to get into and it's troublesome.

Sorry for the rambling. If I offended anyone Im sorry. These are my thoughts. Probably more there than I got out but there it is.

Thanks Joe for continuing to provide this space for a community and everything you do for it. I totally do understand from your viewpoint you did what you thought best. Just not what I would have done in the same situation.

Hope everyone enjoys your weekend and the games. May the Vikings finally turn the crap around and salvage their season.

 

[need2know]

Best 11 months of me life

 

[The Commish]

When Joe dropped the hammer (don't disagree why either) there wasn't any doubt in my mind what would happen when the topic of the discord group emerged - those same high volume schmos would migrate over there, but the +EV contributors would not, so I didn't bother.

Should stop by. This didnt happen as you thought it would. One thing missing there is Supreme Court talk. Could use some experts.

 

[dkp993]

those same high volume schmos would migrate over there, but the +EV contributors would not, so I didn't bother. Thank you for tickling my confirmation bias, but I certainly miss the days when I felt like I was soaking in information from all areas of the spectrum. It was always easy to spot the toxins in the PSF as they were the ones that foolishly kept calling it an echo chamber. Now that it's shut down they have what they craved all along - an actual echo chamber.

While I understand your point I will disagree with this portion of your statement. The “same high volume schmos” (in your words) who went to the Discord channel are not the same ones who were calling the PSF an echo chamber. In fact those people didn’t migrate over there, thus it became an actual echo chamber.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Definitely much better now without it. I have noticed that many of the posters who frequented that subforum and often butted heads with others rarely post here anymore (or at least I do not see their names much in the threads I peruse), so you get the double win of getting rid of that kind of talk and seeing the numbskull posters scurry somewhere else.

Plus we don't lose as many good contributing FFA and SP posters to timeouts arising from interaction with those departed numbskulls.

 

[PIK95]

On a side note, this is a great time to not follow politics. It won't change much for the next 5-10 years I think. Once the population turns over a bit, then it's on. Great for mental health to just vote, but nothing else. My opinion of course.

 

[Schmeabs]

those same high volume schmos would migrate over there, but the +EV contributors would not, so I didn't bother. Thank you for tickling my confirmation bias, but I certainly miss the days when I felt like I was soaking in information from all areas of the spectrum. It was always easy to spot the toxins in the PSF as they were the ones that foolishly kept calling it an echo chamber. Now that it's shut down they have what they craved all along - an actual echo chamber.

While I understand your point I will disagree with this portion of your statement. The “same high volume schmos” (in your words) who went to the Discord channel are not the same ones who were calling the PSF an echo chamber. In fact those people didn’t migrate over there, thus it became an actual echo chamber.

The Discord is a far left echo chamber made up of the worst from the PSF. Unreadable crap. Basically MSNBC or CNN

 

[dkp993]

those same high volume schmos would migrate over there, but the +EV contributors would not, so I didn't bother. Thank you for tickling my confirmation bias, but I certainly miss the days when I felt like I was soaking in information from all areas of the spectrum. It was always easy to spot the toxins in the PSF as they were the ones that foolishly kept calling it an echo chamber. Now that it's shut down they have what they craved all along - an actual echo chamber.

While I understand your point I will disagree with this portion of your statement. The “same high volume schmos” (in your words) who went to the Discord channel are not the same ones who were calling the PSF an echo chamber. In fact those people didn’t migrate over there, thus it became an actual echo chamber.

The Discord is a far left echo chamber made up of the worst from the PSF. Unreadable crap. Basically MSNBC or CNN

I’m not “far left” or even “left” and I’m over there. Though I will certainly agree it’s very much an anti-Trump echo chamber. There’s no denying that.

But you‘re more then welcomed over there to bring some well thought out healthy discussion that offers a different point of view. The door is always open, you know where we are.

 

[msudaisy26]

Best 11 months of me life

I hope not because the forum got shut down.

 

[Sand]

those same high volume schmos would migrate over there, but the +EV contributors would not, so I didn't bother. Thank you for tickling my confirmation bias, but I certainly miss the days when I felt like I was soaking in information from all areas of the spectrum. It was always easy to spot the toxins in the PSF as they were the ones that foolishly kept calling it an echo chamber. Now that it's shut down they have what they craved all along - an actual echo chamber.

While I understand your point I will disagree with this portion of your statement. The “same high volume schmos” (in your words) who went to the Discord channel are not the same ones who were calling the PSF an echo chamber. In fact those people didn’t migrate over there, thus it became an actual echo chamber.

The Discord is a far left echo chamber made up of the worst from the PSF. Unreadable crap. Basically MSNBC or CNN

I’m not “far left” or even “left” and I’m over there. Though I will certainly agree it’s very much an anti-Trump echo chamber. There’s no denying that.

But you‘re more then welcomed over there to bring some well thought out healthy discussion that offers a different point of view. The door is always open, you know where we are.

Let me guess - next door to e: and right down the street from ?

 

[The Commish]

those same high volume schmos would migrate over there, but the +EV contributors would not, so I didn't bother. Thank you for tickling my confirmation bias, but I certainly miss the days when I felt like I was soaking in information from all areas of the spectrum. It was always easy to spot the toxins in the PSF as they were the ones that foolishly kept calling it an echo chamber. Now that it's shut down they have what they craved all along - an actual echo chamber.

While I understand your point I will disagree with this portion of your statement. The “same high volume schmos” (in your words) who went to the Discord channel are not the same ones who were calling the PSF an echo chamber. In fact those people didn’t migrate over there, thus it became an actual echo chamber.

The Discord is a far left echo chamber made up of the worst from the PSF. Unreadable crap. Basically MSNBC or CNN

I’m not “far left” or even “left” and I’m over there. Though I will certainly agree it’s very much an anti-Trump echo chamber. There’s no denying that.

But you‘re more then welcomed over there to bring some well thought out healthy discussion that offers a different point of view. The door is always open, you know where we are.

Definitely anti-trump.....perfect description actually.

 

[Phil Elliott]

Let's give it a full 12 months.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

There was a small group in there that was clearly acting in bad faith, just trying to rile people up and troll. Most of those folks barely post at all on the boards anymore now that the PSF is gone so that is a win. I assume they've moved their efforts elsewhere.

I would definitely say having the PSF hurt the forum overall. Sure people could just ignore the forum but the troll group was good at those obnoxious facebook style clickbait titles that totally misrepresent the content of the article they were linking, or leave out some very pertinent piece of information. So I'd log on to the forums for football stuff, see some really salacious title over in the sidebar on the main forum page and think "wow I really need to check this out". Then click in, follow the article link, and realize the topic was completely misrepresented by the title creator, while in the thread the OP and fellow trolls continued to argue the premise of the title, rather than the actual article content. The kind of stuff you expect to see on facebook, not here.

 

[Captain Cranks]

Very soon. Sorry just been really busy with other stuff

Count me in this year. I don't check in here very often so if you don't mind giving us a shoutout in the Discord that would be appreciated.

 

[Captain Cranks]

Having tried to foster more amicable political discussion over at the Discord, I can attest to how difficult it is to have balanced political discussions. The media and social media lead us to experiencing different realities. We gravitate to sources that confirm our biases and those sources are showing us only part of the picture. They also tap into us emotionally and pit our tribes against each other. Trying to reconcile our picture with someone who is consuming a different picture is very time consuming, frustrating, and potentially impossible. Why?

1. We like being right. Our version is the right version and we need to convince the other side of that.
2. We don't take the time to understand things from the other person's perspective. We want to spout our opinion and be done with it.
3. We just don't have the time or energy. It's a difficult process.

Overall, the Discord is far more respectful and civil than the PSF, but that's because it is fairly one-sided. Me and others would like to have more conservative voices, but I'm not convinced it's even possible nowadays.

 

[Desert_Power]

There was a small group in there that was clearly acting in bad faith, just trying to rile people up and troll. Most of those folks barely post at all on the boards anymore now that the PSF is gone so that is a win. I assume they've moved their efforts elsewhere.

Mostly seems moved back to FFToday.

 

[Godsbrother]

I really miss one thread that was regularly updated and was hilarious but I think shutting down the political forum was a positive.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

Ignoring politics has served me well irl. I believe many people could benefit from a detox period from all the negativity spoon fed to us by most media outlets.

All that said, I did like the psf for discussions not centered around contemporary politics - it was a contained place to go for a measured, and relatively civilized dose of conflict, while gaining a superficial overview of “the news”.

this.

i don't really watch the news. if it's important enough, i'll hear about it. usually from my wife, who always watches the news. but i've always checked in here to get updates on breaking news and different opinions. especially from people in the area or the field of the breaking news. FBGs has always been an amazing wealth of knowledge.

that being said, i rarely went into the politcal forum because it was 90% awfulness. IMHO

 

[DA RAIDERS]

I've ignored the news for a couple of years now. Canceled my newspaper. I don't really go on twitter. I've filtered out any people on Facebook who always post political crap (which leaves me pictures of fishing or sports). Never watch the nightly news. Never read any news online other than major things that get posted here.

It's glorious. Couldn't be happier.

same. i've ignored the news for years. my instagram is all skiing and dumb male humor.

 

[skol asylum]

Where do I find this Discord forum? I don't really use that app but have at least logged into it before.

 

[The Commish]

Where do I find this Discord forum? I don't really use that app but have at least logged into it before.

check your messages

 

[squistion]

Still don’t understand how a specific forum made the whole place worse or how it is better now for any users who didn’t like it. If you didn’t like it just don’t go in there, it’s easy to avoid . Just doesn't make sense to me.

Now from Joe’s or a moderator perspective, well that’s completely different as they had to deal with any of the downsides that came with it.

It’s gone and never coming back, but like some others here I do miss it. While the slap flighting was constant and annoying, There was also a lot of really good information and thought provoking posts.

It didn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. It will never make sense.

If you don't want to see politics discussed, then don't go the forum labeled "Politics" - nothing could be simpler than that.

Although that mindset is still present here about other things, with some people actually calling for Faust's posts giving player news or stats being prohibited or moved from the Shark Pool to a separate forum. And in this thread some guy doesn't want to see music threads and instead of scrolling past those threads, he wants a separate forum created.

A discussion forum where every subject matter is allowed except politics is not a legitimate discussion forum IMO and calling this place the Free-For-All is a misnomer.

The idea that there can be breaking news that is the top news story of the day, that everyone is discussing, but can't be discussed in this place because it is considered political is absurd. The PSF gave this place a credibility that it now lacks.

 

[SWC]

always a pleasure to see some of the regulars who made the political forum a crap fest come in here and reaffirm to everyone why it was a great idea to shut it down by being just like they used to be take that to the bank brohans

 

[Dr. Octopus]

A discussion forum where every subject matter is allowed except politics is not a legitimate discussion forum IMO and calling this place the Free-For-All is a misnomer

The door is right over there.

 

[The Commish]

fftoday will likely give you all the attention you crave....try it out