Mephisto

[Gandalf Parker]

Renegade 13 said:
Religion and politics...it seems we must always talk about both at periodic intervals. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; the opposite actually. It helps us all re-evaluate our positions every once in a while, and prevents us from becoming set in our ways, and open to new thoughts and ideas.

It used to be that "Religion, Politics, and Sex are not acceptable subjects for polite company". Seriously, that was an etiquette rule because they tended to be more automatic argument than friendly debate. Of course now that sex is OK to talk about I think the new Version of the rule has become "Religion, Politics, and Operating Systems are not acceptable subjects for polite company".

[Joachim]

primitive said:
Seems like nobody gets my point here (maybe I need to work a bit on my communication skills ).

If Shrapnel wants an off-topic free forum, thats their prerogative. It will be boring, and maybe a bit suicidal as many of the regular contributors (like me) won't bother to check in very often. But it's their choice.

A censored forum however, is different. Even if posting something political on a game forum is not a big issue, it has become an integral part of the freedoms I value.

So, Please.
Could any Shrapnel personel or one of the Moderators answer this simple question: Is the moving of the election thread a glitch, or is this a policy decission ?

And if its a glitch, please move it back.

Very good points Primitive. I bump your post in the hope that we see an answer....

[PvK]

Hmm, ya. There have been tons of heated OT discussions on this forum before, including politics, and I don't remember any being moved out. It didn't really seem to be a problem to me, though was there not recently some mention by some people about wanting to tone down the current Iraq/election topics, or at least keep them in one thread?

It is a good point though that there is a community in here in the SE4 forum, and we talk OT and generally enjoy it, even the heated and political bits, and few of us look at the general topics more than very very rarely, so personally unless something is getting out of control, I'd rather just have the OT stay here.

PvK

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I don't come to this forum for technical talk, although I do participate if nobody or very few people have answered and I can contribute something(Aside from scattering funny remarks here and there ), so, if all the general threads where moved to the general forum, I would probably eventually drift over there. And I probably would stop checking the seiv forums.

I really don't know if moving the general threads to the general section would have a long-tern bad effect, but I do know it would generate short-term complaints, as already seen.

But, there's two important points: Why change at all? This works. Second, a firm policy is allways needed. Prevents confusion.

[Mephisto]

Hi all!
I’m sorry if I have troubled you by moving the thread to the general discussion area. Since there is a “Ghost” left in the SEIV forum I never thought this would create such an uproar as everybody is just a click away from the discussion. Ah well, next time I remember.
About censorship: It was never intended as any sort of censorship in any way. Feel free to post everything you want as long as it is kept civil.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Who keeps painting these asteriods black?

Hmm...Us?

[Aiken]

About different forums: there have been never any complains that SEIVata/Sound/Graphic and SEIV:AIRaces/ShipSets forums are located in different section. With upload feature working now, you have to check 2 forums, if you're really interested in se4 subjects of course.

About OTs: some of them funny or interesting, some of them not (most of them for me). They make this forum more humanistic and live, but I won't miss them (usually I have enough OT debates with my friends, but no se4 related discussions in RL, that's the reason).

PS: you can try to workaround this policy rule by making tread "PBW Galactic Elections 2404: King Bush vs Cancellor Kerry" and appeal to the fact that subjuct is directly related to SE4

[Fyron]

Most of the time that someone Posts a file in the downloads section, they make an appropriate post in this forum as well, so that people will know about the new file available...

[Gandalf Parker]

Joachim said:

Very good points Primitive. I bump your post in the hope that we see an answer....

I already answered it. No one ever said "Do not post OT" and no one ever said "we will censor opinions".

We always said that occassional, interesting, (friendly) OTs are what make a community worth visiting.

This has always been the SEIV forum and the Shrapnel.General has always been the "discuss other subjects here" forum.

We always said that some subjects will be deleted but more in the area of their tone or legality than for subject matter. Dont confuse the actions for one reason to reflect on the other.

We also said that a moderator can moderate forums with the ability to delete, edit, lock, or move a thread (with a recommendation that moving a thread is best).

From the looks of the thread that was moved I almost got the impression that it was moved to allow it to become a more heated discussion than OTs tend to be in SEIV

[primitive]

Mephisto, GP
Thanks for clearifying. Again, could you please move the thread back where it belong.

Sorry to keep clubbing this. I know this is just a small freedom, but unlike most US citizens (Kudos to Fyron for sticking up) I am willing to fight to keep all my freedoms. Man, this Bush guy got you seriously whipped