That's great, that's why i come to Pinside.

I don't participate in threads that don't interest me either.

People wade into threads, have the opportunity to deselect or hide them, and then complain about the fact they exist.

Not talking about you but some people will whine, bitch and moan about anything and everything.

That's pretty hilarious.

Yeah it's great to have you back when just a day or so ago you were off kissing tilt forum ass and talking about how much you hate this place.

Are you on some kind of spy mission?

Part of the issue with "no politics" is that Pinside is de facto white, straight, and conservative, which means a: everything tied to those viewpoints is fine but everything else is potentially incendiary and b: Pinside isn't just a neutral pinball discussion forum, because the atmosphere is already political by default. You can't have an LGBT club because then you'd "have to have a straight club" or something, but that's what Pinside already is (how many threads don't have someone making sexual innuendo about women?), which makes it, by nature, uninclusive, or at least offputting to anyone not in that group already. Just my two cents.

I don't agree that it's "de facto" this way, you've been in the "Political thread", Pinside is a melting pot of all types of people all over the world.

Nobody says you can't have your "LGBT" club. Or any other club for that matter.

People are who they are and if you try and censor out "sexual innuendo" there will be nobody left here. And those people that complain about it will complain about anything and everything.

Look at the Stern threads, the whining, bitching and moaning that goes on there. The "Innuendo" and jokes about how shitty they are.

I think most people need to take a look in the mirror before they start judging others.

Uh, I have maybe 5 posts on Tilt, I mostly forget about it unless I get their summary email or Bowen links up a thread. Seems like a good forum for tournament nerds and competitive players mostly, and I am neither.

I don't hate Pinside. Feel free to quote me from Facebook if you're going to bring it up.

I hate the sexism that's allowed to flourish here. I think the jokes about women are gross, unwelcoming, and shameful.

I think the personal attacks that are allowed here are unfortunate. When I took a couple months off from reading and posting I made it clear to Robin why I was doing it.

I like gossiping about pinball, seeing and making mods, and just generally being a Pinhead. Pinside is still great for all of that. There's also a side that comes with it that I don't care for, and it's why I don't post like I used to.

Who really cares though? A spy mission? What are we, 12?

Pinside - Aurich (2) (resized).png

I was pleased to read this morning that Robin had closed the Trump v Clinton thread in the new Lounge area. I think it was a good experiment to try and now its time to move forward with the lessons learned.

It's my suggestion that a hard and fast, No Politics rule should be enforced for all areas of Pinside.

(Edit/Add) Religion also.

Wow. Several comments from different Pinsiders' suddenly disappeared from this thread. Not moderated but nuked and in my view they were innocent, average comments. I have to assume this was a glitch?

He's actually 13, how dare you insult him.

Yup

In another community I was a part of... they used a similar model and called it 'The Litter Box' - because its where you dumped all the @%@$

These formats work because they are a form of de-escalating things. Forum topics become runaway when everyone has their 2c to put in and it snowballs.

Try to squash it entirely.. and the goo just goes sideways and spreads around. You don't contain the problem, just get people pissy and then its wack-a-mole time. So instead of censoring entirely.. you aim to de-escalate instead. Moving discussions like this OUT of the main view reduces the # of eyes.. and with the reduced # of eyes, you get reduced replies... and usually the conversation will eventually blow itself out.

It works well, and allows those who have something to say, to continue to do so without dragging the whole site into it as well.

And no it should not be a 'no holds barred' section. It's a way to move things to a side room where things can blow themselves out out of the main view.. not the octagon for death matches.

Sounds important

Agreed... 100%. But the politics thread has now disappeared. Poof! Like it was never even there.

So if a thread disappears without making a sound, did it ever even exist?

I noticed the thread was gone (thank God) but where did you read about it being gone?

It just disappeared without a trace.

Robin posted in that thread as he closed it saying that he would be deleting the thread. Poof. Just like the (K troll) threads that went poof, or the HM troll threads. Standard Pinside operating procedure.

That's really disappointing that you've chosen to judge the majority of the members here. In fact categorizing most of us here in what appears to be a very narrow minded way. Politics, religion, race or any other club based on who a person is or identifies with unrelated to pinball needs to go away all together from Pinside or at a minimum be put in the basement in my opinion. I really don't want this group divided into social, political or economic categories. There is enough of that already out there.

With respect to the LGBT club, fair is fair. By opening the door to one group, the door should be open to the rest or none at all. I support the cause, just not on this forum. People want to talk politics, do it somewhere else please. I realize I have a choice on what I read, for now I choose to try to change things so I don't have to watch where I click. I want to know what you have to say about pinball or other fun hobbies, just not on the above topics. I don't want to know if someone is a republican, democrat , liberal straight or whatever. Just tell me what you like about pinball.

The basement is like the bathroom at the bottom of a seedy punk club like the Black Cat in DC in the 90's, I think I'll just piss outside lol.