Hi Oded,

Brilliant idea to set up a 'politics and current affairs' forum - thanks!

However I'm a bit mystified as to why these posts will now be forbidden from the home page? May I ask what the reasoning there is? And this leads naturally to another point: the tricky business of how one defines one post as being 'political' or 'current affairs' related. Where does one draw the line? It's a sticky question. For example I noticed (credit to andy and geoffrey here) that my post relating to an amnesty international request was moved to the politics forum (and thus off the home page).

I concede immediately that my post BECAME imbued with political overtones, but that was never, as clearly revealed in the explicitly humanitarian title of the subject, the raison d'être of the post. This new rule means that anyone who starts a humanitarian or charity thread can see it kicked off the home page, because if even one other glocals member doesn't agree with the humanitarian motivation of that post all they have to do is post a provocative and political response and bam! game over. this rule seems to punish those of us who treat other members respectfully and to award a great deal of power to that minority of people who can't stand anyone saying anything that they don't agree with.

But what do you think?

Hi Manics,

Defining what posts belong in the new forum will be easy some of the time, and harder at other times.  It's something we'll need to deal with and learn as we go.

As to why these posts will not be shown on the homepage - glocals is a social network and we want to keep it focused on activities, people and information.  In the past we completely banned politics from the glocals forums, but lately it's crept back in and is creating way too many fights, missunderstandings & complaints.  Rather than banning it again, we decided to try this 'Politics' forum to see how it works.  People that want to take part in the discussions will be able to do so, and people who don't  won't have them taking over their homepages.

As for the people who as you described it '...can't stand anyone saying anything that they don't agree with' - we're going to keep an eye on them and if needed get rid of them. 

And please, a personal request  - if someone has something to say about this subject - say it in your own words.  No YouTube videos, no Chomsky quotes, no articles, no links to Wikipedia - just form an opinion and post it and lets see how that works out.

Thanks

Oded

Well done both Oded and Nir.

I can understand both past and present reasoning to both formerly discourage and now allow such threads.

Its like the old suggested ettiquette rules at the dinner table, "No discussion of religeon, politics or sex" That way no one gets offended... inevitably however one of those three always creeeps in from time to time.

esp if its a horny radical priest starting the conversation.... (or a Irishman )

Thank you for explaining clearly the change as well as the rationale behind it.

Well thought initiative as this will keep the site focussed on its original theme of events, doing things, meeting people and sharing tips and info by everybody (although this is not a dating site). 

I get the impression that a lot of people are reluctant to post to the forums and we see 50% of the posts by 0.1% of the memebers.  Although there is undoubtedly an entertainment value to the forums, some sort of segregation is welcome, much like the .XXX extension on the internet for sex related material instead of the .com for general viewing.

PS - Charlie meant to say  . . . horny radical IRISH priest . . . .

Many thanks indeed for your request in the last paragraph.  Often, these quotes and videos have been more like a competition to see who can provide the most bibliographical references rather than true personal contributions to a debate.

R.

Agreed. All the videos usually end up crashing my browser, so I don't usually bother opening the threads after a certain point.

I'd love to see the dating (why can't so-and-so find a man) and male/female stuff put on a separate place as well. But then if they are popular, I suppose there is a rationale for keeping them on the main page.

That's an interesting observation.  I wonder how does one determine what are "true personal contributions to a debate."  Some of us appreciate fact-based arguments and like to learn from the other side of the debate.

Two of the most contentious recent threads were not political -- people of a certain origin and their "activities" in Geneva and divorce -- were not "weighed down" by supporting evidence of quotes and videos.  And what we read, very quickly, were people's views laid bare.  

However, it is up to the site administrators/owners to outline the terms of the site.  They have clarified this and I think it will be helpful.

Hoorah! Hoorah! The voice of reason strikes again.  Thanks guys for a sensible, normal, rational, answer to a bit of a sticky debate.  And "way too many fights" is an understatement (even if I do start some/one of them )

Guilty, as charged, m'lud.

Think its a great idea to have a political forum for those who want to - and the rest of us can stick to the normal forums for fun, laughter, information and the inevitable hijack from Charlie - all great stuff!!

But please don't ban YouTube posts on any of the forums - some of them are hilarious.  We're all (sort of) grown ups and decide which ones we do and don't want to download.

Thanks for coming up with a neutral, diplomatic, solution to an ever increasing problem in a mulit-national, multi-cultural, multi-religion world that is the fabulous "Glocals World"!!

We all love it and none of us would have been here or would have met the great people that we've met without you (Oded and Nir).  Thanks for being the ever present ambassadors of true fun, love and friendship. Thank You. XXXXX

Hi guys -

Just a quick clarification -

YouTube videos, quotes and even Chomsky are not banned - I just wanted this thread to stay on topic and wanted to avoid the usual suspects turning this into a discussion about 'What is politics', 'What is free speech' and similar and pasting tons of videos, links & quotes to prove their point. 

All of the above are cool and kosher, but please try to ensure they actualy add value, or are at least funny, before using them.

Thanks

Oded

Oded, Nir,

Excellent idea...! Politic, religion (and lately men-woman relation )  became a reason for hard discussions here.I think that some post do not need to appear at the home page, probably creating some kind of not-exact vision of what glocals is? (especially for new members..)

Anyway, thanks!

one man's humanitarian cause is another's political cause 

when you blame israel for something it is political 

when you support human rights action that means placing pressure on Israel 

for something that you may not all the facts about it is very political

in other words defending pandas or fighting fur industry ok

but when it comes to people nothing is really humanitarian per se

or rarely is, because somehow it always gets political , in other words, ugly

and unpleasant for other people who may have to pay the price

like the thread that involved very ugly things said about israel

which i thought was really way out of line

now i am done with politics

and have gone to the dogs , where everything really is humanitarian

and the eurovision of course

but some people say it is political too

turkey and greece will never give eachother points etc 

I wanted to suggest a system like in soccer of  yellow then a red card for those who  over step boundaries

what do you think ?

oded you want to be a judge? or perhaps someone swiss and neutral ?

Well I'd like to thank Oded for his considered response to my question. i don't agree with everything he said but so what, it's his site and i respect that. I'm a guest in his house so to speak so it's not my place to dictate rules to anybody. 

continued happy posting everyone!

Its Official - you're toooo polite!  Mama would be proud......Now we just have to check if you're a Hamas Spy :-)

Can I say "vomit" here?... LOL... probably not, so I won't.

I never had Dubliners down as such polite people...  another reason to be proud to be Irish.

Now I'm off to be brash somewhere else....