yep. Forum is unreadable now. No discussion of anything happening. Just people being dicks to each other back and forth.

Gay marriage is going to be the uncontroversial law of the land in the US so quickly that it won't even be a decent wedge issue after 2020 in my opinion. Pretty remarkable.

I tease Phil cause I care. He has plenty of bad reads on US politics but I hardly know the game in the UK.

I don't think the signal to noise ratio has changed one single bit in the years I've been reading the forum, nor has the overall tone. The only thing that has changed is the shift away from an all-things-libertarian-all-the-time forum, and that has far more to do with it being a reflection of the larger political environment than the behavior of the posters. There was plenty of mud being slung back in the day. I can link posts and threads if you need me to. Remember when 'statist' was used so frequently as an insult that it became a meme?

You and chez (and AlexM) have strong libertarian leanings, but the forum doesn't talk about the topics you guys like to talk about any more. The Iraq war wound down, the economy recovered, Bush was forgotten, Obama turned out to just be another mediocre centrist politician. The world didn't end. Apocalypse averted. And notably important on this forum in particular, BF shut down the stream of angry young middle class US men who drove the libertarian narrative.

Poster behavior on political forums is pretty constant. The only thing that ever really changes is what people are screaming at each other about on any particular day.

I have seen an improvement in the amount of Ikes related troll posts in the recent past. Also a shout out to Huey for providing discussion/reading material to the forum.

lol, you libertarians finally got the special unmoderated forum you wanted and now all you guys do is whine about the tone of the special unmoderated forum.

Who besides Livra was asking for an unmoderated forum?

There was incessant whining about Wookie and his tyrannical modding. Actually, there still is for some reason.

Right, but who was asking for an unmoderated forum?

I'd be interested to learn about what lead to PUC's birth.

Conservatives losing on social issues like gay marriage, sorta. I say sorta because that's the whole society moving. Conservatives winning on taxes and at least not losing on things like fracking. Winning on money. Kucinich wouldn't dare propose Reagan's tax rates.

Also Reagan supported the Brady bill and didn't go to war when US facilities were bombed. Bush Sr. at least as liberal. Post tea party George W. is too far left to win in a lot of places.

Absolutist libertarianism or anarchy or anarcho-anything is such an 18-22 yo dude thing it's not a bit surprising if the forum ages out of that.

It is a shame. in government related politics I like to argue for stuff like education, universal free healthcare, welfare, social housing and even government sanctions against people not found guilty in a criminal court. Damn libertarian topics

I don't particularly support the existence of PU btw. The best reason for it is imo is that if personal attacks and bullying are supported by the mod then it's better that they are allowed.

Mat's version of the story is the only one that counts.

Yeah, criticizing the moderation isn't necessarily advocating a moderation-free forum.

Have you considered that PU is a power equalizer? Abusers with inside connections cannot get away with using the mods to ban people they target, or to provoke them into a reaction that breaks the rules. PU is where bullies and dicks come to die.

Plus, have you noticed how much depth of discussion has been occurring here recently? I think PU is turning out to be even more than just a place to avoid self-proclaimed infallible and arbitrary moderation.

Like I said before, unchained is where we can find out people's character, unfiltered, unchained.

Agreed.


It seems crazy to me that there is no balance in the moderation of that forum. If you are not on the side of the masses and get barraged with insults, you have no one to turn to as the mods are right there attacking with the best of them.

I'd point out the people getting banned that wookie generally agrees with, or how some that he doesn't agree with get away with a lot but why ruin your whinefest?

It's not masses causing that problem:. It is three or four people, but one of them is a mod.

Man bull**** rjoe, I'm pretty happy with moderation overall but to pretend that wookie's own biases don't affect his moderation decisions is ****ing idiotic.

Oh look, there's one of the examples now.

A mass banning doesn't have to happen, a simple changing of expectations would be enough. Somehow along the way, saying 'your only problem is that your father has to give some of this money to the negros' without provocation became acceptable in the main forum.

Wow. Racial instigation like that should be totally unacceptable.

I suppose. Still, I just find it ironic that, even when we have a near modless subforum, 90% of the conversation here revolves around how terrible the mods are.

I am sure you are right. I have only recently been viewing politics forum, just surprised me how blatant insults and harassment seem to go unchecked and there is no one to turn to.

Yes I think it is a power equalizer but there is more than one way to do, I'm for gun control not arming all sides heavily. Personally I don't want the bullies and dicks to die, I want them (and that includes you and me) to have to accept moderation if they want to participate.

It may be but all that could be in a moderated forum.