New Politics Forum

[tsptalk]

If you have clicked on a link in the list of latest posts at the top of the main forum page and found that you did not have permissions to access the post, it may be a thread in our new Politics Forum (either that or a Premium Service thread).

With the election coming up, we started a new forum for political discussions. We've done this in the past and after a while it became a disaster so we cancelled it. But this new forum will be restricted to those who actually want to talk politics, and who have a good standing history of posting already.

Those who do not want any part of it, won't have to see any of the discussions at all.


The main Politics Forum is here: Politics (Restricted Access) ... and it contains links to some rules and info on how to get access.

It also contains a Sub_Forum called: "Politics" (http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/politics) where the actual political discussions are taking place. This is the area that is restricted.


We take our rules here about treating others with respect seriously, and thanks to you the TSP Talk forums have been very successful at keeping the peace. Politics is a different story, however. Those who go too far in the political discussions will be denied access to the poilitical forum and potentially banned from the entire TSP Talk forum. So, please, always be polite and respectful to other members. Thanks!

[tsptalk]

I need a small break from moderating the political discussion. Like every other time we have tried it, I can see it turning cancerous again. I know most of the jabs are in good fun, and most of you can take the jabs, but some folks just can't seem to stay respectful and I may need to reconsider who posts. When it comes down to a back and forth about why the other side is so stupid, I think the discussion has run its course.

Thanks to all of you who did remain respectful of the other members during the discussions. Let's give it a day to settle before reopening the forum.

When we come back, let's play a game. Pretend you are on a guest panel on a Sunday Talk Show like Meet the Press or Chris Wallace's show. If you can speak intelligently on the subject and treat the other guests with respect, you will probably be invited back to their show. Likewise, if you want to be an invited guest in our political forum, try to do the same. Otherwise you will end up on Pierce Morgan's show.

Thanks.

Here's a reminder of the rules...

1st rule is to keep the political discussion in this forum and not in the public area of the forum.

The regular Forum rules will also apply here (http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/rules-tos-...lines-tos.html)

Pay particularly attention to these specific rules from that list:

- Be polite and respectful.

- Conduct yourself generally as you would at any professional encounter with respected colleagues.

- Harassment and irritation of other members will not be tolerated. Please try to avoid offending other members. We understand that you cannot please every one all the time. However, when we get a variety of similar complaints, a review will be conducted.

- If you see a post that appears to violate any of our guidelines, do not respond to the post, or any offensive post. Send a Report Post or a private message to the administrator or moderator(s) notifying them of the subject post.

- Watch your language in general, though a bit of occasional adult language is understood, though not encouraged.

- Do not incite flame wars, and please, try to refrain from chiming into offensive posts.

- We understand that disputes will occur – it’s a fact of life – but we will not understand if members are involved in a prolonged squabble. If you cannot work it out between yourselves, ask for a moderator or for the administrator to intervene.

- Try to stay on topic if you can.

- Stick to a reasonably relevant topic.

- Treat others as you would like to be treated.

- Do not annoy the moderator(s) or administrator.

- Otherwise, behave legally and ethically.

- Do not create more than one account for yourself.