I move the posting guidelines get updated with a simple statement of no politics or religion. I know a lot of rules are normally a bad thing. This one has been member imposed for as long as I remember and that has worked, but now we have a member who refuses to abide so it needs to be made official.

In addition, forum members have been polled many times in the past and have overwhelmingly stated that they want a forum free from religion and politics. We now have some forum members who are initiating troll-like threads on politics and the mods seem to be ignoring this. Volition crashed and burned over politics. Many of us moved to this forum to escape politics. Now we are not getting even "moderate" moderation of politically divisive taunts and innuendos. Meanwhile, those threads, in particular, have brought out the worst in sniping and insults and taunting. Some posters appear to post just to see how nasty they can make things get on a thread! Jacob, this needs a firm statement about no politics or religion on this forum!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2017 01:59PM by walesmaven.

please delete.............

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2017 01:23PM by lucky7s.

I am for this. I hate hearing about politics. I can't blame people for talking about it if there is no rule against it. I am for light moderation,but this really does need to be a rule.

I just read an entire thread about Politics, and I don't want to hear the T word as I drink my morning coffee.
My worry is only things will get too heated and cause yet more angish...lets keep politics in our outside life.
I like a good debate, but with those I know....this is a shopping forum!!!

More headaches for the VOLUNTEER mods to deal with.

Simple solution, if they don't follow the rules, kick them out......I love to talk about politic as my cousin is a Senator ,but I wouldn't dare do it here. The one "Moosehoose (whatever) is pushing limits and needs to be restricted or kicked off....how's that?

I would vote for a 'no politics or religion' guideline, but find it just as easy to click out of a thread if I find it offends me.

Thank you, KathyG. This is an important point. We have a choice on this forum. It may be one of the last choices we will have. Politically and religiously, we seem to have fewer choices and more mandates aimed at us or crushing us in rl. Why would we want any more limitations anywhere, especially when we can exercise our personal consumer power in this forum and choose among threads and discussions?

I would vote for retaining the full range of potential topics here. However, I would not discuss the full range of potential topics here. That is just me and my preference.

@KathyG wrote:

I would vote for a 'no politics or religion' guideline, but find it just as easy to click out of a thread if I find it offends me.

And then what happens when you post a question in a real thread about shopping at Moe's and somebody replies that Trump loves Moe's so they must be a good company and then someone else says it's obvious Trump loves Moe's cause he's as fat as whale and then all hell breaks lose and you Moe's question never gets answered.

This is a specialized forum. It's for mystery shoppers. We come here for answers to our mystery shopping questions and to share mystery shopping experiences. Because our work can't be easily discussed with non-shoppers, this forum fills a huge void. I don't know any other shoppers in real life. Coming to this forum to interact with other MSers is a godsend. I've learned so much. I never knew about route shopping, never knew how many MSCs there were, never knew it could be a full time job. Plus, I learned better ways to write comments and narratives.

It's a specialized and one-sided forum. And that's just fine with me. Each person's answers give enough of a hint as to their personality and that's plenty enough for me Sometimes the "full us" isn't attractive, better to be one dimensional. I come here for one purpose--MSing information. In addition, I always get a few laughs because most folks have a great sense of humor.

Adding topics unrelated to the forum I feel is a detriment and degrades the value and experience of a specialty forum. It's like having a mariachi band playing throughout the house while everyone is trying to watch TV or sleep. Or being in a nice restaurant and having the chef butcher a carcass in the dining room. Some activities are best done elsewhere. Just because we all visit the forum doesn't mean we have to share everything about ourselves. Let's just stick to the topic at hand.

That all sounds very wise and inarguable. At first.

After awhile, I pondered assorted threads that were unrelated to Mystery Shopping. We have talked about pets, clowns, hurricanes, Olympics, and AD/OD (Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias). Briefly, we discussed bgriff' in a manbun and wondered if he would like to have his eyebrows threaded. We did not find out everything we wanted to know about those concepts. Baseball and gardening are annual and perennial favorites. We can laugh at ourselves and get a few pats on the back, if we want them. We are watching a kitchen become a new version of itself. We are watching a cat become re-aligned with his person. We told a few jokes, had a few laughs, and generally made at least a quasi-human connection.
All of these ideas reflect values.

Politics and religion reflect values.

At what point would the values banning stop? Once you begin to limit topics, you might not be able to stop. Soon, the entire "General Chat" section could disappear. If you want that to happen, by all means begin to limit topics. If you believe that board does not belong here, you must take any actions necessary to ban it.

So, how do we value assorted topics? What do others think? Would we be able to stop the banning before entire portions of the forum as we know it disappear? Would we notice or care? What do we think?

Here's the problem with your "values" theory.

No one is every going to say "oh that MountainChacher is a horrible person for liking cats, I'm not paying attention to anything else they say."
Or "I can't believe bgriffin has a man bun, he's a bad person I'm not going to follow his advice"
But you might hear "that shop-et-al is a racist because she likes Trump and I'm going to be mean to her now"
Or "that walesmaven is such a snowflake lefty. She thinks she knows MS but she probably doesn't know anything, I'm just going to disagree with whatever she says"
Or "that Irene is a religious nut, she probably thinks I'm the devil, I'm not listening to her anymore"
Or "those crazy Mormons, gosh I hate them. Oh, you mean MA Smith is a Mormon? I'm not surprised! She's so crazy! I'm just going to be rude to her from now on."

And then those personal feelings start spilling over into other threads. Politics and religion are divisive subjects. Cats and man buns aren't. Everyone should love cats and hate man buns and so those things are pretty simple.

Man buns can be turned unto bones of contention. Just sayin'.

I kinda want to know if you have a man bun now...

Pretty sure that Bgriff has a nude head. Not sure if it's by choice or au naturale. I offered to donate some "locks of like" to make him a man bun in a thread and that's what he is referring to, I believe.

My head would be naked but I bought a fake man bun and glued it on!

Forums are rather loose gatherings of people with similar interests, for the most part. Free speech isn't really a consideration because the owner of the forum pays for the space. It's private property, so to speak, we are just invited to enter. My home is private property and my friends are always welcome. However, if one of my friends begins talking about her bunions non-stop I may wish that she would leave. Some topics are naturally divisive and don't enhance the forum experience. Everyone has different religious backgrounds and different political views, and most of them will not change no matter how much debate happens. Being the past owner of a debate forum I can say that with certainty.
There are many, many forums out there for that type of discussion. I don't think there are any other viable mystery shopping forums. I am interested in protecting this one from flame wars and people leaving because of hurt feelings due to unnecessary political discussions. Most of them won't even say anything, they will just disappear.
I am the voice of experience here.

@bgriffin wrote:

My head would be naked but I bought a fake man bun and glued it on!

Nothing cries “Deep South” quite like a middle aged bald guy with a glued-on man bun toupee.

@bgriffin wrote:

My head would be naked but I bought a fake man bun and glued it on!

Answer to your problems...Paula Young wigs.com

So, um, at this point has it been clarified that it is okay to diss southern people and bald men but no one else? Would I be censored for daring to question the rationale behind this selection of targets?

Because I am a bald southern man and the people who "dissed" me knew I could take the joke.

@bgriffin wrote:

Because I am a bald southern man and the people who "dissed" me knew I could take the joke.

There is enough southern in me to say, "Bless your heart". Recently, I ran into some folks I knew from a previous job. The husband has cancer now. He is completely bald. He is emaciated and his skin is the color of putty. His wife said, "It won't be long now". She was not making a funny about his long hair in a man bun.

I remember a few years ago, I kiddingly said "Amen" at the end of a post, and my old friend Sybil2 (haha) and some of her followers kicked me down with "No talk about Religion".....I know I wasn't liked, but geez, the pendant has swung. I just thought it was an unspoken, that both Politics and Religion not be discussed, therefore not opening up a pandora's box. I know my friends are ALL Democratic, so, coming onto a mixed forum which allow's Politic's, especially with today's climate is asking for trouble....I am not strong enough to ignore. May we all continue to have freedom of speech, just not here where we should respect everyone's choice and not question it. The only thing we really have in common is MS'ing and some fun subjects.

>>>>> Mod Note: Inappropriate Political comment removed.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

Because I am a bald southern man and the people who "dissed" me knew I could take the joke.

There is enough southern in me to say, "Bless your heart". Recently, I ran into some folks I knew from a previous job. The husband has cancer now. He is completely bald. He is emaciated and his skin is the color of putty. His wife said, "It won't be long now". She was not making a funny about his long hair in a man bun.

I'm not sure I understand why you posted this.

I was REALLY wondering the same thing but wasn't sure I wanted the answer.

*morphs Foghorn Leghorn; pats the youngster on the head, dwarfing the hapless kid with the oversized appendage*I say, son, you still gotta lotta learn about these heayah forums. Now, a youngun' suchz yahseff might think that no one else reads this stuff ndat we da only onz hoo sees it. But ya gotta keep in mind dat udder kinzuh folk kin read too. Deez peeple might not like it smuch. See, some peeple don't know hoo u bee. Day might not know a joke from a smoke! Now, deez dayz with peeple gittin all ryle dup about the dangdest tings, we gotta stop sayin stuff cuz we don no hoo might not like it. Seeinz how youz been wuntin ta whack this heayah forum, may bee we coulds not have any uthah talk atll, see. Now you heed this heayah informashuns, sonny boy.*puts the oversized appendage away*

Ok well, if you're going to do that then I can't be bothered to try to figure out what offends you....

That is the point. We cannot know in advance what will offend another person. Newbies and casual visitors do not know us; they won't necessarily know when someone is being sarcastic. There will always be a potential offense or harm. To avoid all potential misunderstandings, hurt feelings, cyber-arguments, and cyber-wars, I am now changing my vote. I now vote to whack the forum into one little section. The newbies' board can continue in a modified format. Since virtually all necessary information for new, independently operating contractors in this industry already is contained in one board, it is possible to re-format that board and provide it as a read-only piece. There will be no need for introductions, greetings, interactions, questions, answers, or moderation because the newbie information will be a stand-alone resource. We all go away. We conduct our hobbies or businesses in an isolated fashion. Most important, we avoid all potential issues that could arise due to the existence of and human participation in an ongoing interactive forum.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

*morphs Foghorn Leghorn; pats the youngster on the head, dwarfing the hapless kid with the oversized appendage*I say, son, .....*

LOL! That's awesome!