Am I the only one who is confused by this part Of Hurl's original post on this thread:
"Political references are not allowed. Sports have become very political. There are many posts which are about baseball players and politics. These will be allowed as will responses to these, but mods will be quick to close the thread if it gets out of hand. " ??
If political references are not allowed, then how can you have "posts which are about baseball players and politics" ?? I think some refinement of this description is in order.
As one who has participated in some very intense/nasty exchanges on the Politics thread, and which I admit to having allowed to spill over into a baseball thread very recently, I understand and agree with the problem. The feuds from the politics discussions/arguments are poisoning or threatening to poison the overall atmosphere. This is not the first message board I have seen resort to just removing the part that allows political discussions. It actually seemed to work there in terms of the overall level of rancor being way reduced but DID NOT help with site participation (although we can't say the two are connected; i.e. maybe that site was on its way to the scrapheap regardless).
Also, I wanted to address the issue of 'avatars'. It was asked early on in this thread if politically related avatars would still be allowed, to which the answer was yes. I see this as a big mistake. If you want to get rid of politics, then get rid of politics! Avatars are a STATEMENT that accompanies EVERY post a member makes. Whether this is a rule or not , I think any member with a blatant politically related avatar should really reconsider. There are bazillions of baseball related pics you could use - so choose one !!