Politics

[Rapscallion]

The US is getting pretty political right now. Just a general request - politics to Fratching. What's more important is the occasional political side-swipe.

Trust me, it's the spark that engulfs the tinderbox. Can we keep them off here, please?

Rapscallion

[ralerin]

I was planning to post pictures of the NH primary from the "average person's view" (basically, I walk about and take photos of the craziness because it gets REALLY crazy in <city>. I make no commentary on the candidates or politics, it's more "hey look there's a group of people with signs and whistles! Here's a guy shouting why his candidate is more awesome than you! Look! Mounted police!" Would those be kosher?

[Peppergirl]

I was planning to post pictures of the NH primary from the "average person's view" (basically, I walk about and take photos of the craziness because it gets REALLY crazy in <city>. I make no commentary on the candidates or politics, it's more "hey look there's a group of people with signs and whistles! Here's a guy shouting why his candidate is more awesome than you! Look! Mounted police!" Would those be kosher?

As innocuous as that seems on the surface, probably not, unfortunately. Even the most innocent political pic or topic has the tendency to snowball into a free-for-all or devolve into fratching.

It'd probably get a laugh or some good comments over at fratch, if you wanna consider it. :)

[ralerin]

Alright. :)

[wolfie]

Since politics is one of the "hot topics" that is also a fertile ground for jokes, would the following 2 categories of political jokes be allowed?

1. Poking fun at politicians as a class (typical example: planeload of Congressmen crashes, farmer buries them. When questioned about the lack of survivors, he says that some of them said they were still alive, but politicians always lie).

2. Jokes that work equally well in both directions (to use U.S. examples, there are some that I've seen from both the viewpoint of Republicans making fun of Democrats, and from the viewpoint of Democrats making fun of republicans), sanitized to use "Party X" and "Party Y" to represent the 2 sides (readers can substitute their favourite 2 parties).

Also, what about jokes where a religious setting provides a background, but the religion involved is not the target of the joke (e.g. a drunk mistaking a confessional for a toilet stall would always take place in a Catholic church, because that's where you'd find a confessional)?

Alternately, could a "jokes" forum be added to Fratching for jokes that would be "out of bounds" for Customers Suck?

[Dave1982]

Neither of those types of politic jokes (or any political jokes) would be acceptable here on CS. Experience has taught us that no matter how neutral and carefully worded they are, someone is bound to either take offense, or take that joke and run the thread straight into Fratching with no hope of recovery.

If it's political, it belongs on Fratching.

As far as the religious ones.....that's a gray area. We usually take religious themed jokes on a case-by-case basis.

[Bright_Star]

When in doubt, take it to the land of Fratching.

[wolfie]

In that case, could we get a Jokes forum at Fratching, for stuff that would be too "hot" for Customers Suck?

[Rapscallion]

Discussed it a while back, actually - we decided that the concept of such a section was tempting, but how long before it got really nasty and violent?

Rapscallion

[EricKei]

They've got a point. Even -- or maybe "especially" -- on sites with no political agenda whatsoever like CS, even really innocuous things that could be interpreted as political/religious-related slights tend to blow up into massive flame wars at the drop of a hat. Also, because these things tend to be juuuust slightly divisive by their very nature, the resulting needless arguments can drive wedges between friends. I understand the need for caution. I've even seen stuff like this erupt into tsunami of flame on GameFAQs of all places >_<

Besides, I've said it before and I'll say it again: CS is arguably the most civil board I've ever posted on. I'd like to see it stay that way ^_^ I know that nobody here WANTS to start a flamewar, it's just that political and religious-type threads seem to wind up on fire inevitably anyway.

[Ree]

the concept of such a section was tempting, but how long before it got really nasty and violent?
I had thought a Joke forum on fratching might be good, just because, while we don't get a lot of jokes we can't approve, there is the odd one.
Sometimes, they're pretty darn funny, but we just know, if we allow them, then they open a can of worms that we don't really want to deal with.

I had thought a good solution was to allow those controversial jokes on fratching.

The only problem with a joke forum there is that it is a debating site, and a forum of jokes doesn't really mesh well with the overall tone.

Do you really want to post what you consider a real kneeslapper, and then have to be prepared to explain or defend the joke you posted?
There is that potential.

The thought kind of takes the fun out of it. :shrug: