RFC: Make political discussion off-topic by rule (was: America ...)

[Ted Roche]

On Jan 9, 2005, at 12:54 PM, Benjamin Scott wrote:

> Should we make political diatribes like this explicitly off-topic on 
> gnhlug-discuss?

Much as I want to vote yes, I have to say 'No.'

I would ask that folks involved in such discussions flag them with [OT] 
in the subject, so those of us (like me) who would prefer to ignore 
them can do so, manually or with filtering rules.  But a discussion 
that starts out about a network admin  job opportunity at a local 
school district can easily fork in several directions to tell (and 
perhaps inform) potential job applicants about New Hampshire's means of 
funding school districts, defining adequate educations, the costs of 
living in NH, and NH's regressive property taxes. I would prefer to let 
the discussion start and die a natural death all in one thread, even 
though the messages will be likely Off-Topic after a while, and I rely 
on the self-policing of the forum members to flag it so. Yes, this is a 
foolish and optimistic hope, as folks will need to be reminded, perhaps 
too often, of what it means to be On and Off-Topic, as we each have our 
own definitions and levels of tolerance.

I will try not to participate in these discussions, if my willpower can 
resist hitting the 'Reply' button. I hope to work with many of you in a 
professional capacity, and discussions of politics, religion, sex, 
drugs and rock 'n roll can sometimes interfere in those relationships. 
My political knowledge may not be particularly sophisticated nor 
well-informed, but I try my best. My opinions and leanings are 
sometimes far (left) out of the mainstream and while I might be glad to 
kick them around anytime over a beer, I don't believe a computer 
technology forum, with all the attendant misunderstanding engendered by 
ASCII communications, is the right way to discuss these matters. So, 
please don't think me rude if I ignore these discussions, nor think me 
uninterested. I care passionately about these issues, but don't feel 
the forum is appropriate.

However, this is often the only networking channel many folks have, and 
I don't mind the occasional digressions about "how 'bout them Sox?' or 
'looking for a job' or 'anyone want to buy an old snowmobile,' as long 
as the level of chatter doesn't exceed the level of information. 
Besides, once you start to filter, the slippery slope is steep: ham 
radio is not off topic to some, but irrelevant to others. Free software 
on non-free platforms may be impure to some.

Besides, it never hurts to get to know a little more about your 
colleagues, even if it is just who to avoid <s>.

Another forum I belong to has actually created two email feeds, one of 
which explicitly filters out [OT] posts. Some like political debate, 
apparently, and 33,000 of the 51,000 messages posted to the list last 
year were OT. Luckily, I only read the other 18,000.

Live and let live. OT. Free speech and free beer.

Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com