clarify definition and treatment of "political" discussion

[carmine shadow]

recently a discussion (really a sequence of memes and a few people's summary of fact) [in the memes thread](#870411388475031572 message) was deleted. Having seen the discussion prior to its deletion i recall no sign of any divisive or escalatory behaviors and as far as i can tell the discussion naturally concluded. Obviously this was offtopic for the thread but I wasn't able to find language in the rules that would explicitly justify deleting an already-concluded conversation beyond "moderator disgression." Depending on the moderator's common sense is fine and all, but I think political discussion could use more specific treatment in the rules

in short, this server's moderation decisions take an aggressively apolitical stance (which to be clear i am fine with), and codifying that in the rules is probably a good idea

every group has its own social norms on what is considered acceptable speech, in this case I think a clarification on the subjective definition of "is this political" the mod team follows

[cosmic shale]

i think mod didnt like me quoting what some politician said

he prob just doing it cautionarily as to not have a raging war about this good this bad later

[carmine shadow]

this is also in the wake of the discussion about the memes thread getting filled with discussions and the increase in slowmode

[cosmic shale]

also i did specifically search to make sure bro did actually say that

and yes please

can we get rid of slowmode in memesclub

or make it dedicated channel?

somehow?

with special role or something?

[carmine shadow]

go complain in the complainyplace for that https://discord.com/channels/273534239310479360/1413849516746211348

[carmine shadow]

this aside i still think that clarifying treatment and definitions for "political message" past the moderator's common sense would be helpful in general

[cosmic shale]

yes

i just quoted what someone said

maybe a little bit biased?

but it is factual that what he said was a bit unintelligent

like

i cant really quote them

or it get nuke

but all you need to know is that trump said it back in 2020

[carmine shadow]

as an (exaggerated) example of the ambiguous meaning of "political discussion", in some (nasty) spaces in the US making a positive statement about trans people would be considered political but i would imagine such a statement would not be considered that by the moderators here

[hoary badger]

The general rule is moderator discretion whether or not to allow a political discussion to continue. The current informal policy is that the discretion is not really granted.

[cosmic shale]

i was going to say something about the general political opinion of the people in the server

but it prob get deleted

-banne

[dark shoal]

https://imgur.com/V4TVpbC

[carmine shadow]

i think itd be worth having a discussion on formalizing that informal policy? thats really the only issue i had to bring up

[hoary badger]

Yeah, messages supporting/discussing LGBT+ people is not something we consider political.

[cosmic shale]

anything can be considered political if you want it to be

if you decide with your party to be against the general consensus then ig it turns into a political matter

[harsh vale]

From what I've seen in #offtopic lightly political stuff is allowed to continue

[remote citrus]

yeah, this was specifically about putting harmful political statements (even if hedged and contextualized) into the "light-hearted jokes" channel

people don't go into #870411388475031572 to be reminded of rising fascism in the US

[harsh vale]

Tbh I'm a fan of the current "politics is technically allowed, but it often breaks other rules so be careful"