Where is the Current Events forum?

It is bitter sweet. I will miss it. But, I am one of many who grew very weary of every thread deteriorating into the same ole same ole name calling and whining and just bad form. Very tiring, boring, unnecessary - but that is just my personal opinion and it took me a very long time to feel that way (many good friends reached that point long ago). It seems to have served a good purpose but it has played itself out. It has gone on for so long because many still enjoy it but the negative tone spills out into the whole community - and that isn't cool. I can tell you that the debate and decision making among the moderators on this issue has been going on for quite some time - no one wanted to make any quick decisions. It was a hard issue. It was hard for moderators to let the Political Forum go. I know it will be hard for others as well.

This forum started as a way to share information, answer questions, form friendships and make a difference in the real community of SoWal. That is still its purpose. The Current Events/Political Forum was added later on - and I believe did serve a good purpose for a long while. I'll miss it. and I'll miss thanking people for helping provide answers to people seeking information. I'll also miss repping people who I want to send a more personal note of thanks for all they do for the online community. Perhaps these items have been misused to give digs to others, or to award bad behavior. Perhaps we should learn to say thank you in our own words in a post, and to send a PM when we want to really acknowledge someone for being so wonderful.

omg!!!!!!!!!!! Where's my buttons??????????:moon::lol:

I know! damn! I was just trying to thank Carol G! Thank you Carol G!!! Look out for a personal thank you note via PM.

No politcal discussion forum to sanitize a discussion forums website is kinda like removing TV's from bars to protect the view and culinary experience.

Very disappointing.

Actually, it's more like removing drunken brawlers from the bar so we can get back to enjoying our drinks. :lol:

Not referring to you of course. :drink2:

Hey- maybe all the political forum regulars can start meeting for coffee or happy hour and debate in person!

Now THAT would be quite the koffee klatch!

FYI- I don't think the lounge ever had thanks button.

I'm pretty sure you are right...

FYI- I don't think the lounge ever had thanks button.

That's true. Reputation has been disabled sitewide - anyone care?

Thanks to post 23. That would be a site.

You could video it. :lol:

But seriously folks, there were days when hitting the "new posts" feature brought up 10 political or doom & gloom threads before anything about SoWal popped up. Sometimes even I would roll my eyes and thought "nothing to see here, let's move on", because they were usually some version of the same 5 topics, and almost always disintegrated into the same arguments with the same "teams".

SoWal has a higher purpose than being the political boxing ring for a small group, so until there is a way to keep the political threads from popping up in the new posts, I agree with Kurt's decision to keep the board and it's topics mostly local. There are PLENTY of SoWal issues that need discussion and input from as many locals, second homeowners, and visitors as possible.

That's true. Reputation has been disabled sitewide - anyone care?

I know the reputation button has caused a lot of confusion and some hurt feelings, so it really doesn't bother me that it's gone...

Perhaps we should learn to say thank you in our own words in a post, and to send a PM when we want to really acknowledge someone for being so wonderful.

There were a couple of times back in the "good ole' days" when I received PMs about posts I'd written, and it was always really nice to read. It's more personal. I like the one-click response as much as anyone, it's very easy, but it's also very impersonal.

A few bad apples have spoiled the bunch. Bad apples have been thrown out before only to be replaced by new bad apples.

If you'll look around you'll see the entire forum structure is being re-organized. You'll see some good points written above about other places on the web to discuss politics. We'd love to be able to do it here but unfortunately, after trying it fore several years what we've learned is that you can't have a civil discussions because the vocal abusive minority sets the tone instead of the gentler, more reasonable minority which we want to engage and encourage.

The goal is to be a helpful, friendly, MODERATE board to reflect the moderate, polite majority.

Just a reminder - the text below has been a sticky in the political forum for quite awhile, and I have sent many PMs kindly asking for tolerance.

If you are reading this and post in this forum:

Too bad there are sides because we have much more in common than not, but such is life. It's OK to mix it up here and debate as long as you are respectful. If the phrase, "let us agree to disagree" has never entered your mind, then this is not the place for you.

Trolls will be banned. If you get off on making others mad, this is not the place for you.

How to know if I am speaking to you:

• You post only in this forum. If politics is all you are interested in posting about then you should go to one of thousands of political forums on the internet.
• You do not contribute anything of value to our online community. Ever posted a photo, written about a restaurant, welcomed a new member, sent a nice note to someone, googled and provided an answer for someone?
• You are too aggressive or too defensive. If this is you then you are sticking out like a sore thumb.
• You have complained that you are outnumbered, or that the "forum" is against you. A forum is a collection of people, not an entity out to get you. A forum is simply software which people use to express themselves. Software is not partisan, and we all are outnumbered in one way or another.
• There are one or more posters that get under your skin but you find yourself reading most of their posts.
• You have an avatar or signature which is offensive.
• You have sent a PM because you are "too nice" to post it in public. If your message in not nice enough to post in public then you shouldn't send it privately. Personal attacks are not allowed on this forum - public or private.

Let us know if you are interested in becoming a moderator. The only qualification is that you are helpful and not reactionary, gentle and polite. Mostly our forum is self moderating - thanks to so many good people here. Most of the moderators of this forum have no title, nor do they need or want one.

This forum was not built as a place to validate your 1st amendment rights. The purpose of this site is to help people, groups, and businesses, and to help build a strong sense of community and support system for lovers of the South Walton area. Thanks for reading and thanks for keeping it polite, yet real.

I know the reputation button has caused a lot of confusion and some hurt feelings, so it really doesn't bother me that it's gone...



There were a couple of times back in the "good ole' days" when I received PMs about posts I'd written, and it was always really nice to read. It's more personal. I like the one-click response as much as anyone, it's very easy, but it's also very impersonal.

The idea of reputation points on a forum is to know who you can trust when you get a response to a question. I thought it might be helpful on our forum if someone asked a question like, "where's the best place for seafood?". In retrospect it is easy to see reputation points aren't necessary for that.

As for thanks button, the reason it was invented was so that you didn't get 12 posts on a thread that simply say "thanks". I can see how that could could be a problem on some forums but not on ours. I want to see people write thanks, or chip in kudos, etc.

Thanks.

You're welcome.

This "courtesy" stuff is already getting on my nerves...:cool:

All of your points are arguable and debable. Unfortunately, the forum fo such discussion is no longer available. I'm curious, If you stay out of the political forum, why is ther a need to filter anything? I would think with the elimination of the playing field as would call it is going to lead to the interjection of such discuaion into other areas of the board. Then the filtering process is goint to be a daunting task.

Running a forum this size is a challenge. We currently have 14 excellent moderators to help. If someone tries to log in and gets a message that they've been banned it wasn't done lighlty. It hasn't happened very often in the past but you can expect the door to be swinging a bit more in the future.

This "courtesy" stuff is already getting on my nerves...:cool:

Thank you for your candor. 😀