I know it's been discussed before, but I never had a coherent thought about it until now. Forget the whole freedom of speech and it's their board they can do what they want arguments. My reason why I don't like politics in OD is simply because it turns people off more than anything. Everyday it's the same old thing and the same people. I like to talk about things other than politics and about once a week I wonder if there were someone on Mercedesshop who shared the same interests as me, but maybe they don't read OD because it's such a politically charged forum.

So there. That's my take on it. There's no collective wisdom, no shared expertise but for a few on OD here. Yes there are other venues for talking Vedic math, XC skiing, canoeing, and chess, but nothing beats discovering a common interest among the people you already know.

Anyone want to join me?

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I will join you.

I am also for a "Black Hole Off Topic Area" where more-or-less anything goes. And then a "Regualr" OD area. This way the powers that be can still show their teeth, and the rest of us can be where we want to be.

Anyway. Yes. Count me in.

I am down with the canoeing talk, but am only a "beach week" chess player and just think you made up the term Vedic math

I count 8/39 political threads, including pot decriminalization and evil katrina refugees. I don't think the number is that high. If you want to talk about chess throw a topic out and see who bites.

Censor less, contribute more.

I tend to agree with this. Something else that helps is not responding to intentional troll-bait threads. They just go to the next page forgotten if no one responds. I saw this happen two times last week on threads started by the same person, and it was a beautiful thing.

WOW...koop and I agree on something.

Censor less...contribute more. Or, another way to put it:

The answer to offensive speech is not censorship...but more speech.

Good for you koop.

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Not in this weather!

I see your point Mr. Kuan, and do not dispute its validity, however, it might be that without politically-charged threads, OD would degenerate in both membership and quality, significanty reducing the pool of potential interest-mates. I'm not sure. You believe that the elimination of heated political topics will increase that pool, I believe the opposite is probably true. You may be right, I don't really know...

I remember OD as being a lot more diverse. Perhaps not rife with posts of academic quality, but I remember a greater cross section of Mercedesshop members using OD. Maybe I remember wrongly, or maybe it's just wishful thinking.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

One of our members with a consistent track record of posting intelligent and provocative comments, recently received a rather censorious smackdown from "on high", and I haven't seen nor heard from him since.

Kerry's response to Hatt's question about the OD format was nothing more than an effort to troll and was treated as such by the Webmaster. His post unltimately resulted in the thread being shut down. The purpose of Hatt's thread was presumably to improve the community, and Kerry ruined it by interjecting his irrelevant personal political agenda.

I don't want Kerry banned, but his comment that time had no business on Hatt's thread.

Obviously, I disagree, but nevetheless, I prefer a hand's off approach to an "open" discussion area. If nabobs want to natter, let em. If someone doesn't like it, they can moveon-dot-org and take a well-deserved cruise to the fabulous vacation destination of Get-a-lifeistan.

Rather that clutter this place with the same tired-a$$ argument I have great suggestion for those so inclined--there's another M-B place where almost all that people do is whine and cry and ***** and moan. It would seem a great fit.

This is just imo but OD has never been the Webmaster's favorite. He is every bit as entitled to an outburst as the rest of us, especially, since we don’t pay for the site and all. I can only guess that he was responding out of frustration.

Kuan, I agree that a wider scope of topics would be beneficial.

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Damn, you're still here?