Originally posted by Antipitas
I would have to agree that politics is somewhat of a bane and seems to digress quite quickly in many cases. Honestly, I've probably posted in L&P more in the last couple of months more than I have during the rest of the time I've been a member here. While I think that I usually try to keep my posts at least civil, I freely admit that when I see a statement that I strongly disagree with, I am likely to argue to beyond the point of being productive. In noticing this about myself, I became more observant of the posts of other members who are usually more reserved. This leads me to believe that Politics, like religion, is probably a subject that doesn't have a place on this site. I do however, hate to see L&P closed altogether as there is a lot of very valuable information to be gleaned from it. My suggestion would be to change it from "Legal and Political" to simply "Legal". This would still allow productive discussions (such as those seeking to learn about the firearms laws of a state that someone is considering traveling or moving to or the current state of a Supreme Court case) while eliminating much of the heated, and frankly counterproductive political bantering. I would also suggest that it be strictly enforced that posts in such a forum stay objectively on topic (i.e. answering the question at hand rather than going off on a tirade regarding the stupidity of whatever state's gun laws or simply providing information about the progression of the case without interjection of opinion). I would also suggest that such legal discussions are probably best limited to laws regarding firearms.
Let me start off by saying that the Legal and Political forum, in all probability will not be resurrected, in its current form. Politics has always been somewhat of a bane to the forum. This has been made extremely clear over the last year and a half.
I would have to agree that politics is somewhat of a bane and seems to digress quite quickly in many cases. Honestly, I've probably posted in L&P more in the last couple of months more than I have during the rest of the time I've been a member here. While I think that I usually try to keep my posts at least civil, I freely admit that when I see a statement that I strongly disagree with, I am likely to argue to beyond the point of being productive. In noticing this about myself, I became more observant of the posts of other members who are usually more reserved. This leads me to believe that Politics, like religion, is probably a subject that doesn't have a place on this site. I do however, hate to see L&P closed altogether as there is a lot of very valuable information to be gleaned from it. My suggestion would be to change it from "Legal and Political" to simply "Legal". This would still allow productive discussions (such as those seeking to learn about the firearms laws of a state that someone is considering traveling or moving to or the current state of a Supreme Court case) while eliminating much of the heated, and frankly counterproductive political bantering. I would also suggest that it be strictly enforced that posts in such a forum stay objectively on topic (i.e. answering the question at hand rather than going off on a tirade regarding the stupidity of whatever state's gun laws or simply providing information about the progression of the case without interjection of opinion). I would also suggest that such legal discussions are probably best limited to laws regarding firearms.