[RESOLVED] Muting threads

[Octavious]

What's the method of muting the politics threads so that they no longer appear on your home page?

More importantly, if you've done it by accident, how do you undo it?

Cheers!

[Claesar]

I'd like to know how to mute politics as well! Asking for a friend.

[Octavious]

You miss it when it's gone...

[bo_sox48]

As far as I know, phpBB doesn't have an option available for muting entire categories. Did you somehow find out how?

[Octavious]

I've not seen an update from the Politics section on my homepage for about a week. Everything else is working as usual.

[Incrementalist]

Actually yeah, Politics updates are not showing on my Home page either. I assumed nothing was being discussed. I am woefully behind.

[Peregrine Falcon]

Yeah, jmo removed politics subforum from showing up on the home page. The idea is that it can be more loosely moderated if there's less of a chance new members will run across it and be turned off from the site.

[leon1122]

The idea is that it can be more loosely moderated if there's less of a chance new members will run across it and be turned off from the site.

Not like that will ever happen. The real reason moderators censor the forum isn't because they want to present some sort of friendlier image of WebDip to noobs. It's because they can't stand seeing opinions that contradict their own values.

[Incrementalist]

The real reason moderators censor the forum isn't because they want to present some sort of friendlier image of WebDip to noobs. It's because they can't stand seeing opinions that contradict their own values.

If that were the case why would they resort to the half-measure of hiding it, instead of removing it?

(NB: I like the Politics forum, I hope it is never removed.)

[leon1122]

The real reason moderators censor the forum isn't because they want to present some sort of friendlier image of WebDip to noobs. It's because they can't stand seeing opinions that contradict their own values.

If that were the case why would they resort to the half-measure of hiding it, instead of removing it?

(NB: I like the Politics forum, I hope it is never removed.)

What I'm saying is that they didn't hide the politics forum to reduce censorship. They removed it because politics is inherently divisive, and they want a "friendlier face" of WebDip. However, the fact that they hid the politics forum doesn't mean they'll reduce censorship like they say they will for the reasons mentioned in my previous post.

[flash2015]

It is great that "Politics" is off the front page by default. If people really want to talk politics here (there are already plenty of other places for political discussion on the web) they will find it.

[Octavious]

The Venn diagram of people who enjoy diplomacy and people who enjoy political discussion will have a great deal of overlap, and in the past webDiplomacy has enjoyed some of the best political debates from a wide spectrum of views that I have ever encountered on the web. That we are now hiding such discussions away like a crazy uncle kept in the attack is extremely disappointing.

[Kingdroid]

man, y'all love your hysterics.

People who want to talk politics are very good at seeking out political forums. I highly doubt them not showing up on the front page will dissuade you nuts from talking politics like you always do.

[flash2015]

Since we are now willing to hide threads, could we potentially get the Mafia game thread(s) off the front page too? When the game is happening, they are always at the top. It isn't very interesting to anyone who isn't playing.

[Jamiet99uk]

Since we are now willing to hide threads, could we potentially get the Mafia game thread(s) off the front page too? When the game is happening, they are always at the top. It isn't very interesting to anyone who isn't playing.

It appears you just want everything hidden. What threads *do* you wish to see?

[flash2015]

Since we are now willing to hide threads, could we potentially get the Mafia game thread(s) off the front page too? When the game is happening, they are always at the top. It isn't very interesting to anyone who isn't playing.

It appears you just want everything hidden. What threads *do* you wish to see?

I don't have a problem with anything other than the left vs right political trolling threads and the mafia game threads. Everything else (like mafia signups) is fine.

[ghug]

The answer, unfortunately, is probably no. The system isn't really designed to handle this in the first place, so customization is difficult. We could hide the forum games section entirely if a majority want that, but that has its own drawbacks. At the very least, we don't have the issue with the mafia thread taking up the entire front page like we did with the old forum.

[jmo1121109]

The answer, unfortunately, is probably no. The system isn't really designed to handle this in the first place, so customization is difficult. We could hide the forum games section entirely if a majority want that, but that has its own drawbacks. At the very least, we don't have the issue with the mafia thread taking up the entire front page like we did with the old forum.

I'm actually pretty sure I can quickly adjust this so that any thread title that starts with [NoPreview] will not show up so admins can add that to any thread they don't want seen, but there's a code freeze right now since neither reviewer is active so this won't happen soon.

[flash2015]

Thanks for the responses!

[Telamor]

Speaking as a relative new comer it was having the politics threads on the homepage that got me involved in the community. I'm new to playing Dip so don't have anything to contribute to discussions of meta and tactics and a lot of the other threads, like the steak one recently, have the feel of conversation between friends/acquaintances which can make posting in them pretty daunting for new members. Being able to see threads on topics I have opinions on, like gun violence in the US or whatever was going on in that 'It's ok to be white' thread lowered the bar of entry to the community for me. I found people I liked talking to and people it was fun to argue against. I'm not saying that Politics is the key to getting new players into the forum but maybe don't treat it as the enemy of the process either. There's a reason almost every corner of the internet has a place for discussing politics.