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Huskerboard's Politics & Religion Guidelines


Enhance

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Hello all,

 

The following is an updated and summarized guideline of Huskerboard’s policy surrounding politically-themed content, specifically in areas outside of the Politics & Religion (P&R) sub forum, though not exclusively. If you have questions or concerns, please comment below or send a private message to a board moderator or admin.

 

No politically-themed content in status updates

Please do not share news or commentary related to politics, policies, elected officials, the president, or topics that would fall under the political umbrella. The P&R forum is the only place to share these opinions and discuss a candidate, elected official, or policy.

 

No politically-themed content in Huskerboard user profiles

This limitation extends to profile avatars, user names, signatures, and other forward-facing aspects of user profiles including those featured in posts and updates. Moderator/admin discretion will determine what is acceptable and what isn't.

 

Deference will not be given to ambiguity

If a mod or admin believes some element of a user profile violates any of the above, that user will be required to remove the violation. Refusal to do so in a timely fashion may result in the account being moderated and/or suspended until the violation is corrected. The account may also face a ban if the violation is deemed intentional, the user has a history of abusing this policy, or at moderator/admin discretion.

 

Only members with a minimum of 250 posts will be granted access to the Politics & Religion sub-forum

The limit is in place to prevent abuse of the P&R sub-forum, however, Board Guidelines will still be enforced to the fullest extent once a member is granted access. If a moderator/admin believes a member with less than 250 posts is trying to improperly increase their post count in order to access the sub-forum, the member in question may face penalties up to and including a Huskerboard account ban. Actions that may be considered improper include, but are not limited to, multiple and repeated posts in the 'Last to Post Wins' thread, multiple posts in a thread when a single post would've sufficed, or multiple posts across several threads that appear to be of no real value.

 

If this behavior is uncovered posthumously, after a member is granted access to the P&R sub-forum, that member may still be held accountable for their actions up to and including a Huskerboard account ban.

 

Why such a hardline stance against politics?

Most users come here for the primary reason of discussing Husker sports. The board has experienced situations in the past where political debates made their way into other forums outside of P&R. These debates often featured personal attacks or other board violations. Some members have also complained the political spillover into other parts of the board is a turn off. Keeping political discussions inside the P&R forum gives users a specific place they can go to discuss these topics.

 

As always, any political comments made in the P&R section must adhere to our Board Rules.

 

Thank you,

Huskerboard's Leadership Team
 

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16 minutes ago, Enhance said:

As such, since football season is here and this is primarily a Husker message board, the leadership team is requesting members limit their political/religious discussion to the P&R forum and keep it out of the status updates. What does that mean? For example, no more status updates on policies or actions taken by our president or elected officials. No more lambasting an elected official or another poster’s political views for their opinions on candidates or policies. 

 

...

 

Does that mean one can no longer say anything politically or religiously themed in the status updates? No. However, we ask each and every one of you to maintain good judgement when posting something. If you think what you’re going to post could cause members of the opposite political party to argue inappropriately with you, posting your thoughts in P&R might be more advantageous. Should a political/religious-themed post start to generate discussion in a negative way, a member of the leadership team will likely lock and/or move the discussion to P&R. 

 

A little more clarity may be helpful. 

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I think the main point is to stay away from the stuff that is just going to lead to bickering.  That can stay in the P&R Forum.

 

We've not trying to say that stuff like "Make sure you vote today" or "Asking for prayers for my surgery" can't ever be in there.

 

But stuff like "[Insert politician here] doing this again" or "If god was real he would/wouldn't ....." isn't productive, takes away from the main focus of the board - Husker sports, especially football - and many would appreciate not having to wade through that to find other information they really came here to find.  That can have a place in the forum where people who are more interested in those conversations know where to find it.

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While I agree with this idea, and will happily comply, I think "the main focus of the board" conversation should be addressed. HuskerBoard started out as a message board for Husker Fans, but it has, thankfully, branched out into a much broader spectrum of conversation.  On this board you will find good conversations about:

 

Politics & Religion

Food (Thanks, Roxy!)

Streaming

Computers & Gaming

General Life Stuff

Television, movies & streaming

A lot of general nonsense (which is usually entertaining)

 

HuskerBoard is no longer - and should not strive to be - solely a place to discuss Husker sports. 

 

We're the Wal-Mart of message boards. We started out offering generic goods, but branched out into grocery, automotive, sports, TVs, etc.  That should be the future of this board, with the obvious acknowledgement that Husker Football will always be the engine that drives the car.

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10 minutes ago, knapplc said:

While I agree with this idea, and will happily comply, I think "the main focus of the board" conversation should be addressed. HuskerBoard started out as a message board for Husker Fans, but it has, thankfully, branched out into a much broader spectrum of conversation.  On this board you will find good conversations about:

 

Politics & Religion

Food (Thanks, Roxy!)

Streaming

Computers & Gaming

General Life Stuff

Television, movies & streaming

A lot of general nonsense (which is usually entertaining)

 

HuskerBoard is no longer - and should not strive to be - solely a place to discuss Husker sports. 

 

We're the Wal-Mart of message boards. We started out offering generic goods, but branched out into grocery, automotive, sports, TVs, etc.  That should be the future of this board, with the obvious acknowledgement that Husker Football will always be the engine that drives the car.

I don't think anyone disagrees with that. I certainly don't.

 

But I will add that none of those other topics lead to as many issues as P&R content. And it's really ramped up the last year. I'd also say it's safe to say that the reports/complaints we get regarding P&R related topics is vastly related to status updates, because they're the easiest way to post to the entire board, and get the most eyes.

 

We try to keep this place as open and honest as possible, and I know that some people like to use HB as an escape. We also want to attract newcomers, and since status updates are kind of a "front door" into HB, the mod/admin team feels that this is the best way to keep a clean appearance on first impression.

 

I want it to be clear that in no way are we trying to pick a side, or tell anyone they can't talk about that stuff. We're just asking that we keep it in those forums in an attempt to help us minimize arguing & trolling on the front page.

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I agree with the intent and I think most posters understand that intent. But I also think some posters may struggle with controlling themselves within that intent. It has been obvious those who post political stuff in status updates just to illicit a contrary reaction or start an argument (trolling). That is what I believe is and should be controlled. But, I think in the end it is going to come down to mods and admins enforcing the desired standard. Most of us will be happy to comply....some likely won't be.  My personal opinion is, the less bickering I see about Trump, the dems, whatever political BS, the better. I'm fed up with it. I don't need to be reminded 24-7 what an idiot Trump is. Anybody who doesn't realize it by this point in time is probably never going to come around.  It is why I have not been active in the P&R forum and why I (for the most part) have avoided those discussions. I sure don't want to see it play out in the status updates, which in a way, is the public face of this board.

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1 minute ago, El Diaco said:

I agree with the intent and I think most posters understand that intent. But I also think some posters may struggle with controlling themselves within that intent. It has been obvious those who post political stuff in status updates just to illicit a contrary reaction or start an argument (trolling). That is what I believe is and should be controlled. But, I think in the end it is going to come down to mods and admins enforcing the desired standard. Most of us will be happy to comply....some likely won't be.  My personal opinion is, the less bickering I see about Trump, the dems, whatever political BS, the better. I'm fed up with it. I don't need to be reminded 24-7 what an idiot Trump is. Anybody who doesn't realize it by this point in time is probably never going to come around.  It is why I have not been active in the P&R forum and why I (for the most part) have avoided those discussions. I sure don't want to see it play out in the status updates, which in a way, is the public face of this board.

This is definitely one of the main reasons we came together as a team, discussed it, and had a vote before making this decision. Now that the season is starting back up, we get alot more traffic from non-regulars, so we wanted to have this new policy in place before the season started.

 

Going forward, we'll deal with those types of posts with less leniency than we had in the recent past.

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For the record, I almost always leaned towards continuing to allow P&R-themed status updates until some recent events.

 

I don't think we should make Huskerboard a place where Husker sports is the only topic worthy of discussion and I hope the OP didn't make it seem like that's what anybody wants. But, I think Saunders and Mav provide some strong context as to why this is the best decision moving forward.

 

Ultimately, most people find us because we're a Husker message board. I'd wager most people who find us through Google (like I did 10 years ago) were looking for a place to talk Husker sports and not food, movies or politics. That doesn't mean those conversations can't flourish, but I think we should be cautious about what we're presenting on the page that gets the most eye balls, and how that information is being presented.

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27 minutes ago, knapplc said:

While I agree with this idea, and will happily comply, I think "the main focus of the board" conversation should be addressed. HuskerBoard started out as a message board for Husker Fans, but it has, thankfully, branched out into a much broader spectrum of conversation.  On this board you will find good conversations about:

 

Yeah, perhaps "main" wasn't quite the correct term.  Perhaps "primary" would be closer?

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I understand the decision and don't necessarily disagree. But I do think the Status Updates do provide value for political events (not trolling, of course). With all of the crazy events that have transpired regarding the presidency, there are a number of Trump related threads. It is sometimes impossible to get caught up on all the crazy actions. I think the Status Updates help serve as a news notification for some, myself included. But I understand there is a fine line. 

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25 minutes ago, QMany said:

While discussing Status Updates, is there a fix so that when trying to open replies it doesn't have to open another page? We used to be able to dropdown replies and stay on the homepage. 

 

Still working on this.  It's now an add-on to the board.  I'm testing the process of adding a separate add-on (smaller scale) to make sure everything works correctly but something isn't loading correctly.  Once we get that figured out, we'll try to get the add-on implemented to "fix" the status updates.

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9 minutes ago, QMany said:

I understand the decision and don't necessarily disagree. But I do think the Status Updates do provide value for political events (not trolling, of course). With all of the crazy events that have transpired regarding the presidency, there are a number of Trump related threads. It is sometimes impossible to get caught up on all the crazy actions. I think the Status Updates help serve as a news notification for some, myself included. But I understand there is a fine line. 

 

I also agree with this. Sadly, I gather most of my news and heads up of current events from Huskerboard.  I just cannot stand to watch any TV news and I don't have the inclination to go looking for news on other sites. The handy thing is when someone posts that such and such happened in a status update and then I am aware and go search further information if I want. But, as you say, it can be a fine line between posting something factual that has happened and taking a shot at Trump or beginning to troll the subject. It probably comes down to wording, presentation and subtlety. And that's why mods get paid the big bucks ;)

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