Lethe
Captain
I think that political comments and discussions are inevitable given the subject matter of this forum, and that to stifle such discussion would be counter-productive.
At the same time I have occasionally been disappointed to encounter posts that go beyond criticising particular governments, policies or developments to express bigoted views about entire countries, cultures, peoples or religions. Unfortunately, threads here about India do seem to be the worst in this regard. It is probably true that the problem is worse in most other discussion fora, such as attitudes towards China on DFI or F-16.net or whatever. SDF is pretty good, with most posters able to conduct themselves appropriately, but that is not an excuse for complacency.
Beyond reporting particularly objectionable posts as they occur, it may be that the forum could benefit from clearer guidelines as to what is and isn't acceptable, but that would require moving beyond the current "gray zone" policy towards political discussion in the first place. I grant that it is not clear that it would be worth the effort. One idea would to have a brief reminder associated with each post as to the standards of behaviour that are expected. For example, in the text box for a new post you could have default text to the effect that SDF is a place for polite discussions between members of all nationalities and that bigoted content will not be tolerated. The text would disappear when the poster started typing. Or it could be in a post confirmation dialogue box or as a message that pops up when visiting the board for the first time each day. I think even minor, brief prompts like that can help people to step back and re-evaluate what they are posting.
At the same time I have occasionally been disappointed to encounter posts that go beyond criticising particular governments, policies or developments to express bigoted views about entire countries, cultures, peoples or religions. Unfortunately, threads here about India do seem to be the worst in this regard. It is probably true that the problem is worse in most other discussion fora, such as attitudes towards China on DFI or F-16.net or whatever. SDF is pretty good, with most posters able to conduct themselves appropriately, but that is not an excuse for complacency.
Beyond reporting particularly objectionable posts as they occur, it may be that the forum could benefit from clearer guidelines as to what is and isn't acceptable, but that would require moving beyond the current "gray zone" policy towards political discussion in the first place. I grant that it is not clear that it would be worth the effort. One idea would to have a brief reminder associated with each post as to the standards of behaviour that are expected. For example, in the text box for a new post you could have default text to the effect that SDF is a place for polite discussions between members of all nationalities and that bigoted content will not be tolerated. The text would disappear when the poster started typing. Or it could be in a post confirmation dialogue box or as a message that pops up when visiting the board for the first time each day. I think even minor, brief prompts like that can help people to step back and re-evaluate what they are posting.
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