Reinstate political threads in AFF

[RSVKanga]

Australia has a society where politics plays a major part in everyday life, affairs and discussions. Unlike similar countries like NZ, the UK, the US and Canada, voting in Australia is compulsory and elections are every 3 years (or even less) instead of 4-5 years; politics therefore plays a major part in our society - polling and campaigning is practically nonstop. And when you combine that with compulsory state/territory level voting and compulsory (mostly) local government voting, Australians are the most politically active people in the world. In Australia, voting is a responsibility, not a right.

AFF has sub-forums dedicated to sport, cooking, lifestyle and technology; the addition of a heavily moderated and respectful political sub forum (with a federal politics discussion space and state/territory discussion space) would be useful to foster genuine discussions about our views on the Australia’s future and how we want it to be shaped.

I note that there was a similar discussion space here before, so it’s nothing ‘new’ and re-instatement is more appropriate now than ever in an era of constant misinformation and fear. So whether it be discussing the Brisbane City council’s rubbish collection policies, Australia’s relations with China or anything in between, it’s very healthy and ideal to have a space here where we can respectfully discuss our views on how we want to shape this country.

 

[elanshin]

Australia has a society where politics plays a major part in everyday life, affairs and discussions. Unlike similar countries like NZ, the UK, the US and Canada, voting in Australia is compulsory and elections are every 3 years (or even less) instead of 4-5 years; politics therefore plays a major part in our society - polling and campaigning is practically nonstop. And when you combine that with compulsory state/territory level voting and compulsory (mostly) local government voting, Australians are the most politically active people in the world.

AFF has sub-forums dedicated to sport, cooking, lifestyle and technology; the addition of a heavily moderated and respectful political sub forum (with a federal politics discussion space and state/territory discussion space) would be useful to foster genuine discussions about our views on the Australia’s future and how we want it to be shaped.

I note that there was a similar discussion space here before, so it’s nothing ‘new’ and re-instatement is more appropriate now than ever in an era of constant misinformation and fear. So whether it be discussing the Brisbane City council’s rubbish collection policies, Australia’s relations with China or anything in between, it’s very healthy and ideal to have a space here where we can respectfully discuss our views on how we want to shape this country.

I disagree with this. Politics can be highly divisive in todays world and whilst I understand that having open speech is good, it can foster dislike and divisions on a forum that ultimately doesn't have anything to do with politics. There are lots of other avenues where politics is discussed.

Imagine this, the Mods and owners of AFF has one view which half the veterans disagree with. You effectively would see them leave taking their experience and knowledge with them making the core function of this community much weaker.

Or worse the owners and mods have differing views and then the site gets held hostage over political viewpoints.

It's for this reason many of the hobby interests communities I'm in have the other subchannels you mentioned but none of them have politics.

 

[RSVKanga]

Imagine this, the Mods and owners of AFF has one view which half the veterans disagree with. You effectively would see them leave taking their experience and knowledge with them making the core function of this community much weaker.

Well if people did leave then they would be against Australia’s democratic system of government. Political disagreement is a principal pillar of our society. We need to embrace it, not run away from it. Running away from it, silencing it and censoring it only deteriorates the strength of democracy in a country like Australia.

 

[elanshin]

Well if people did leave then they would be against Australia’s democratic system of government. Political disagreement is a principle pillar of our society.

Sure, but this is not a forums for politics. Regardless of how you phrase it, politics is divisive and the gains here would be miniscule whilst the damage can be catastrophic level.

Risk vs reward does not check out.

 

[RSVKanga]

Sure, but this is not a forums for politics.

This is a server for frequent flyers, travellers and aviation enthusiasts - but then why do we have sub-forums for sports then? What on earth does sports have to do with travel and aviation? Doesn’t sports also foster division? Isn’t the whole point of sports to divide and fight, the exact same as politics?

 

[tgh]

Politics is a belief subject, as is religion.. should we also allow that ?
I would personally prefer more latitude to differ across a range of subjects ; otoh this is a very friendly and inclusive place to visit and my 50c says leave sleeping arguments lie….

 

[moa999]

I suspect it got canned because it was creating way too much work for the mods, as polarising and belief subjects can.

Whereas I suspect the other non-core threads require very little moderation.

 

[serfty]

Unfortunately, political discussion can become too polarised these days. The Moderation effort required becomes disproportional to the relevance of such topics considering this site being "Australian frequent flyer".

Here is the announcement:

AFF - Revised Posting Guidelines

Further to my announcement Reminder of our Terms of Services which we will now be enforcing more strictly (17 March), it disappoints me to report that some members continue to flaunt our guidelines by posting disrespectful, bullying, argumentative, and generally unconstructive comments...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

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