The sort of colorful language you warn people about here is one of the things I most enjoy about the Elections forum specifically and the SD generally. You’re taking the fun out of reading here when you restrict the vigor with which people can present their political opinions. Warning posters about using hyperbole? Heaven forfend.
Have to agree. There was nothing against the rules here. Remember, the Election forum has the same rules as GD–and I’ve seen a lot worse in GD.
I think it was a good call. Those comments were completely over the top and do not contribute to reasoned discourse. If they were allowed to stand un-modded, the other side is tempted to respond in kind, and then the entire thread gets ruined with a nasty fight best conducted elsewhere, if at all. As it happened, no warnings were issued. Two posters were told to knock it off or start a pit thread.
In the interest of fairness, I’ll give you a chance to state upfront your personal bias in this matter.
I’m not a big fan of Mr Marley … a statement that I’m sure he’d wear as a badge of honor. His Mexican Hat Dance (God I hope that’s not racist) in GD is amusing at best… a joke to some. There’s a current thread re Tea Party/Occupy in wish he rushed to be the first poster with a not very serious post… that’s some serious shit for a Mod I’d think.
Perhaps GD should have moderators that are less inclined to participate themselves?
… and while I’m at it, is there any effort to put moderators in Elections that span the political spectrum?
Marley is Mexican?
That exchange is something that could very easily be found in the Pit – and that’s the appropriate place for it, not in Elections.
If you want to take someone to task for their political views or if you want to vent about figures in public office/running for office/involved in the political process, the Pit is the place to put those kinds of postings. Not in Elections.
Marley made the right call.
There is nothing more tiresome than the endless yammering of people who do not agree on political subjects and wish to bitchslap others as they express themselves. If that’s your thing, hooray for you but the Elections forum is not set up for that. Please read the forum description again:
If you wish to find fault with someone’s political views, take it to the Pit.
It’s a fair cop. I blame Society.
As one of the people who got modded, I have to state that I see where Marley was coming from. Not that I don’t also think he’s a jackbooted Fascist, mind you. But he had a point in reining in the hyperbole. It’s not like we got a Warning placed in our Permanent Record, or had our sins written down in the Book of Life. It was a minor Moderator bitch-slap. Big whoop.
Completely agree with the moderation. There’s already a forum where you can call your political opponents “worse than baby-rapers.” We don’t need two. As Silenus notes, it was a mod instruction. No one got a warning.
The main post at issue was this one:
I don’t think that’s merely colorful language or exaggeration intended to illustrate a point. It’s just disgusting, and I don’t see it as having a place in any kind of halfway serious discussion. I don’t think the only difference between GD and Elections and the Pit is that you can add “And you’re stupid” to the end of that post. There can be plenty of sarcasm and harsh criticism in GD and Elections, but there has to be a limit to the amount of sheer invective you can dump on someone else. That’s especially true when the invective is barely related to the thread topic. I would also expect a post like that to get an angry response from almost any conservative and many liberals and become a distraction and a topic of discussion in itself. We’ve had good debates in the Pit, but the comment is more in line with the kind of venting you get in a lot of Pit threads than something I expect to see in a debate forum.
To their credit, Inigo Montoya and silenus understood where I was coming from with that mod note and I think the thread has gotten back on track.
We’ll arrest them too.
A dial-it-down is almost always good modding because it is almost always justified. It was here.
But Marley, I command you to disagree with your modding. It’s right there in the title, an imperative. You can’t just dismiss that! 
I have no opinion about the original issue, but that statement makes no sense at all to me. How can you have an interesting “discussion of elections and electoral politics,” without occasionally finding fault with someone’s political views?
Well, this is kinda my entire point. If (or I should say when) someone is totally full of shit, are you supposed to ignore it? “Go open up a Pit thread” pretty much applies to every Elections forum thread ever started.
It is possible to argue without the level of venom displayed in this instance. It was completely unnecessary and way over the top.
I don’t necessarily disagree with the moderation, but it seems a little arbitrary to pick this particular piece out for censure. Because I am sure most of us could think of posters who come up with invective almost equally bad aimed at Republicans, Christians, and anti-abortionists on a fairly regular basis.
I don’t see how “Republicans are worse than baby-rapers” is all that much worse than “Republicans want to use AIDS to kill black people” or “anti-abortionists want women to suffer” or any of the rest of it.
If this is the start of a “kinder, gentler” SDMB, fine, but good luck phrasing the rules, and even better luck enforcing them. If it isn’t, picking this out and leaving the rest of it unremarked seems a little unfair.
Regards,
Shodan
I don’t recall seeing either one of those phrases in the Elections forum-cite, please?
Says the guy whose views were being castigated.
I’ve seen ‘Republicans [or conservatives] want women to suffer,’ in GD, which I also moderate and the same rules apply. I’m not sure about the AIDS one. The AIDS thing is an insane conspiracy theory and ‘Republicans want women to suffer’ is very extreme, but it’s a comment based on specific policies and it isn’t overtly obscene. There are situation in which I would tell someone to dial it back on either of those types of comments. I don’t think either is directly comparable to the statement being discussed here even though I understand why people would object to them.
Waitaminnit-you tell the Democrats to dial it back too? Whatever happened the left-wing liberal atheist board I used to help moderate, dude?