This warning is nonsense.

[Sunny_Daze]

@BlankSlate

If lynchings were still routine in America, it would be verboten in MPSIMS to mention that the perpetrators might possibly be racists. And pointing out that they committed their foul crimes at gunpoint? Heavens to Betsy, no! Golly gee, someone might get their feelings hurt. Not all mass-murdering motherfuckers are bad. Sometimes they’re white.

I think you left something out here… either that or I’ve learned whole new things about you.

Generally, if there are issues beyond breaking news that someone wants to discuss, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to start a new thread. The shooting in Gilroy was close for a lot of Dopers. I didn’t want to read a slap fight in that thread about which political outlook was more responsible. There have been other events with similar ties to our online community. If people want to discuss gun regulation, or politics, or how there are (or are not) nice people on both sides, it’s polite or kind to take that out of the news thread.

[kayT]

@engineer_comp_geek

After further consideration, this probably should have been a mod note.

I made it a warning because the sarcasm, partisan or otherwise, was likely to anger others (and based on post reports it did just that), but any time we have a shooting, the gun control issue and partisan politics always end up threatening to take over the breaking news thread. It’s still fairly severe misbehavior, but it’s par for the course with these types of threads. Hot button topics do tend to make people misbehave.

It would have been more consistent for me to issue a mod note instead of a warning, so after due consideration, I have reduced the warning to a mod note.

Thank you so much for this, engineer_comp_geek. Classy.

[UltraVires]

It should have stayed a warning. To use breaking tragic events to promote a political position is shitty to say the least. Whatever happened to the “don’t be a jerk” rule? That no longer applies to liberal positions, I guess.

This is what the board rules have become. Use ten dead bodies to promote a left wing tired political position, mod note. Comment on a woman’s body, warning.

[asahi]

@UltraVires

It should have stayed a warning. To use breaking tragic events to promote a political position is shitty to say the least. Whatever happened to the “don’t be a jerk” rule? That no longer applies to liberal positions, I guess.

This is what the board rules have become. Use ten dead bodies to promote a left wing tired political position, mod note. Comment on a woman’s body, warning.

People react to breaking news, especially if breaking news is part of an ongoing political debate, which mass shootings clearly are. You cannot expect everyone to mute their emotions and their passions in every single case just because something is breaking news. It’s like when people say “Now is not the time to politicize this tragedy” Oh yeah? Well if not now, when?

The rule makes sense in terms of keeping the threads clean, but this is an area where moderators should also exercise some judgment and understand that people will inevitably react - because they’re human and that’s what people do. Each case is different because the context changes from poster to poster and literally from post to post. If the Mod had just chimed in and warned other posters not to get political, only to be followed immediately by a smartass, then maybe that poster gets a full-on warning. But judge each case on its own, I say.

[asahi]

@kayT

Thank you so much for this, engineer_comp_geek. Classy.

Seconded, thank you engineer_comp_geek.

[kayaker]

@UltraVires

This is what the board rules have become. Use ten dead bodies to promote a left wing tired political position, mod note. Comment on a woman’s body, warning.

Yes, and?

[BlankSlate]

@UltraVires

It should have stayed a warning. To use breaking tragic events to promote a political position is shitty to say the least. Whatever happened to the “don’t be a jerk” rule? That no longer applies to liberal positions, I guess.

This is what the board rules have become. Use ten dead bodies to promote a left wing tired political position, mod note. Comment on a woman’s body, warning.

Thoughts and prayers for your spank bank. Surely there are other sites for that?

What are you saying, anyway? That only liberals are offended by mass murder?

[Sunny_Daze]

Only liberals are offended that guns were used (I think that’s his implication).

[Johnny_Bravo]

No, it’s that only liberals would be so crass as to try to “politicize” a mass shooting.

That’s their only move. They can’t even breath in the direction of any kind of gun control, so the only move they’re left with is to grandiloquently huff about 'politicizing these tragedies. Conservatives, see, they just want to respect the victims with their silence. Just for now. They’ll for sure get around to coming up with a solution. When, you ask? How dare you ask. Stop politicizing the issue. Support the troops. 9/11. Build that wall. Lock her up. Send her back. And stop politicizing the issue.

[kopek]

@engineer_comp_geek

After further consideration, this probably should have been a mod note.

I made it a warning because the sarcasm, partisan or otherwise, was likely to anger others (and based on post reports it did just that), but any time we have a shooting, the gun control issue and partisan politics always end up threatening to take over the breaking news thread. It’s still fairly severe misbehavior, but it’s par for the course with these types of threads. Hot button topics do tend to make people misbehave.

It would have been more consistent for me to issue a mod note instead of a warning, so after due consideration, I have reduced the warning to a mod note.

I can live with it being just a Mod Note but after reading through this thread I’m not as sure as some others that a full warning was out of line. At least in MPSIMS I would hope folks can run the basics of breaking stories or any nature with basically just the exchange of information and possibly sympathy without leading it into debate.