#1: Valerie Mates (valerie) on Feb 16, 2024

A while back I said that since this is a puzzle site and has people with a wide variety of different opinions, it's recommended not to dive too deeply into political discussions here, to keep the site welcoming to everybody.

I was aiming more for "please let's not have vicious political discussions that alienate people" more than "no politics ever." In my opinion, it's okay to have a respectful discussion where people realize that not everybody agrees with them, and where everybody stays polite. When those stay respectful and thoughtful, they can be really neat. Also, if puzzle authors put the word "Political" in the puzzle title, that helps the people who *don't* want to see it to avoid it.

Anyway, I wanted to run the question by other people: What do you think about allowing discussions of political topics here?

I would appreciate people's thoughts.

What do *you* think?

One of the discussions of political puzzles that I remember is the one on puzzle #31660.
Comment 31 sums up my feelings on this

https://www.webpbn.com/read.cgi?type=P&id=31660&sid=&what=all&start=1

I agree that adding tags to the titles of controversial puzzles would (or should) reduce argument, but the question then is: what is controversial?

If politics is held to this, then so should religion be. The worst dogpile on the site was on a puzzle about atheism

I think that if someone wants to express an opinion, they should be allowed to do it, and also they should take the consequences if others disagree. In a world of 2 people there could be 3 or more options. If I'm offended, I'lll express it or ignore it.

Thanks for the link, Joe. I like your cocktail party analogy.

I think it's fine to express your opinions about religion, politics or any other topic. What's not okay is belittling other people's opinions. You can respectfully disagree without calling them an idiot.

I am pretty sure I'm in agreement with most people here -- I think we can all use discretion for the most part and I'm okay with puzzles/discussion I agree with politically or not. My view was if there need to be stricter rules, I'll adhere to them, but I'm glad they're loose as long as we keep things from heating up.

WebPBN is a relative safe haven from strident discussions and I think it's a relief to see one I can agree with and I can brush off one I can't. It's a lot more low-key than, say, Twitter/X. I have places to go for political discussion when I want/need it. I think we all understand that we can expect WebPBN to be relatively politics-free but it can't be totally avoided.

I think as long as there is nothing egregious then it's okay. I might be frustrated with the view being expressed in the puzzle or the comments, but that's not a huge thing, as it's felt like a puzzle I didn't enjoy aesthetically more than a long-term annoyance.

Reading through the comments I'm a bit disappointed when I read someone whose puzzles I like has different political views than I do. But I've also seen puzzles I agree with politically, and the niceness there outweighs the bad stuff.

Another parallel example: I could do without the religious puzzles. But I don't want people to feel restrained/censored from posting them, if the mood strikes.

I think we can use our discretion and if things get out of hand and Valerie says knock it off, we can and will.

Goto next topic

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