Hoax rule is not being enforced

[yaxomoxay]

I, too, used to frequent PRSI and no longer do because I now find it toxic. However, I cannot agree that it should be closed, for two reasons. First, many find value in that forum, even if you and I no longer do. There are lots of thoughtful people there who share their opinions respectfully, even if there are many others who are don't meet that description. And second, keeping PRSI means there is a place in which those discussions can be cabined. Without that section, people are still going to want to discuss those issues, but they will spill more into the main forum, which would be bad.

On the first point, I won't argue. It's very subjective. I used to find value, now it's just an attention drainer for me.

On the second point, I'll argue against it. While some politics or social issue will enter virtually any discussion (esp. those about art), removing PRSI will remove pure political points. While we might argue if the next David Lynch movie is about some sort of political statement, threads like "Trump is a Russian" or "Biden's bad Political Agenda" (let alone various conspiracy theories, or just pure insults) will not find a home, which will make posts and threads way easier to moderate.

Example:
Non PRSI thread:
"Have you seen the last movie?" "yes, it was clrerly about social justice" "yes it's a good thing" "no it's not because of this or that" "what??? your side did this!" (bolded easy to moderate, political and off-topic).

PRSI thread:
"This movie is about social justice" "yes it's a good thing" "no it's not because of this or that" "what?? your side did this!" "Trump" "Obama" "your fault" "no yours" "his fault" "In 1855 the Republicans did this" "In 1856 the Democrats did this" "Trump" "it's not true, Obama!". and so on. (Impossible to moderate because it's all on-topic.)

 

[QCassidy352]

Your examples are well chosen because they are particularly clear - the first is clearly a non-political thread that got derailed while the second is explicitly political. I think the value in the PRSI section is for a third kind of thread: one that is neither explicitly political nor explicitly not. In these times, covid threads are perhaps the best example. Any covid thread is going to degenerate into political fighting, but the topic itself is not one that should (or really could, given the effect of covid on everything, including Apple itself) be removed from the board entirely.

So without a PRSI, what happens to the inevitable (and necessary) covid threads? Such as, "Apple closes stores in CA due to covid" or whatever. Those threads become cesspools needing constant moderation because the topic can't be removed, but there's zero chance of keeping the discussion apolitical. (I suppose just having no comments on "political news" threads is one option, as happened last week. I thought that was kind of nice. But do that too often and you're really defeating the idea of a discussion forum.)

The other thing for me is that I can't see why PRSI *should* be closed. Those who find no value in it can simply ignore it, or actively block it from their feed. In what way would closing the forum be better than that?

 

[yaxomoxay]

Your examples are well chosen because they are particularly clear - the first is clearly a non-political thread that got derailed while the second is explicitly political. I think the value in the PRSI section is for a third kind of thread: one that is neither explicitly political nor explicitly not. In these times, covid threads are perhaps the best example. Any covid thread is going to degenerate into political fighting, but the topic itself is not one that should (or really could, given the effect of covid on everything, including Apple itself) be removed from the board entirely.

So without a PRSI, what happens to the inevitable (and necessary) covid threads? Such as, "Apple closes stores in CA due to covid" or whatever. Those threads become cesspools needing constant moderation because the topic can't be removed, but there's zero chance of keeping the discussion apolitical. (I suppose just having no comments on "political news" threads is one option, as happened last week. I thought that was kind of nice. But do that too often and you're really defeating the idea of a discussion forum.)

The other thing for me is that I can't see why PRSI *should* be closed. Those who find no value in it can simply ignore it, or actively block it from their feed. In what way would closing the forum be better than that?

Your covid example is a good one, but that would be a thread opened by the Staff, and anything political would be easily moderated. Right now, those articles end up being pro/anti-Trump (or Johnson, Conte, Merkel, etc.) specifically because being in PRSI all politics can't be censored as long as it's somewhat civil. Just look at the thread about Steve Jobs in the hall of heroes or whatever it is. In the span of a few hours it had to be closed, and its comments had to be deleted, despite it being in PRSI already.

As for why it should be closed, as I explained PRSI lots its raison d'etre, and I assume that MacRumors wants to keep a certain level of branding. As far as I know, it's also the only forum that truly risks to affect MacRumors in a negative way.

 

[QCassidy352]

Just look at the thread about Steve Jobs in the hall of heroes or whatever it is. In the span of a few hours it had to be closed, and its comments had to be deleted, despite it being in PRSI already.

Can't, I blocked PRSI months ago! Anyway, I appreciate the cordial discussion, and will agree to respectfully disagree re: closing the sub-forum entirely.

 

[svanstrom]

I, too, used to frequent PRSI and no longer do because I now find it toxic. However, I cannot agree that it should be closed, for two reasons. First, many find value in that forum, even if you and I no longer do. There are lots of thoughtful people there who share their opinions respectfully, even if there are many others who are don't meet that description. And second, keeping PRSI means there is a place in which those discussions can be cabined. Without that section, people are still going to want to discuss those issues, but they will spill more into the main forum, which would be bad.

But it isn't cabined there, and that place still needs moderating (but is exponentially harder to do in an impartial way, due to its nature).

With your logic accounts should never be banned either, they should just be cabined somewhere, and whatever people want to talk about they should be able to talk about there; no matter if it's horticulture or genocide?!

Somewhere the line needs to be drawn, and that subforum that you have blocked out of your life months ago should be on the other side of that line… It just doesn't fit in with an Apple-centric website.

 

[arn]

thanks for everyone's feedback. We're making some changes to start, but are looking at it closely:

Politics, Religion, and Social Issues Forum Changes (Jan 2021)

Hi, We are making some changes to how political (PRSI) forums work on this site. - The main PRSI forum is no longer open to new users. That means new and existing users who haven't reached 100 posts will no longer be granted access to the PRSI forum. Existing users are grandfathered in and...

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