MacRumors Political Ghetto: double standard

[IlluminatedSage]

After a main page article covering IOS and COVID-19 was posted, it was an invitation for people to discuss, but apparently only in approved ways.

The topic was political and invited a friendly response. so I did. it was deleted and was told to go post in political section, but not where people were talking about the digital vaccine mandate software. which to many is controversial. Arn then shut down the discussion for commentary of any kind.

Just have to say to everyone here, as a long time user of this site, 20+ years, I find this offensive. People need to be able to respond to things when things are posed and silencing via censorship is wrong.

Censorship is the new book burning and it is wrong on every level. I stand by that and believe this site needs to be more open. or we can find other venues. I may.

The site had a politically set topic and don't allow even modest comments? Then lay waiting for people to comment, delete even very light comments?

This does not pass the scratch and sniff test. freedom and individual rights are impacted by Covid passports. Anyone who thinks people are going to sit idle as their rights are stripped away, via neat little apps or digital passes, just doesn't get it.

And yes, was nice and polite regardless. never mind the double standard ...

 

[Pakaku]

On the one hand, "censorship" isn't really applicable to private non-government websites with their own house rules. Sites like Macrumors are free to enforce their rules however they want, handled well or handled poorly

On the other hand, if there are going to be political topics on this website... I don't disagree that opening discussion and then backpedalling is not really handling things in the best way

 

[nathansz]

After a main page article covering IOS and COVID-19 was posted, it was an invitation for people to discuss, but apparently only in approved ways.

The topic was political and invited a friendly response. so I did. it was deleted and was told to go post in political section, but not where people were talking about the digital vaccine mandate software. which to many is controversial. Arn then shut down the discussion for commentary of any kind.

Just have to say to everyone here, as a long time user of this site, 20+ years, I find this offensive. People need to be able to respond to things when things are posed and silencing via censorship is wrong.

Censorship is the new book burning and it is wrong on every level. I stand by that and believe this site needs to be more open. or we can find other venues. I may.

The site had a politically set topic and don't allow even modest comments? Then lay waiting for people to comment, delete even very light comments?

This does not pass the scratch and sniff test. freedom and individual rights are impacted by Covid passports. Anyone who thinks people are going to sit idle as their rights are stripped away, via neat little apps or digital passes, just doesn't get it.

And yes, was nice and polite regardless. never mind the double standard ...

there is the political news forum where they let people post pretty much anything so long as you stay on topic and don’t get personal

otherwise it’s a private website so they can do with it want they want

indeed if you dislike it you are welcome to go elsewhere

 

[arn]

We've discussed this privately, but I'll address this publicly for those following along.

Politics are a contentious issue, now more than ever. Also more topics have veered into politics as well. We tried to offer general political discussion on any topic, but it caused many complaints over the years and accusations of unfair-ness. After much discussion, that ended with our closing of our general political forums.

We've left Apple-related political news discussions open for the time being. These are linked to stories that are relevant enough to Apple that we don't feel like we can avoid them. There are three current options for stories like that.

- Political News Forum. Only users who have a minimum number of posts may reply. Politics is allowed. Though there are civility rules and normal rules are in place, the moderators aren't responsible for fact-checking which is what some would like us to do. Practically, I don't see it as an option.

- Disabled comments. Stories have no comment thread available. We have done this from time to time. Not ideal, but removes the issue.

- Non-political discussion. This story seemed a good candidate for it. It had to do with a digital vaccine card. It did not directly have to do with government imposed mandates or anything related. If you want to verify your vaccination status for whatever reason, you could now through Apple Wallet. We tightly moderated the thread so any posts about politics, no matter which direction politically, were removed and the user was notified that politics are not allowed in non-politics forums. Obviously judgement calls had to be made.

There's no real option that will make everyone happy. And when people get moderated they seem to think it was because of their specific point-of-view and not the broader "no politics" rule.

It remains a work in progress.

On the other hand, if there are going to be political topics on this website... I don't disagree that opening discussion and then backpedalling is not really handling things in the best way

It wasn't necessarily a political topic, or didn't have to be. I think the resulting non-political discussion was actually good quality and provided assistance to people who wanted to use it for whatever reason. If we had put it in political news, I suspect it would have been mostly about vaccine politics rather than implementation questions and issues.

 

[bpeeps]

I've followed along with this saga since the beginning, voicing my frustrations along the way. But this is the clearest explanation of politics, moderation, and judgement calls I think we've ever gotten. I really do appreciate that.

 

[mw360]

That news thread was one of the best news threads I’ve read for a while. Polite and informative. I thought the mods did a great job keeping it clean of politics and the snarky ‘innocent’ one-liners and this whole ignorant culture war that’s ruining everything. I don’t see what’s the double standard if all political commentary is deleted. It’s a relief to have political comments deleted. I’ve had my own comments deleted in the past, but I don’t cry about it, I accept that the person moderating my comment gave a lot more thought to it’s appropriateness than I did when I posted it.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

We obviously disagree.

As a tech morality question, should IBM have turned a blind eye to all of nazi Germany and their health passports? the answer to this is no.

In case you people do not understand the 10 stages of genocide. If you are unaware: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are all in effect now. 7 is in process of being planned and staged.

If people's sensibilities are to be nice and polite regardless of the rights being destroyed, it is wrong on every level. Are you happy a smartphone can be used to ID those who have and haven't done (Fill in the blank), so send them off to a gov't concentration/covid camp?

Yes, this is stirring the pot as sadly the slippery slope of this is lost on many.

 

[arn]

Again, politics are not a topic that is allowed in non-political forums.

Same with porn. If you post porn and we delete it, we are deleting it because we don’t allow porn, not because we don’t agree with your specific taste in porn.

locked because diving towards politics.