The "Top Stories" should be sorted as politically so that references to missing news are possible.

[con2apple]

What happened?
I was banned for two days. Because I had mentioned a political topic in a "neutral" thread.

Why is the ban a problem?
Because there is a clear contradiction here. The article explicitly mentions political topics, but pointing out missing political topics is forbidden.

Every week there is political news here because computer technology is political. It is logically incomprehensible to ban people for mentioning a global backdoor as important news while at the same time articles are mentioning p*rn*graphy in AltStore in the EU.

What is my suggestion?
The "Top Stories" have to be sorted as politically.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I hope some grace is shown by moderators as time goes along here, this year in particular.

Everything is getting super political in a HURRY (especially around tech) and folks are going to step on these lines inadvertently, with increasing frequency.

I understand the forum has rules, but there is also some sensibility in meeting people where they, and "the moment", are in the realities of society as they evolve.

 

[icanhazmac]

I have also been suspended for a political post in a non-political thread when the topic of the article was inherently political. I have referred to this as "bait and ban" in the past. There is very little consistency as to what articles get tagged and which ones don't, then they sometimes add the tag later.

Then we have absolute 💩 shows like the most recent Starlink thread. It was tagged "political" for some strange reason which allowed, in my opinion, about 80%+ of the posts to be off-topic, virtue signaling, insults against other members and even someone advocating violence against those that disagree with him (it was disheartening to see the number of other members that emoji agreed with violence). All of these things are against forum rules but it seems, forum rules were suspended for this article.

Add to this the current OpenAI article which degraded into another "Ooo, Ooo, can I mention Nazi's first" virtue signaling fest. What a mess, why not just bring back PRSI if you are going to continually allow this.

 

[russell_314]

I have also been suspended for a political post in a non-political thread when the topic of the article was inherently political. I have referred to this as "bait and ban" in the past. There is very little consistency as to what articles get tagged and which ones don't, then they sometimes add the tag later.

Unfortunately, this is going to happen with human moderation. You don’t have an AI that’s neutral moderating things so humans will moderate based on their own opinions. People now have very strong opinions so they are going to react negatively to opinions that are different than theirs. Moderators are real people so that’s just life.


I avoid politics on MacRumors and if it even is slightly political, I will refuse to debate on it because it’s going to upset someone. If I want to talk politics, there’s single letter platform that’s better for this. Use the right tool for the job. MacRumors is the right tool to discuss electronics and Macs. If you want to discuss politics, there’s a better tool for that.

 

[icanhazmac]

Unfortunately, this is going to happen with human moderation.

Agreed, there will always be a bit of play due to interpretation of the rules and I generally try to abide by those rules, but they seem to be in constant motion lately. Things that earned you a vacation yesterday, seem to be allowed today and vice versa.

This could be considered an evolution of moderation on the site but to the best of my knowledge the written rules have not changed, just the intangible interpretation.

MacRumors is the right tool to discuss electronics and Macs. If you want to discuss politics, there’s a better tool for that.

I agree, to an extent. I don't come here looking for political conversation but there are certain topics where it seems to be both unavoidable and natural. Examples would be the EU vendetta on Apple or American Tech trying to do business in China. I don't see how you could discuss these topics without politics entering the conversation.

What I would like to see are civil, tech related conversations, about satellite communication companies, AI companies or EVs that don't immediate devolve into "Oooo, Oooo, let me be the first to type "Nazi" as many times as I can in one post". It is 100% off-topic, childish and frankly dangerous.