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Is it possible *not* to have political commentary in the thread titles?

Fresh update to the Haven's rules:
viewtopic.php?t=297515

I underlined the parts I find relevant to your question.

But you do understand my concern that people will misuse the rulz.
How many anti-Democrat Haven posts have you seen lately?

I am *NOT* a Republican supporter.
Neither am I a Democrat supporter.
I am a fair-play supporter.

I see no need to politicise the Thread Title.


RE: Do NOT post about it publicly!
That context applies to The Haven.
This is not the Haven.
Is my reasoning correct?

Last edited by Pepe on 28 Sep 2020, 5:30 am, edited 4 times in total.

I do understand your concern about possible abuse of the rules. Hence, the updated rules include a guideline for reacting to perceived abuse while keeping The Haven what it should be.

Repeat: I see no need to politicise the Thread Title. ..
Regardless of which side is involved.

Naming the trigger, even if political, philosophical or religious, is not forbidden in The Haven.
I suppose you may be thinking of a relatively recent event when another person expressed distress due to political situation and then things went bad. I'm horribly sorry it happened but I assure you, mod inaction back then stemmed mainly from lack of manpower in the team, not from political alignement of the posters. We want this story not to repeat itself, no matter to whom.

If you think someone may be abusing The Haven rules or using its special protection not as intended, PM me or any other moderator.

Agreed. Particularly, derogatory political titles, or any political titles should only appear in PPR or N&CE in my opinion.
As the rules stand as stated above, to my understanding, no-one can directly respond to or contest a thread in the Haven except in direct support of the OP (and rightly so) which should make titles relating to any particular political position unacceptable in the Haven. In the name of the neutrality and integrity of WP, that should be made very clear to those who wish to create threads in the Haven however sincere their distress is and I am by no means disputing that their distress is sincere. This is a thread that Pepe created to discuss this sensitive topic so I understand that my point of view is legitimate and pertinent in this thread as it has not been removed.
I also am neither Democrat nor Republican so I have no vested interest in politics in any form whatsoever, just concerned for this forum's objectivity and neutrality.

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the mods who are striving to make WP a safer and more politically neutral and tolerant environment than it has been recently, for members of all political affilations.

I think this thread does not deserve disappearing - I interpret it as a sincere discussion about the general rules applying to everyone.

I have a practical problem with demanding "apoliticality" of The Haven thread titles: the boundary between "political" and "general" is blurred and I wouldn't welcome endless discussions weather this or that The Haven thread title is or is not political, while the OP is sinking in deeper and deeper distress.

I do understand this dilemma magz.

Perhaps the solution would be just to avoid the inflammatory wording of the title? That may help.

But how to enforce it without sending a message "you're doing things wrong!" to the OP who is potentially already in a poor mental health state?

Well,
That can be fully avoided by making it crystal clear that the title should be neutral and non- inflammatory in the rules.

"The political situation is doing me in" rather than " <politician name> is doing me in "

Last edited by magz on 28 Sep 2020, 12:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.: I hope you understand ;)

I do know that people have been driven away because of their political views and their threads in the Haven were abused with very little objection from anyone in charge. That needs to be amended and loopholes should be firmly blocked by clear ruling in my opinion.

If the content of a thread may upset me, and the title is reflective of that content, then I will know to avoid it or mentally prepare myself for it before clicking.

We're hoping to improve this. Stronger in number, I hope we can. When WP had more moderators, some specialized in managing The Haven, but none of them was present this summer
That's why the updated The Haven rules have been published.

You need to remember that posters starting threads in The Haven may be in extremely poor mental health state, that's one of the purposes of this subforum. Barely functioning, sometimes hardly verbal, unable to handle criticism or conflict - the Haven should still be a safe place for them.
That's why in The Haven, the responsibility is on the respondents' side, not on the OP's.
If you believe someone is abusing this special rule for any reason, report or PM us about a particular case.

That's one way of dealing with it I suppose.

I don't think it will prevent potential abuse of the protection that the Haven awards in the future though.