@Parsad - Politics Section?

[investor-man]

@Parsad, how about a politics section? A nice place where all the dipshit lefties and righties can post their nonsense somewhere I don't have to see it  ;D

[rukawa]

I think that's a fantastic idea

[LC]

I think it's a bad idea. I would rather keep it to a few threads in the general forum, or wherever it is relevant to a particular company. A dedicated forum will just make more of a mess of things IMHO.

[petec]

A separate board? ;)

[Spekulatius]

A separate board? ;)

 

That would be my recommendation. I don't know why people feel compelled to discuss politics here - this is and investment board. Granted, politics and investment mix to some extend, but much less than generally presumed. Even Munger said, that politics don't matter much for BRK's business, I don't know why it should matter for us here.

[rkbabang]

A separate board? ;)

 

That would be my recommendation. I don't know why people feel compelled to discuss politics here - this is and investment board. Granted, politics and investment mix to some extend, but much less than generally presumed. Even Munger said, that politics don't matter much for BRK's business, I don't know why it should matter for us here.

 

That is a little naive I think, I'm not feeling comfortable calling Munger naive, but I stand by that.  He should be grateful that he lives and does business in a place where politics doesn't matter much, rather than some other parts of the world that could be mentioned.  The problem is that even if you choose not to care about politics, politics can change things which can effect your business.

 

[no_free_lunch]

A separate board? ;)

 

That is where my vote goes.

[PullTheTrigger]

I vote for a separate politics/philosophy board.

[Jurgis]

Could be called "Corner of Red Square and Pennsylvania"  8)

[KCLarkin]

That would be my recommendation. I don't know why people feel compelled to discuss politics here - this is and investment board.

 

Agreed.

[Kapitalust]

Agree that I don't come here to read up on politics - plenty of other websites, blogs, forums, avenues for that.

 

I think a compromise solution could be that there is a separate section of the board dedicated to off topic, "water cooler" topics that is only viewable and accessible to members. You can throw all the random, hot topic issues in there like politics, climate change, diet, favourite celebrities, etc, etc.

[Hielko]

A separate board? ;)

 

That would be my recommendation. I don't know why people feel compelled to discuss politics here - this is and investment board. Granted, politics and investment mix to some extend, but much less than generally presumed. Even Munger said, that politics don't matter much for BRK's business, I don't know why it should matter for us here.

+1 all the politics discussions here add zero value for me

[writser]

A separate board? ;)

 

That would be my recommendation. I don't know why people feel compelled to discuss politics here - this is and investment board. Granted, politics and investment mix to some extend, but much less than generally presumed. Even Munger said, that politics don't matter much for BRK's business, I don't know why it should matter for us here.

+1 all the politics discussions here add zero value for me

 

Agreed. As a temporary solution I have added the 'General Discussion' subforum to my ignore board list (I think this is a nice new feature). That way all the nonsense doesn't flood the 'Recent Posts' section.

 

However, there are some interesting posts in there so a split between 'General Investing' (that could include the 'Strategies' subforum, not much happening there anyway) and 'Off-topic, Politics and Religion' would be my preferred option.

 

But whatever suits you Parsad. Your forum. Just a minor issue.

[Viking]

People simply need to manage what they post (and their emotions). Politics, business and economics are different shades of grey. To try and carve 'politics' out makes no sense to me. When I see threads spiralling out of control I simply stop reading them.

[Jurgis]

A separate board? ;)

 

That would be my recommendation. I don't know why people feel compelled to discuss politics here - this is and investment board. Granted, politics and investment mix to some extend, but much less than generally presumed. Even Munger said, that politics don't matter much for BRK's business, I don't know why it should matter for us here.

+1 all the politics discussions here add zero value for me

 

Agreed. As a temporary solution I have added the 'General Discussion' subforum to my ignore board list (I think this is a nice new feature). That way all the nonsense doesn't flood the 'Recent Posts' section.

 

However, there are some interesting posts in there so a split between 'General Investing' (that could include the 'Strategies' subforum, not much happening there anyway) and 'Off-topic, Politics and Religion' would be my preferred option.

 

But whatever suits you Parsad. Your forum. Just a minor issue.

 

IMO, "Strategies" should just be renamed "General Investing". I never understood what should go there anyway.

 

"General Discussion" is pretty much "Off-topic" and perhaps should be renamed as such.

 

Not sure this will resolve the politics issue, since people may pollute other subforums anyway ( just look at "Fannie and Freddie" board - edit: dang I forgot that F&F board was already in this subforum  8) ) and IMO the issue is not that politics is off-topic in "General Discussion" but that it degenerates into flame wars and has to be locked.

I

[Nelson]

Why people who say they don't care about politics continue to click on topics that are pretty clearly political is beyond me.

 

And this is coming from a guy who tries to avoid any political discussion.

[Jurgis]

Why does moderator start political topic with rather incendiary post and then ... surprise, surprise ... has to lock it?

 

Sorry, Sanjeev, I get it and may even support what you wrote, but still...  ::)

 

We had pretty nice and quiet couple months.

 

For which I am grateful.  :-*

 

Peace.  ;D

 

Edit: just to be clear, I support any action/decision by Sanjeev. Not that he needs my support. Peace^2.  :-*

[clutch]

Why does moderator start political topic with rather incendiary post and then ... surprise, surprise ... has to lock it?

+1

[Kuhndan]

This is an investment site. Plenty of other options for politics.

[TorontoRaptorsFan]

It's a waste of time to debate politics on message boards.

 

If people are so concerned about making a difference run for office.

[matts]

My vote would also be for a separate board.

[Guest longinvestor]

Uberposters on political threads end up on the ignore list. Mostly for the reason I likely don't learn much from their investment thoughts.I can sense a strong correlation between the two.

[rb]

I know lots of people have different points of views about this situation but here is mine.

 

CoBF is not just a message board but more of a community. Moreover it is a community made of pretty smart people. Yes we're all passionate about investing. But as a community of smart people we have other thoughts as well. Sometimes it's politics, sometimes it's philosophy, sometimes it's how we approach life.

 

Sometimes these "non investing" topics can get heated. It may be my "European" nature but I think that that's generally what happens in a community. It's how you work through diverging points of view and hopefully learn things and evolve. On the politics side I can say that I've learned a lot from rkbabang and DTEJD1997 despite the fact that I have different views from them. On the life/philosophy side there's been so much interesting stuff posted here that it's impossible to mention all the posters.

 

In closing, I think that if you start to choke this line of discussion or that line of discussion you kill the community aspect of the board and with it its dynamism. Some topics can get heated. But I remember that the Valeant thread was red hod. Nobody suggested that be shut down so people can take a breather. But in the end mine is only an opinion it's Sanjeev's board he can do with it whatever he pleases.

[Cigarbutt]

I'm fairly new but here is my take.

Political and personal values discussions are helpful to some degree (think about topic, learn about the poster) but can rapidly become detrimental.

There is a lot of web-based competition in that space.

If possible, I submit that these threads should be closed before/during escalation.

I like the concept of a community. Rules should be loose but some red lines should not be crossed.

For those who like mud wrestling, other venues are available.

[rkbabang]

I know lots of people have different points of views about this situation but here is mine.

 

CoBF is not just a message board but more of a community. Moreover it is a community made of pretty smart people. Yes we're all passionate about investing. But as a community of smart people we have other thoughts as well. Sometimes it's politics, sometimes it's philosophy, sometimes it's how we approach life.

 

Sometimes these "non investing" topics can get heated. It may be my "European" nature but I think that that's generally what happens in a community. It's how you work through diverging points of view and hopefully learn things and evolve. On the politics side I can say that I've learned a lot from rkbabang and DTEJD1997 despite the fact that I have different views from them. On the life/philosophy side there's been so much interesting stuff posted here that it's impossible to mention all the posters.

 

In closing, I think that if you start to choke this line of discussion or that line of discussion you kill the community aspect of the board and with it its dynamism. Some topics can get heated. But I remember that the Valeant thread was red hod. Nobody suggested that be shut down so people can take a breather. But in the end mine is only an opinion it's Sanjeev's board he can do with it whatever he pleases.

 

+1.  I don't think it is necessarily politics per se that is the problem, it is when people get rude and mean.  It should be possible to discuss any topic civilly.  What distinguishes politics is that it tends to bring out emotional responses, but that doesn't mean that a bunch of intelligent adults can't keep their emotions in check to have a reasonable discussion.  I don't blame Sanjeev for locking many of the topics he has locked.  The board is working fairly well IMHO.  Things can be discussed with minimal to no moderation, but Sanjeev steps in and locks topics only when people start getting out of hand.  I'd vote for no changes, except maybe people could make a conscious effort to be more civil when they post.  Re-read what you write before hitting post and make sure there are no ad hominem attacks and that you are focusing completely on ideas rather than attacking the other members personally.