A Plead to the BrosJohnson to ban the political threads

This thread has already proven my point.

I was just thinking about this on my run this morning. It would be a major step forward in improving the site.

No it doesn't. Not for me anyway. Maybe it's not compatible with whatever device you're using.

I think the reason trying a ban could be a good idea is that it would improve the level of discourse on the site. My mother always told me to avoid the topics of religion and politics when in good company. Believe it or not, it used to be considered rude to vomit up your political opinions for all the world to see. Keep your opinions behind the curtain and you'll find conversations tend to get more congenial. I understand the world has changed and we're apparently "better" and "more evolved" now, so we sit around and scream like babies about everything under the sun. We call each other wokes and nazis and whine about every injustice perpetrated on our precious ingroup.

The internet is flooded with political whining sites. Why not give it a shot and see what happens? I mean, Paulo's buddy figured this out like 25 years ago, and we're still sitting here dealing with the most trash conversations on earth.

This

If you go to the political threads you will see that it's usually like 5 people posting 1000x. and it is always just name calling each other Nazi/Commie.

I just think making the political threads a thing off to themselves, or just flat out deleting them would help move the site back on the rails.

If you keep the site cleaned up for awhile the running threads will grow as the political whackos will move on to reddit or whatever..

remember the general ethos the Johnsons want for the boards: A group of runners out for a long run and just shooting the breeze about whatever they want to.

politics are a part of that kind of chat on a long run

or at least they used to be...maybe now it can't happen because we hate each other so much.

I do think the mods should be very tough on mushrooming political threads...I think their goal is usually to delete any new politics thread covering a topic that should be on one of the big politics threads. And that's a good strategy. Just kill the new ones, force the politics junkies to 1-4 big threads. Everyone is happy.

I know, but isn't this similar to equating your wedding night with that young lady who recently slept with 1,200 men in 24 hours? I mean, it seems that we've lost all nuance, right?

The reality is that we're not on a long run with three good running friends. This place is a cesspool and drastically in need of an enema.

I get that but when it comes to politics/religion, message board "discussion" vs what takes place in real life are divorced from one another.

I just think this board needs a course correction. They could easily find that they are chasing away many, and eventually, all the quality posters that care about running and training. They are risking alienating their base customer/consumer.

For the same reason you don't come here expecting to see the board flooded with p0rn, and p0rn links, or other ridiculous stuff. You want to come here to find something tangentially related to the sport of running and track and field.

Can any of you honestly recommend that someone come here for information? I know I used to, but I cant say I would today.

yes, this is still a good source...just do a google search for a letsrun thread on any running topic and you'll find useful info. But to your point, that is often some very old threads.

you might be asking 'if I have a new running question should I come to lrc, post it live and do a q/a with responders.'

that's harder, but sure, if you are an adult, Kids...not so much.

You do understand they are currently taking up 14 spots on the main page and that's a low day right? I don't click on them.

No thanks. Letsrun is a safe space to vent about the horrific WRONGS being committed by the Trumptard administration. Without this site our voices would be silenced. We must resist ✊

But is the goal to improve the site or to get clicks? That's the real question and that's why the political threads remain.

I have a possible solution!

Don't know if the IT guys can do it, but....

Each registered user can put in their profile a list of words that would be blocked from their feed. For example, if the word "Trump" or "'Biden" is in a users block list, then any thread titles or posts with whose words in it, would not be shown on the user's list of threads.

Possible to do or not?

Here’s how you clean up the site and eliminate most of the bad elements:

1. All NEW THREAD submissions automatically get held for moderator review. This allows the mods to determine if the submission meets site rules, is appropriately tagged, is not a duplicate to an already approved thread, is not spam, does not contain sketchy links, or is a deceptive headline. IMHO, this eliminates 90% of the trolling and bomb throwing on the forum. It also forces the worst offenders to seek their attention and dopamine fix elsewhere as most are simply looking to anger people and then feed on the ensuing chaos. As an example, if the guy that posts horrible things about Nico Young never sees his threads approved, then he will very likely disappear.

2. Individual comments within threads can be policed as usual since the moderators can delete offensive comments without nuking an entire discussion. No change there.

3. Unless a comment is patently racist/sexist/bigoted, a clear personal attack, deliberately offensive, or based on debunked misinformation, then the moderators should allow it. If a moderator silences discourse for any other reason, that moderator should lose their ability to police the site as they have become untrustworthy. All civil points of view, and inoffensive (non-bigoted) humor, deserve to be expressed.

I do believe that these three points would greatly help to make the forum a more pleasant experience and a more useful place. While there might be a temporary dip in traffic, a more civilized forum would attract more users and better quality discourse in the long run.

whoever put the editors note in the OG post, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!!!

you know that the "running only" filter does not work. any thread can be classified as anything, whether it is accurate or not, but more importantly every single thread that makes it to a page 2 will have devolved into political BS, almost assuredly by the same couple dozen posters that live on this site and aspire to be trolls on the level of rojo

only 2 out of 57 threads on the first page were miscategorized? sure, based on the title of their thread, but what about THE ACTUAL CONTENT you numbskull?!