'Unspoken' forum rules?

Beginning to think I can’t tell the time

Oops midnight .

Goodness eloethan I hope compiling your stats wasn’t what kept you up till 1am?

As often happens on Gransnet, there are further claims that the politics threads are dominated by people with left wing views:

"A strong left-leaning contingency ..";

"The politics thread should really be re-named Left Wing Views".

I was fairly sure that these claims are incorrect but I thought I would just do a check to see. I looked at a few overtly political threads to see if what was being claimed could be borne out by their contents (On long threads, I didn't go beyond 10 pages)

(first 10 pages) The Truth behind Traingate (gracesgran) - new film footage claiming to support Corbyn's account of "Traingate":
111 ring wing posters
106 left wing posters

Interview with the Mogg (Baggs) - OP nearly a whole page posted in praise of JRM
(first 6 pages):
76 right wing posters
58 left wing posters

For Corbyn Fans (Baggs) - alleging similarities in behaviour and character between Trump and Corbyn:
(2 pages):
26 right wing posters
10 left wing posters

I Will Deal With It (anniebach) - Critique of Corbyn
66 right wing posters
61 left wing posters
(and in this one the myth that threads are left-dominated continues to be peddled "Blimey - can't we even have one Labour-bashing thread?")

Corbyn and the Centre Ground (anniebach)
5 pages
21 right wing posters
63 left wing posters

Momentum Are Getting Stronger (anniebach)
78 right wing posters
62 left wing posters

Voting for Corbyn - The Political Equivalent of Buying a Harley Davidson (kittylester)
78 right wing posters
54 left wing posters

I Love Sarah Champion (Baggs) posting link criticising "floppy left"
95 right wing posters
47 left wing posters

As can be seen, many of the politics threads are intended to be critical of the left and often morph into a Corbyn-bashing exercise. There is no evidence at all of people on the right of the political spectrum being reluctant to speak or being bullied. Sometimes people are a bit rude but that is certainly not exclusive to left leaning posters.

From Phoenix : "I have had the misfortune to be the survivor (NOT victim) of some lovely member who saw fit to print off a post and send it to my boss in th mail, "

I also remember that happening. It was a dreadful thing to do.
It may not have been a member, tho.
As we know, anyone can see all the posts on GN. And GNHQ even uses Facebook to try to lure more people in.
Some detail about the workplace was given and someone thought they'd be clever, but it needn't have been a real GN member.

I can!

Sorry, annie, but I can't work that out.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to talk with like minded people, there is much wrong with telling a poster - get if this thread ,bayou did this durhsmjen

How kind Marydoll and lemon, but my spelling is really bad , lemon you know how bad, I do the places one because I can check spelling for a place ?

I think it is the difference between a thread being limited in advance to like minded people and a thread becoming a place where like minded people tend to congregate. I have never been on soop's thread.

As it is political threads have become like soop's thread, places where politically like minded people share views, and those with opposing or different views are discouraged. This is why they are so tedious.

I remember a thread asking us why we came on gransnet, and I said to discuss politics with like-minded people.
I was told that wasn't allowed; it has to be a discussion between all sorts of people and how dare I only want to discuss with like-minded people.

Has anyone said that about soop's thread?
You are all allowed to discuss with like-minded people on there, but not on the politics threads?

Yes Annie, have a go, please. I'm always messing up the games threads and no one judges me.

Don’t let that stop you Annie have a go.?

I wish I wasn't such a rotten speller, I would love to join several threads, games, soops kitchen place,

All other threads on GN are great, support, games and our cafe/bar The Argy Bargy ( the best form of argy bargy on here.)??

trisher that seems a very reasonable argument. If you want to do something how do you intend to pay for it? It is a question I ask myself every time I want to make an expensive purchase.

As for being told your left wing views are wrong, that is the argument put forward from the other side as well 'their right wing views are wrong.'

It is the lack of of respect for other people's views and the tendancy to just dismiss them out of hand that make the political threads so boring.

My comment of ‘very true’ was a comment to Monica only.
I have certainly never read anyone telling you that your left wing views are wrong trisher and they are simply that, your own views.
Some posters,if you read through this thread, find the political pages no more than echo chambers, with a sort of ‘how dare you intrude here’ mentality.It’s been going on for a while now, and hardly worth the time of bothering to post on them.

Trisher, sorry but you want replies to the same questions so you can keep disagreements going , you have become most unpleasant which is a pity, you are an intelligent woman who has adopted the playground antics of another in your group

Very interesting points of
view - It can be difficult to hit the happy medium between being bland and boring and rather rude and aggressive.
I have sometimes refrained from posting personal matters in case of recognition.
I love to read the political threads but would never join in those. I tend to enjoy the lighter hearted ones and having a laugh. One thing I hope is I'd never be offended enough by anyone's reply to stay off GN - it's addictive!

Yes the aggression did start after the election, on this forum and country wide .

When I taught in an Inner London school my views were regarded as on the right of centre. When I changed jobs to Surrey, without altering my opinions one iota, I became the Left Wing Looney. Guess it depends where you stand as to whoisto the right or left of you!

I am a Tory spy! This is their cut and thrust discussion ?

M0nica I have often asked anyone of a right wing persuasion to explain their views and the policies of this government to me. I have yet to have an explanation other than that my left wing beliefs are wrong and occasionally remarks like "there is no magic money tree".
The loudest echoes lemongrove are from the right wingers who post things like "very true"

Very true Monica in fact, the political threads and anything at all about leaving the EU have really become just an echo chamber.

I think it is very sad the way the political discussions have been taken over by a group of left leaning posters who brook no opposition.

I enjoy political discussion and when I first joined such threads attracted posts from GN members from every side of the political spectrum and while discussion got heated at time we all respected other people's views.

The change occurred after the 2015 election.