The Nemesis
Semper Tyrannus
Hey everyone,
If you were on here earlier you no doubt saw the post and resultant thread of discussion regarding Logan Couture's tweet early this morning.
In the interest of full disclosure and reporting on news items, this is the tweet in question:
And here is a San Jose Mercury News article detailing what happened in a little bit broader scope:
Logan Couture mentions Donald Trump, GOP, gets punched
This is about a hockey figure and is thus newsworthy within the scope of this website.
However, the previous thread quickly turned from discussion of the issue itself into a referendum on the nature of political support, identifying with a party, how much supporting a party's broader or unrelated ideologies (ie economic policies) can be inexorably tied to supporting its presidential candidate and the public perception or social climate he generates, and some (thankfully minimal) criticism and potentially borderline flaming against posters on both sides of the issue for their stance.
In that regard, HFBoards' site rules clearly disallow political discussion:
Yes, we used to have a politics board. But it became untenable as it grew more and more into a toxic hellstorm of inappropriate, confrontational, and offensive posts that sidestepped real discussion about the topics at hand in favor of everyone just slinging insults at each other for not thinking the same way. So it got to the point that the moderators simply couldn't devote the time or effort necessary to monitor that thread and still be free to take care of the rest of the site and use it as posters. And so it was removed and politics became a non-starter across the entire site outside of very specific hockey-related topics (and only open for discussion within the hockey-related scope)
I recognize that the posters who participated in the previous thread on this were doing a decent job at avoiding the worst aspects of such discussion, but we simply can't allow it in any situation because it's far too likely to fall apart and because if we start allowing it sometimes, it opens up can of worms about "Well if we allow it about this, then why not about that?"
To that end, this thread will remain locked as both a moderator statement on the topic and a brief outline of the incident as it pertains to the Sharks and hockey. If there are more updates they will be posted here.
if you find a news article or tweet or the like that gives updates on the matter, PM me and I can append it to this thread.
Do not start a new thread about it. Do not put it in the Sharks news/notes thread. Please respect that this is the site's stance on the matter and that we have to abide by it. If there is additional hockey related material that warrants hockey-related discussion we may allow an open thread on that matter if it's tightly controlled to stay on topic and within bounds. But we'll cross that bridge if or when we come to it.
And to anyone that wants to argue freedom of speech/expression in light of this discussion being shut down:
I hope you understand why this matter is having to be handled this way and can respect that this is the only way that it can be allowed to be handled. And we as moderators thank you for abiding by it and respecting everyone's right to enjoy and use this site without grief. And generally for usually being an awesome group of posters who make HFSJ an enjoyable, welcoming, and civil corner of this site mostly free of incidents that require such heavy moderator intervention.
If you were on here earlier you no doubt saw the post and resultant thread of discussion regarding Logan Couture's tweet early this morning.
In the interest of full disclosure and reporting on news items, this is the tweet in question:
And here is a San Jose Mercury News article detailing what happened in a little bit broader scope:
Logan Couture mentions Donald Trump, GOP, gets punched
This is about a hockey figure and is thus newsworthy within the scope of this website.
However, the previous thread quickly turned from discussion of the issue itself into a referendum on the nature of political support, identifying with a party, how much supporting a party's broader or unrelated ideologies (ie economic policies) can be inexorably tied to supporting its presidential candidate and the public perception or social climate he generates, and some (thankfully minimal) criticism and potentially borderline flaming against posters on both sides of the issue for their stance.
In that regard, HFBoards' site rules clearly disallow political discussion:
Terms of Service and Rules | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League
4) Threadjacking/OT/Politics: Posts that waste space or time on the site, annoy users due to characteristics or repetition, disrupt the site functionality, or cause threads to veer off topic may be considered “threadjacking/OT”. This also applies to signatures, user titles, avatars, profile fields, and so forth. Stay on topic as much as possible. Post new threads in the appropriate forum only. Political discussion is not permitted on the forums except within the narrowly defined scope of hockey-related matters.
Yes, we used to have a politics board. But it became untenable as it grew more and more into a toxic hellstorm of inappropriate, confrontational, and offensive posts that sidestepped real discussion about the topics at hand in favor of everyone just slinging insults at each other for not thinking the same way. So it got to the point that the moderators simply couldn't devote the time or effort necessary to monitor that thread and still be free to take care of the rest of the site and use it as posters. And so it was removed and politics became a non-starter across the entire site outside of very specific hockey-related topics (and only open for discussion within the hockey-related scope)
I recognize that the posters who participated in the previous thread on this were doing a decent job at avoiding the worst aspects of such discussion, but we simply can't allow it in any situation because it's far too likely to fall apart and because if we start allowing it sometimes, it opens up can of worms about "Well if we allow it about this, then why not about that?"
To that end, this thread will remain locked as both a moderator statement on the topic and a brief outline of the incident as it pertains to the Sharks and hockey. If there are more updates they will be posted here.
if you find a news article or tweet or the like that gives updates on the matter, PM me and I can append it to this thread.
Do not start a new thread about it. Do not put it in the Sharks news/notes thread. Please respect that this is the site's stance on the matter and that we have to abide by it. If there is additional hockey related material that warrants hockey-related discussion we may allow an open thread on that matter if it's tightly controlled to stay on topic and within bounds. But we'll cross that bridge if or when we come to it.
And to anyone that wants to argue freedom of speech/expression in light of this discussion being shut down:
Freedom of speech or expression is the right of people to say most things (excluding things that would otherwise be illegal like hate speech, defamation, true threats, etc.) without being arrested or detained by the government for it. It does not mean that you are free to say or do what you will without consequences of any kind. And it does not mean that private companies cannot control what is and isn't allowed to be said by their employees or through the use of their platform if they have one (such as twitter or this site).
HFBoards, as a privately owned and operated part of Mandatory/Evolve Media, LLC, is within its right to disallow political discussion. As someone who signed up to use an account on this site, you agreed to abide by the site rules, including the disallowing of such discussion. Even if you never actually read the rules, your acceptance of them was required as part of making your account and thus you are bound by them just the same. As a result, your free speech is not being violated by HF's refusal to allow posts regarding political topics to stand without censure/censor.
HFBoards, as a privately owned and operated part of Mandatory/Evolve Media, LLC, is within its right to disallow political discussion. As someone who signed up to use an account on this site, you agreed to abide by the site rules, including the disallowing of such discussion. Even if you never actually read the rules, your acceptance of them was required as part of making your account and thus you are bound by them just the same. As a result, your free speech is not being violated by HF's refusal to allow posts regarding political topics to stand without censure/censor.
I hope you understand why this matter is having to be handled this way and can respect that this is the only way that it can be allowed to be handled. And we as moderators thank you for abiding by it and respecting everyone's right to enjoy and use this site without grief. And generally for usually being an awesome group of posters who make HFSJ an enjoyable, welcoming, and civil corner of this site mostly free of incidents that require such heavy moderator intervention.
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