We have noticed an increase in disruptive political discussions that is taking more and more of the oxygen out of this forum. While we are all for community building outside of our core topics of car shopping and deal discovery – we love our Off-Ramp threads – we find these political discussions counter-productive. We ask everyone to refrain from engaging in political discussions on the site so we can continue to build a productive and fun space for our members who have come here to leasehack and help each other with personal finance.
We are updating our Moderation Guidelines accordingly. Thank you for keeping Leasehackr a constructive and respectful place for learning and sharing.
Thanks for the update, but why not a general and “confined to that thread only” Off-Ramp thread? If the discourse is respectful without hate speech and name-calling, and monitored for content, then how is that a problem?
That’s where actual, impartial and competent moderation vs. thread locking and landfilling comes in.
Those members that can’t play nicely get progressive discipline of 1 week, 30 day and 6 month bans before getting tossed for good. Adults get to act like adults and the children get the boot.
No rocket science is involved, and it works well for thousands of other forums.
Hard to argue with that, but mods are the same people and their judgment differs the same way as our opinions. So who’s there to decide other than V&M? So, they made the decision.
In the traditional forum sense, LV/M are Site Owners/Admins and not Mods. Trusted Hackers are not true Mods but have some privileges that look like Mods but they really aren’t.
Clutch was banned for alleged business practice issues and Eric and Logi were permanently banned when all three bans should have been progressive (although Clutch’s sort of was) as a warning to them and others.
There are no actual “Mods” on LHer, and therein lies the issue. This affects the “all or nothing” status of a LHer that only really ends when LV/M get involved - and by then the damage is widespread.
I agree with DailyDriven. Why not allow an area for it? Several other forums do. Its clear LH has several members that enjoy talking about many things including politics and from what I see, most appear to keep it based on the topic than personal attacks or name calling. Some basic rules and warnings/suspensions should make it pretty easy to manage.
Yeah that’s not borne out by the evidence at all. Maybe you’ve only been seeing threads after they’ve been cleaned up.
TBH it’s really naive to think LH would be any different from the divisive dynamic that plays out in every other forum / social media platform that discusses politics.
There are plenty of places online for soapbox seekers and dueling echo chambers that shout over each other.
Exactly, this isn’t Reddit and that is why it would work. Being a Mod is not difficult with progressive ban tools available and having 5-10 Mods makes it even easier.
You make it sound like it is so cut and dry when it isn’t.
So many topics drift into related discussions and then get locked or landfilled by that black and white mentality. The easy solution is to move it into a new and dedicated “anything goes” thread that isn’t a landfill dump that always ends the discussion as soon as the posts are moved.
Again - what makes you think that everyone will agree with your proposed bans when there are always disagreements on slow mode, landfilling and closing? Like I said, even trusteds can’t always agree on their actions. It’s either political discussions not allowed or anything goes. There is no alternative.
They don’t have to agree, they are not Mods and Mods are entrusted to hand out the ban of 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 6 months or forever.
So what? Any Mod that is empowered to act is empowered to act. It doesn’t need to be a democracy of Mods, and if a Mod is using the ban inappropriately they get the boot as a Mod.
What? That is more of the black and white, lazy attitude that is an easy out. It would be moderated so indeed it is not all or nothing.
Again, the easy way out for sure. It is pretty clear that some on LHer don’t like what is being said as far as politics, economics and other social issues - but again, so what? You also may not agree with leasing advice being given, but how many times do the same 5 or 6 people on LHer in essence call a new member a dumbass for their lease proposal or deal the new guy/gal signs? How is that any different as far as de facto name calling and abuse, or disagreement on those other issues? Why aren’t those posts landfilled or having their authors banned for being “unkind” or whatever?
Fearing that you can’t keep up with a discussion isn’t a reason to silence it, and let’s please stop the overreacting and melodrama, as we aren’t talking about discussions of dark web content, drug sales and contract hit proposals after all.
Another checkmark for the dumbing down of adulthood and a nanny state win.
I’ll try to make it simple for you: what’s white for Max may be black for you and another Trusted like Trism. Then what? We are back to the same mess because there will never be agreement on what is white and what is black. Moderation is always subjective.
P.S. Mods = Trusteds, in the current set up. Even if it changes, the issue is still the same.
We need to be able to discuss policy related to interest rates and tax credits etc related to vehicles. That’s usually what starts any political discourse/arguments here in the first place. I think we all need to agree to not take it to the next level of insulting others, or getting off topic. Yes I’m guilty of going on tangents as well…usually immediately offramped. Banning anything political will be impossible tho. We need to ban/suspend people not being civil to each other, or staying on topic.
