The FastDay Forum

Can the forum moderators list subjects not allowed in this section of forum.

Most forums have an off topic area and clearly politics is not allowed given locked thread of mine.

I feel the people in this forum are very intelligent as well as passionate about community interests so its a shame its taboo subject here. I guess i have to revert to the "I didnt vote for xxx" facebook pages to try and come to grips with things that may be afoot that affect so many people in this country

Well, I can kind of see both points of view, @juliana.rivers. And I think we may possibly also be bumping up against a cultural difference between Aussies and British people (and Americans too) - I believe (but please correct me if I'm wrong) that "risking causing offence" has a greater social sanction against it in the UK and the USA than it does here. Aussies are perhaps blunter (as a generalisation). All the same, it would be nice, if it were possible, to have some kind of a list of topics that were not allowed, so as to avoid scapegoating people in the future. All that I see in the rules so far are "prolonged fasting" and something that I assume means overly sexually explicit, but I could be wrong. Anyway, it's a great discussion to have cross-culturally, and it is hard when a few people get scapegoated for breaking a rule that hasn't been explicit til now.

[Debs]

Ladies, I will take it up in the staff area and come back to you. The feeling is that this is a 'health' forum and therefore is not the forum for politics, religion etc. Whether or not you think that budget matters are health related will have to be taken outside of this forum.

Until now, the mods have been 'hands off' as the forum runs itself quite well without interference, and although the subject in question met with broad agreement, it could easily descend into a a political row which is what no one wants here. The feeling was, that we hadn't really needed any sort of banned list if you will as people generally have self regulated, but we can certainly provide guidance if that is requested.

I guess there are plenty of other forums out there to discuss these sorts of issues. Deb

Thanks, @debs, that would be great. But at the risk of seeming argumentative, I'd just like to point out that we do discuss plenty of topics that aren't health-related, so that's clearly not the only criterion. Thank you for representing us, I appreciate it.

I think self regulation will stop any possible offensive stuff being put up. In any case, easy for a moderator to delete anything that should not be said or even ban a member if it comes to that. If someone finds anything with a question over it should probably contact Moogie or other moderator just in case. And there is a report this post tag with a ! on it for instant attention. Never needed to use it.

For example, racist comments i am sure will be quickly picked even if moderately so but i havent seen not one comment that was offensive and those that were related to perceptions of women's measurements.

eg as Jools7 said we do often talk about love, community, social happenings on this forum. its not often, usually if shocking eg. chat-f12/topic3569.html

I just love the community here and have found no other place to discuss things that have absolutely nothing to do with our figures, the scales, health or eating with "like minded" people, and i was really enjoying the discussion we were having in the "budget thread". I find people intelligent, respectful and entertaining... never rude, overly argumentative, racist, or evil.

Generally speaking I feel we all have a jolly time even if some opinions by others are not agreed with.

Indeed if a terrible thing happened in the future like the holocaust or tiananmen square then I would hope we can talk about it in the non chat thread.

Hoping for a rethink anyway.

Of course a lot of us have started to "hang out" lately too. Not sure how that's monitored. Last night I posted a photo of myself with two pairs of glasses on. I hope that didn't offend anyone

Sorry I'll get out of here...

Of course a lot of us have started to "hang out" lately too. Not sure how that's monitored. Last night I posted a photo of myself with two pairs of glasses on. I hope that didn't offend anyone

Sorry I'll get out of here...

you always make me smile @nursebean:-)

[Moogie]

Just a quick reply for now to say I'll be reading through the politics topic as soon as I can and posting my thoughts.

In the meanwhile I should say that there are no 'forbidden topics' aside from anything listed in the forum rules. It's more about member conduct and interaction. If a topic is turning sour - essentially a heated/nasty argument then we will lock it as they seldom recover when they reach this state. I'm not saying that is what has happened here as I haven't had the time to read it through yet to see exactly why it is locked.

Topics like religion, politics etc can be quite controversial and more often than not in my experience they tend to head south unfortunately - it only takes one rotten apple so to speak to fire everyone up and make things go bad. Again, not having read it yet this is in no way an accusation, just an observation from my time adminning forums over the years.

So, while these topics are not specifically banned, as staff we will take the action we feel is necessary to prevent arguments going too far and feelings getting hurt. As I always say, on a forum things can so easily be misread and misunderstood - one person's jovial comment can be read as a dig by someone else. There is no intonation, no clarity of intent. So, with delicate subject matters one must be extremely careful in one's wording in order not to cause a misunderstanding - or before we know it, the molehills on the forums turn into mountains and everyone's crying blue murder!

Usually when a topic is locked a member of staff will either reply to the topic to say why it has been locked, or message the topic author. Of course, we're only human and sometimes we may be in a hurry to nip something in the bud and forget to do this, I hope that's not happened here but if it does I hope we can be forgiven for the omission. Sometimes a topic is locked while staffers discuss the best possible way forward, again usually this will be indicated in the topic.

Haha, I say 'usually' as if we have a lot of problems here! I'm so grateful that we don't and we have such a nice bunch of members - such a fab community, which is why we're keen to keep things that way. Arguments on the internet seldom do any good at all, I for one have learned to walk away from them - spent far too much time in my teens arguing the toss with people I barely knew just because I felt I was right. Now I prefer to save myself the stress & annoyance and go do something pleasant instead

Anyway, almost time for my stupid warfarin now and my "nurses orders" evening stroll. Will aim to read through the topic later tonight, my apologies I've not had time sooner - today (actually this whole week) has been busier than expected and I'm pretty knackered!

I have been on online forums and yahoo groups since late 1990th and on some people get offended by certain words, on others it's the usual way of speak.
Since I'm not of the British, America, Aussie kind and that English is my second language and I have no clue what goes here, I do try to select my words in case I would offend anyone. Politics and religions I leave to other places since I know how much people "get their knickers in a twist" and that it poison the usual good feel.

May I say that this is the most sensible forum that I have ever posted on. It is very , very rarely contentious and most definitely supportive! In fact it's a life saver. All I can say is.... thank you.

thank you @Moogie, @woolfie and @auriga

I appreciate your detailed reply Moogie. I agree with everything you said. I did'nt think the budget thread that got locked was harmful, contentious or unsavoury in any way so was surprised of locking and indeed, reason given was merely that it had a political subject in that a budget represents the economic standpoint of a particular government party controlling the country's pursestrings.

This country, Australia is a wonderful safe country in my opinion, and indeed I just left from a conversation with a kitchen tradesperson that came from Iran and he agrees just how lucky we are here. If there are some Liberal did this, or Labour did that or Greens want this.. it's all very democratic and never with religious overtones.

Anyhow, using the budget thread as an example only I think we should be able to talk about matters of financial social consequence for people or where we may be able to express our passion about some political event, using self regulation on just what we say.