Hi all and ‘Leaders’. We are a forum about growing fruit. So the Admin’s do not have to waste their time watching for comments that are inappropriate. Can we please get rid of threads having to do with Money, Religion, Politics. Can anyone think of any others? These topics bring out the worst in people. Please just get rid of these topics and lets stick to our roots!
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How does one just get rid of the topics? Things creep in, especially in Lounge.
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I’ve been avoiding a few thread starters who constantly want to creep politics into every single thread they started. I’ve had enough, I just don’t participate anymore. It’s like an ignore button, so far it works.
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I’m with @SoCalGardenNut . I can see threads going astray and that’s when I decide to save my time.
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Abortion, race, or sexual preferences.
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Agree 
Electric Vehicles- no reason for them to be on here.
Evolution- my theory vs your theory is all that will ever be.
Climate Change- unsolvable problem, or is it even a problem?.. no sense talking about it.
Current News- i come here to get away from the news cycle… and doomscrolling.
Hunting and Slaughtering things - has nothing to do with Growing Fruit.
Reddit exists so that folks can discuss any topic they want. It even has upvotes and downvotes to satisfy your curiousity of others opinions.
I admit to being sucked into controversial topics and my views and opinions were shared… because i tend to not be a lurker. I must have gotten a dozen flags from folks that do not share my opinion… what a waste of time for me to even type out my opinions… shame on me.
This is one of my favorite groups for growing things.
However…
I go to my other groups and reddits to read and learn about other things and hobbies that i have…
None of these off topic things would fly on any of my Facebook groups or my reddit groups about fruit growing. Your topic would be deleted.
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The only way this works is to not think of everything that can’t be mentioned. It would have to be topics related to growing fruit only. The only reason to mention the weather? How it impacts fruit. The only reason to mention green energy? How it impacts the growing of fruit trees.
Good luck with herding cats…
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it’s a complex problem.
I think there are some members that either intentionally will keep talking about such topics. Or do so without noticing themselves.
“giving” them the lounge might lower the need for them to talk about such topics on the rest of the forum.
But such topics in the lounge and resentment from them, does seem to propagate to the rest of the forum.
i.m. fine either way. I can choose to ignore the lounge or participate if i want. As long as the topics stay in the lounge it doesn’t bother me so much.
Outside of the lounge is more problematic.
I’m also fine with removing the lounge from the forum and just keep the whole forum strictly growing fruit/gardening related.
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Honestly, one could tie any topic to fruit. I think the mute button is the way to go if the topic seems to go off rail to an individual. Herding cats like to scratch. What’s offensive to one may be another’s lifestyle or work or beliefs.
Example, “ don’t you hate when fruit falls on the hood of your car and stain it? Does anyone have a good tips for cleaning cars, or fruit stains off the hood of my car. What kind of car do you have. I love those cars.”
Or “ when crab apples roll down a steep hill, that reminds me of bowling. Don’t you love bowling I love it when the ball rolls down the lane like crab apples, and runs into bunch of pins”.
Or “ I was buying a fruit tea at my local nursery the other day and it’s really annoying person was there. They stole my parking spot and they were in a Tesla.”
See herding cats. Personal mute of the thread is the only way that will work….
Yep, and putting users that continually rub you the wrong way on ignore.
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I’ve had threads on this topic get flagged and locked, even though it seemed like it was pretty related to fruit growing to me, since it might be a good idea to look at long-term climate trends when deciding what to plant (or what not to plant). If an area is expected to be much more dry over the coming decades, maybe don’t plant something that needs lots of irrigation? If an area is trending significantly warmer, maybe it’s worth zone pushing a few things? Etc.
But I’ve come to accept that even trying to have that discussion is too difficult because there are too many members that want to argue against climate science rather than discuss the ways the changing climate might influence growing decisions. You can’t have the substantive discussion because politics gets in the way.
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No need to modify the current setup. It’s very flexible and easy for anyone to just read the post they like.
There is a mute button so if there is something you don’t like it is simple to just mute that thread. We have various like and dislikes. The Lounge is a very useful Category for some of us. Those that don’t like the topics there can easily not read them. The administrators do a very good job handling posts that get too extreme.
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This is almost starting to sound like, if you ignore racism, sexism, pay inequality, etc etc it will all just go away. Ignoring it isn’t really the answer, the answer is to not allow it to perpetuate.
I’m not saying get rid of the lounge, but if arguments are continually overflowing onto the forum at large then there are only so many ways to prevent this. Some of the ways of doing this are:
Mods locking threads that create too much antagonism.
Mods suspending members that continually start controversial posts or making personal attacks.
Banning members that get out of line too often.
Unfortunately, this also creates resentment and isn’t popular with members who feel it’s a free country and you should be able to say/print whatever you damn well want to. The only real solution that doesn’t require constant moderation is to either shut down the lounge or start ejecting members that are continually stirring the pot.
IMO the forum should stick to what it does well, informing members about best gardening practices.
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Yayyyyyyy
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I find it ironic how Alan’s thread in the lounge where it should be was shut down and the people arguing against Alan made a thread in the wrong forum with this being growing fruit forum and it has been allowed to continue. Does this not prove Alan’s point and go against the point made here? The place for discussion other than fruit or the general gardening was supposed to be the lounge. Yet the lounge discussion gets shut down and the people arguing against him opens it again in the fruit growing forum with a vague title going directly against their own argument. I can see why Alan was not happy having put in so many hours as a mod and giving comments similar to a mod to take arguments away even after the fact.
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This topic should probably be moved to the “About the Forum” section? I guess anyone can move anything so maybe I’ll try that.
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So, delete all the civil and informative threads like music, solar power, tractors, tools, economics, etc in the Lounge because a few of the others get a bit heated? Sounds grossly unfair. If you don’t like the Lounge, don’t go there, nobody is making you.
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I would agree the climate is an important topic for this forum, since in some cases long-term is already here.
A beekeeping friend in NJ captured a swarm yesterday. The age-old maxim for us in the northeast states has been “A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July isn’t worth a fly” now needs to be updated with a new verse. “A swarm in April is worth a bucket of maple syrpil”? [grape swill?]
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Getting rid of 10 or 12 posters would almost entirely eliminate controversial topics. I submit that this would not be beneficial for the forum. Forums thrive on differences of opinion where people can respect the positions of others. I can see politics and religion being loaded topics. I don’t see any way to separate discussion of anything at all from money. We need money to purchase fruit trees, money buy grafting supplies, money to live, etc. As for sex, my trees refuse to give it up. I’m not even trying to train them not to.
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I agree that anyone growing food has the responsibility to be aware of the impact that changes in the climate will have on their work. It seems simple enough to report on this to each other without debate. If measurable impacts are consistent enough to require serious adjustments it will be crazy to ignore it.
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