UrsusArctos wrote:Keep all talk about Ebola, ISIS and politics out of this thread, please.

Well, it is definitely news, and I don't exactly think it's all that divisive. I mean, I'm pretty sure the opinion on ISIS is pretty unanimous (IE: they're scum).

You heard it here first folks: The largest outbreak of Ebola in history? NOT NEWS

UrsusArctos wrote:Keep all talk about Ebola, ISIS and politics out of this thread, please.

why

UrsusArctos wrote:Keep all talk about Ebola, ISIS and politics out of this thread, please.

Ebola, out of all things, is definitely news. I would ask the administration to reconsider before deeming it a nondiscussable topic, or to at least reveal the reasoning behind such a decision to us. Also, with all the interesting things happening with regard to ISIS, I would ask that discussion of the topic likewise not be censored.

UrsusArctos wrote:Keep all talk about Ebola, ISIS and politics out of this thread, please.

Millions of people could potentially die, not really news though, just sorta, meh.

UrsusArctos wrote:Keep all talk about Ebola, ISIS and politics out of this thread, please.

We may be a ragtag bunch of misfits, but I don't think you have to worry about us taking Ebola-chan and ISIS sympathy to 4chan levels...actually, as far as ISIS is concerned, I think even 4chan can't stand them.

UrsusArctos wrote:Keep all talk about Ebola, ISIS and politics out of this thread, please.

I fail to see how the recent Ebola epidemic has the potential to start a flame war considering almost everyone seems to agree that it's bad news and has the potential to affect a lot of people. Potential plagues regarding deadly diseases seems to transcend petty things like politics.

I know you guys are terrified about discussing current events (in some cases with good reason) but any reticence over discussing Ebola is over-cautious to an absurd degree.

Also, I doubt, anyone is going to defend ISIS (or is it just IS?) considering they've declared war on pretty much anyone and everyone who isn't a Sunni jihadist so, again, not much potential for disagreement there.

Really, the intent is to avoid getting into a hate-fest; plus all these topics have the potential for divisive reactions about the responses being carried out.

None of this is conducive to a pleasant atmosphere on the boards.

Besides, it's more likely Ebola-chan will visit Boko Haram.

I think we should split the news thread into "serious" and "trivial" news. For serious news, we should limit discussion on politics rather than banning it outright because I do think the overall forum is mature enough to handle it in small doses. We debated the whole Israel-Gaza conflict back during the summer and while it got pretty heated, the forums didn't explode and I generally don't think any less of the people who disagreed with me.

I think a good guideline would be to limit "serious" news to stories that are only tangentially involved in politics. So nothing regarding political rallies or events nor elections; however, when events like IS or the Ebola outbreak happens, politics are going to inevitably be involved. But the discussion should pertain to "how to solve X issue" rather than "political party Y are a bunch of wankers". But this gives the forums more room to discuss mature topics without splitting some and locking down others. We could also limit who can post in the thread.

If it doesn't work and everything devolves into people flaming each other, then we'll just go back to what we have.

My 2 cents:

I personally think if the original intention from the Staff was for humorous news to be posted in the official news thread, then a simple and more defined thread title should be in order. Perhaps being ambiguous about the matter has worked for awhile, but given the recent reaction towards Ursus, it's now best to have a solid clear message about what responses are appropriate for that thread.
As I mentioned previously, the current thread confused me since I saw posters posting rather serious news items; it's difficult to have a discussion about grave domestic and global affairs without mentioning the politics involved, as it often goes hand in hand.
With that said, I actually share Tine's concern, as I also think it's best to avoid those news items in the official News thread. Having such sticky thread on the forefront welcomes too much risk for someone say one insensitive remark (and perhaps a remark that originally didn't mean malice) and you have a wave of emotional ad hominem responses. Unlike the hostile Evangelion debates where people still discuss Evangelion, even if it's off topic, discussing actual News can hit hard on emotional levels. I have rather unpopular opinions about current events going on, but I'm wise enough to pick my battles, and this forum surely isn't the place for it; no one cares about your opinion in respect to political party/ideology/foreign policy/etc - this is an Evangelion/anime centric forum base.

I don't advocate censorship of serious news talk, but it's probably best to leave any official news threads to remain humorous in nature and leave things like ISIS to their own regular topics.

The topic is called the [News] 2014 News (NO POLITICS).

News can be either silly or serious; It is all news regardless, and does not need to individually classified as one or the other. If you want to find a specific kind of news, there are respective websites that cover said piece of news (or particular articles).

The only news that does not belong in the news thread is is news that people do not want to share with others; if you don't want to talk about a piece of news, don't post it. (With that said, if others want to talk about it, let them.)

I'd be open to Trajan's suggestion of creating a thread for trivial news and one for serious news, eg. somebody dying from excessive masturbation vs. a missile test launch from the DPRK.

I don't even think any changes are necessary, especially not some split. I just think ya'll need to lighten up the preemptive measures is all. Keeping a lock down on politics is good (loldiscussingpolitics), but I don't see Ebola as a reasonable cause of durama. ISIS I can kind of see why you'd be hesitant to let discussion about them flourish, because that can quick devolve into prejudice and ignorance and shit, but Ebola? I mean, unless you guys are embracing the Holy Church of Ebola-chan (I see Tines has gloriously seen the light) and are banning HERESY, that's a fair topic.