I know I'm relatively new here, but I like this forum, and am glad that it appears to have successfully undergone one transition. But I think that the closing of the Politics forum is overkill.
If you are seeing a lot of suddenly problematic politics threads, then drop specific, actionable temp-rules into banners, and start tempbanning for a week on the first offense (and ramp up for repeat offenders).
Shit is happening right now. To want to ban the politics subforum is surely understandable now, given the targets being painted on Parler et al. But to close off political speech here is to actually say "No reasonable person has anything civil to say about recent events." And that is, to my mind, a dangerous thing to say, even when said by implication.
The mods and no one here wants to ban political discussion. Or even political views.
For every successful product, there is an X-factor. Something that drives the passion of a small group of people, whose energy in turn draws in others. Because you can't appeal to everyone all the time. The forum here lacks an X-factor. Because when it comes to political discourse, you go to Parler or Twitter to do that. You don't go to a web forum. People go to web forums to read stories, to play RPGs, or for a very specific purpose (ie, dating or porn or anime or chess) and that's why they stay.
A political forum for the sake of politics is not feasible right now, because when people go to web forums, they want to relax. Not get worked up in a political debate. With people they don't know. This forum lacks its X-factor. That's why instead of attracting people who want to debate fictional settings or do RPGs, we've got a small cabal of right-wing voters who are increasingly unhinged as they listen to fucking QAnon and Tim Pool, with the occasional left-wing troll that wanders through for shits and giggles.
The most productive that the politics forum got was when aggressive leftists came by for some fisticuffs with their ideological opponents.
That does not drive a web forum.
So I propose that the political sub-forum be closed until further notice. Ideally, it should be closed until the site can generate an X-factor that draws people in. And yes, that means liberals. Because the vast majority of liberals, even if they hated Trump with the passion of a thousand suns, don't hate conservatives. Radicals do--and they believe delusional things like secret conspiracies to destroy the left, political purges, and deliberate malice on even the most innocent of statements, but hey, so do half the retards who post in our own political subforum.
It's just that they replaced the irrational fear of the right with the left. They voted for Trump instead of Biden. But these are the same people. And without a political left to produce some sort of 'balance', the natural 'balance' of a forum that is politically right is going to be between moderate conservatives and stopping just short of white nationalism--and only because that's more or less a bannable offense here.
So the sub-forum should and must remain closed. Probably for a good 4 months, so we can refocus the forum on that x-factor. Not so people can repeat their political grievances and knee-jerks for the next 8 months until the staff gets fed up and shuts the whole project down. Which has already almost happened...what, twice?
You all have Parler, you all have Minds, and you all have Discord. Or PMs.
Until the site is strong enough that it can handle a political row, then you all need to take this shit somewhere else. There's enough fucking virgin-ass nerds on this forum that we should have decent discussions on Star Trek, Star Wars, Halo, Dragonball Z, and what have you. The best we got is Carl autistically spamming that part of the forum in the vain hope that he's going to generate interest. Even if he were good at it (and he isn't--sorry Carl), he's ONE MAN. He can't produce hard hitting stuff every day for the forum.
So if you all want a successful forum, you need to cut this shit out. Restrain yourselves. But just here. There are discords you can form around this forum where you can take the political stuff. You can connect with Parler. Or Minds. But until this forum has developed its niche, your enthusiasm to express yourself is just going to drag the forum into the red.