It Is Time To Get The Mud Back Into The Political Mudpit

As staff we see many complaints and laments that ATS has become too political. And while that may be a topic for debate, what is noticeable is that there is far too much political derision in the form of mudslinging outside the Mudpit. This is a situation that is well within the ability of the community to correct.

It has been a long standing policy that threads that are too muddy to remain outside the Political Mudpit are trashed rather than moved to encourage members to only create such threads within the confines of the Mudpit. That policy will not change. What will change is the increased removal of posts that degrade otherwise perfectly fine threads and the strong possibility of losing posting privileges on ATS for the continuous disregard of our community policy

To be perfectly clear, the Political Mudpit has relaxed rules for politically motivated postings. It was never intended to be a playground for complete disrespect for fellow members personally. As always, play the ball not the player. So yes, there will be an uptick in posts removed for Manners violations within the Mudpit as well.

What the staff needs from everyone is to be more thoughtful and less careless with posting habits. Treat one another with the respect they deserve. Alert but do not respond to problematic posts. Start political threads that you think will go downhill quickly in the Mudpit. Best to be safe than sorry.

This is not some new thing dreamed up by staff. It was stated in the forum guidelines when the Mudpit was opened and even reaffirmed in the next post. And this little gem from 2008 from an owner no less, set some to a whole different way of thinking of politics.

Yes, this will take effort from everyone. No, not everyone will help. But it is believed that the reward for doing so will become very apparent quickly.