JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Cute election joke

I am not sure why a handful, or like now, currently only 1 single topic, this one, that I am aware of, is political in nature on a site with nearly 1 million active posts and thousands of visitors each day would keep someone away? Do you think it even possible for a site this large NOT to have a handful of posts that might annoy any living human being at any given time? Why would you go looking for the needle in the haystack and forget the haystack itself when you find it and it sticks in your finger and bothers you? Cheez, I think you doth protest too much. It's just as tired of an argument that people should shut up so as not to offend anyone as the predictable occasional break outs of political discussion during what is the most divisive election year in modern US history. If, as the moderator of this massive board, I don't let folks blow off a little predictable steam now and then, it will just as likely keep other members away for the opposite reason you give. The bottom line, if you don't like political posts, why in the world would you not only READ one, but also engage in it too?

We do have rules which apply to everything: No gratuitous personal attacks on other members. It's right there in the site rules you had to agree to before you were allowed to register to use this site. Heated issues on many topics pop up around here and we have to moderate them when someone goes too far and if it's a case of a troll, we nuke them, especially if they are anonymous, in which case we give them zero benefit of the doubt.

I think it is informative because it proves that musicians are far from similar to each other politically. I have always seen that as I toured 48 of the 50 states for nearly 20 years. But our site has been a mixing ground for all viewpoints for a long time as has our incredibly diverse membership from over 160 countries and across more than 100 different genres of music. The message board is but a tiny subset, but it is illustrative of many broader viewpoints in our entire community.

I spend a lot of time in DC working on issues that affect the music community. Sometimes I am on one parties side, sometimes I am against them on an issue. Sometimes they help me tremendously and sometimes the very same people are our adversaries. Discussions get VERY heated, yet those folks "get" it. At the end of the work day, there's an awful lot of R's going to dinner or for drinks with the D's. Myself, I rarely agree with either party and don't align myself with them. I remember one very contentious argument in front of TV camera's and live Radio with a particular organization which got a lot of coverage, but a year later that same org. helped a friend of mine's family survive when he had brain cancer and couldn't feed them.

There's a large number of people here who I disagree with on almost everything there is to disagree on. One in particular was still important enough to me that we flew across the ocean and spent 3 days of our trip just to drive up and have dinner with him. And he's not the only one. As long as personal attacks remain on the side and out of sight, I want to hear people's opinions. I need to be informed on a wide range of things and political season is important too. I love nothing more than an intense back and forth with someone who disagrees with me but keeps it civil and productive. Attacks happen when people have lost and have no other course of action than to attack. It's the result of a feeble mind trying to express itself forcefully with nothing of value to say.

So feel free to find a fault and blame it for why you don't come around. Any one will do. This is a free world and frankly, a reason isn't even needed to stay or go. We'd prefer you stick around and share your experiences with us and perhaps someone here can even help with those CD's in your trunk. But no need for an announcement. But certainly say what you think, or avoid a discussion, if you can't find plenty to talk about among the 10 million pages of text on the site, you aren't looking very hard. And if all you can find is this post, you're looking too hard for the wrong thing.

Brian