I agree there's been an increasing trend to use the General Chat forum for way off-topic posts. Sometimes they've been ok, other times they do nothing but bring negativity and ill-feeling towards someone or something.
I've been letting a lot of them slide to see what happens but they're starting to get out of hand now - in number and in content. It's also usually only a small number of people contributing in those topics - but they are posting a lot because they have strong opinions on it.
This is an astronomy forum.
"General Chat" is not an "anything goes" forum. It's for general chat that doesn't belong in the other IIS Astronomy sub-forums, but it does not mean every type of topic is welcome.
Of course there is some leeway and we often talk about lots of non-astronomy type things in general chat. And in most cases, that's fine. It helps us to get to know each other better.
But if you want to discuss politics, religion and other general topics that only lead to arguments and negativity, then I'd prefer they were NOT posted on IceInSpace, as there are many other forums out there on the internet where these types of discussions can take place.
If you want to discuss politics, go here:
http://www.politicsforum.org/
If you want to post lots of jokes, go here:
http://www.jokesforum.com/
If you want to discuss religion, go here:
http://www.religionforums.org/
If you want to discuss global warming again and again, go here:
http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/fo...warming-forum/
It does not mean I'm going to start locking all off-topic threads, but I would definitely like to see them slowing down - especially the pointless ones, or the political or religions ones.
I'd prefer to see people self-moderate and stop posting them because they know it's the wishes of me, and of the majority of the community. If that doesn't happen, then I will have to start locking them.