How about a rule against campaigning

[jviehe]

Could we have a forum rule established to prevent campaigning for specific candidates? Ron Pauls supporters are the biggest offenders here. Im only concered with posts that go something like:

"Ron Paul Rocks! Check out this link to all the cool stuff he says <link>. Vote Ron Paul in 08!"

I dont think his campaign understands the damage this type of harrasment is doing to him.

[White Rabbit]

Perhaps it would be easier if we just a short list of the things that don't annoy jviehe?

[Speakeasy]

Originally Posted by jviehe

Could we have a forum rule established to prevent campaigning for specific candidates? Ron Pauls supporters are the biggest offenders here. Im only concered with posts that go something like:

"Ron Paul Rocks! Check out this link to all the cool stuff he says <link>. Vote Ron Paul in 08!"

I dont think his campaign understands the damage this type of harrasment is doing to him.

As long as the post isn't spam, it's alright. If people truly believe that Ron Paul is the best candidate, they're free to try and explain why and provide links to his stances on the issue.

Besides, this entire forum is basically people 'campaigning' their views on the various issues, such as abortion, gay rights, gun rights, etc. To say it's not okay to support someone or something would go against the idea of what we're trying to promote here.

[partofme]

Originally Posted by jviehe

Could we have a forum rule established to prevent campaigning for specific candidates? Ron Pauls supporters are the biggest offenders here. Im only concered with posts that go something like:

"Ron Paul Rocks! Check out this link to all the cool stuff he says <link>. Vote Ron Paul in 08!"

I dont think his campaign understands the damage this type of harrasment is doing to him.

I guess you missed the word politics in the name of the site.

[jviehe]

Originally Posted by partofme

I guess you missed the word politics in the name of the site.

Campaigning for votes is equivalent to spam to me.

[Curly]

Yeah, it's like campaigning for .... a national sales tax.

[pramjockey]

Originally Posted by Curly

Yeah, it's like campaigning for .... a national sales tax.

Ding!

Of course, if you don't like the threads, you could not read them.

Besides, I suspect there is no measurable effect to a candidate's campaign from what's posted on this website.

[partofme]

Originally Posted by jviehe

Campaigning for votes is equivalent to spam to me.

Then take that up with Marc although the way he has let people have much more freedom of expression on here in the past makes me think he isn't likely to agree. It is his decision ultimately.

[Speakeasy]

I'm also not sure how we would enforce such a rule.

Obviously, people here are going to back a single candidate in the upcoming elections. How do we tell the difference between someone explaining why they are backing a particular candidate and someone actually campaigning for them? The amount of links used?

Can someone endorse a candidate in their posts, but it's off limits to try and convince others to endorse this candidate, too?

Seems like it would be a nightmare.

[White Rabbit]

Originally Posted by jviehe

Campaigning for votes is equivalent to spam to me.

I think Curly nails the issue quite succinctly.

I truly suspect jviehe considers anything anyone posts that he disagrees with is spam. Can you say intolerant or xenophobic?

Btw, jviehe, I haven't caught up with all your insults yet. I figure a couple hassle-posts per day for the next year or two might allow me to catch-up!

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by Speakeasy

I'm also not sure how we would enforce such a rule.

Obviously, people here are going to back a single candidate in the upcoming elections. How do we tell the difference between someone explaining why they are backing a particular candidate and someone actually campaigning for them? The amount of links used?

Can someone endorse a candidate in their posts, but it's off limits to try and convince others to endorse this candidate, too?

Seems like it would be a nightmare.

If someone started a thread called "Vote Ron PAul 08", then surely that would be seen as petitionning on a candidate's behalf or something like that. It would be, quite literally, campaigning.

[Steve]

I think it's a pretty stupid idea.

As has already been said, everyone here is, in essence, campaigning for something.

And, as has also already been mentioned, this is especially funny coming from someone who has a link to a website for a "fair, or "flat" tax (which I support, by the way)...

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by Speakeasy

As long as the post isn't spam, it's alright. If people truly believe that Ron Paul is the best candidate, they're free to try and explain why and provide links to his stances on the issue.

Also there are laws that stop non citizens from contributing money and so on to political campaigns (presumably to stop obnoxious blowhard Canadians and so on from trying to influence an election of some importance and value) so the countless number of Candians who see it as their God given right to promote him (Paul) might well remember they have no right of any sort to influence our elections under U.S. Federal law and any monatary influence is a felony.

[Malvolio]

Well, if someone would be posting "Vote for Ron Paul" threads all over the place or just copy and past material, that would be spam. But as we got quite a lot of threads for or against certain candidates, banning campaigning would be pretty much impractical. Especially as it would also have to include negative campaigning. And what would this forum be without the "Bush sucks" or "Clinton sucks" threads.

[Traveler]

Well Bush nor (Bill) Clinton are campaigning for office but what i mean is instinctively telling people to "Vote "x" candidate" is something different.

Also it may not just be a copy and paste job, they may add in their own comments like "Vote Paul, he rocks" or "Americans should finally wake up and elect...", you know the usual sort of one line comments to avoid it being a cut and paste job.