I want to expand on this a little further so that people understand what brought me to this decision, and also give it a bump for those who aren't aware.
Some months back there was a discussion on Europe, which got out of hand and was a nasty in places. I was busy at work whilst it was going on and didn't pay it as much attention as I would have liked, or probably should have. I eventually stepped in at the height of the argument, and had to lock and then remove the thread.
That lead to the decision for political discussions being barred from the site, and this very announcement. There are currently 2 active mods (HT & I), and neither of us have the time available to actively patrol combustive threads.
I hold the ultimate responsibility for what happens on here - the buck literally stops here. Plus I also end up dealing with all the fallout. OK, that is completely understandable as it's the site I chose to build and run. Maybe I'm reaping what I've sown, but I don't want to spend the entirety of my spare time (or HT's) dealing with squabbles over stuff which I feel doesn't have a place on here.
It's not just this forum that struggles with this kind of discussion, I've seen other forums who have had to heavily moderate or even lock down discussions following the horrors of Manchester this week.
That all said, I have absolutely no doubts that the decision I took 7 weeks ago is the correct one for this particular forum.
Gaz
