[eweissenbach]

it seems to me that the threads that have political overtones, or controversial topics have proliferated on TOTV lately. I have participated in some of them, and usually come away with a bad taste in my mouth, both for my participation, and for others. I find that these threads usually cause people to become defensive and confrontational, and virtually everyone responds predictably according to their political persuasion and almost no one opens their mind to larger questions real introspection, not that I am surprised by that. I used to participate sporadically in the opt-in political forum, and found it more entertaining than informative, but at least most everyone was interested in the word jousting that regularly took place. When these issues get on the general board it seems that the tone quickly turns rather ugly with a bit of ganging up and even bullying occasionally resulting. On the poli forum I could tolerate it, and even enjoy it, but on the general forum it seems to be something else to me. I find myself losing respect for people that I otherwise respect and enjoy hearing from. For that reason I have decided to try my best to avoid those topics that might be interesting, but will inevitably devolve into animosity. That is not what I come to this site for, or what I joined for in the first place. To me, this is a great forum for information about TV, and the lives of the people in and interested in, TV. Please don't take this as a criticism of anyone, it is just an observation of what I see, and how I can best be a good citizen of the site. I would like to see the opt in poli forum return, but unless and until it does I will do my best to stay upbeat and out of the fray.