Notice to All Registered Users From Admin
 

Dear TOTV users,

Talk of The Villages was originally created as a forum for Villagers to come together easily, and discuss happenings across the town and beyond. However, in recent months, we have seen a surge of posts that violate our site guidelines, and have impacted the general mood across the forum.

Let us remind you that posting about politics is strictly forbidden. This includes the mention of political parties, political individuals, or any political topics. Even with warnings and reminders of this rule, users continue to post about politics. We will now begin giving out one week temporary bans to any user who violates this rule. If users continue to defy this rule, longer or even permanent bans will be given.

In addition, discussion on TOTV should remain kind and respectful. Negatively directed posts are not allowed. Negative posts directed at other users will be deleted, and any user who continues to disregard this rule will be subjected to a temporary ban.

We understand that during these tumultuous times, it is cathartic to come to the forum and discuss everything happening on the news and in our community. We encourage open discussion, and welcome everyone with different backgrounds and viewpoints. To reflect this, we have decided to create a new sub-forum dedicated solely to current events and news. On this side of the forum, users will be able to discuss everything happening in the world, and those who do not wish to participate, can easily ignore this sub-forum. This sub-forum will still adhere to site guidelines, and will be moderated according to these rules. This means there will still be no political discussion allowed. All we ask from our users is respect towards each other, regardless of differing opinions, and respect towards our site guidelines.

Lastly, please note that the General Discussions Forum is meant for topics related to The Villages, Florida. This includes topics related to buying in the area, and for things related to living in The Villages. The New Members Forum is meant for new members to the site who wish to introduce themselves to everyone on the forum. If you post a topic that does not fit these descriptions, your post will be moved to the correct forum.

If you wish to review our site guidelines, you can find them here: https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...p?pageid=rules

Got it. Thank you.

Seems like new posters with old join dates are plentiful. Seems like a number of these posters are coming out swinging. Seems like these are the individuals cause issues......like a troll, but they are not trolls because we can not call them trolls.


:ho:

:bigbow: Thanks for your efforts....

Welcome reminder, thank you.

Glad for the efforts....there are a lot of bullys on this site. Some have been here a very long time. Both women and men. Hope this ends that.

I've been on this forum for quite a few years. It used to be better with the admins putting on rules to abide by. People seemed more respectful and kinder as a general rules. I'd same the same for our country which is quite sad, moreso for our kids and grandkids.
I think the anonymous nature of the internet feeds this, it's almost like road rage, where you say things that you wouldn't say to a person's face. Let's just play nice. All that said...

I agree with you, Admins.

Well said, Admin.

thanks for making this known to all

Thank you. Lately it's seemed like a wild west free for all around here and I was wondering if anyone was watching the store.

YES to this.

I just hope they stick by what they say and show no favoritism.
Steve

Sounds fair to me. All the hard work is really appreciated.

Block those who fail to follow rules. End of story.

Thank you! As a newcomer, I had begun to think the Talk was too troll infested to be usable.

As you said there's a lot of stress right now I would certainly appreciate you considering some leeway although my her opinion is that common should be simply not directed against the person but against or four the opinions of that person. Definitely politics is one of the harder things and we like to discuss but some people simply and not stand a different viewpoint

I certainly hope you will not try to become the happy community bulletin board like that certain newspaper published in The Villages where there is no crime has ever reported or bad news.. I certainly want to know if the new budget is good or bad and where the Lawns are being kept up nicely and which trolls are geting people in trouble

Eliminate anonymity and you will eliminate the problem.

Agree think full name should be needed to post on site. Not one to be anonymous.

How do I find this sub forum for current events?

Thank you. I skip over the political remarks as I find Talk Of The Villages helpful and informative.
Marcy

You have said this before and have done nothing about posts that are political and/or hate speech. Do you really mean it this time.Posyts don't have to mention political parties or politicians to be political.

Thank you - Thank you - Thank you

As a newcomer I am happy to see the rules and hope all abide by them

Amen!

We agree.

In our visits we didn't see any outward displays of what's been going on here of late in the threads and posts, so were shocked at some people's reactions and simmering anger.

It hasn't changed our decision of moving there, but has opened our eyes a bit on what we may experience once we become residents.

Thank you!

Completely understood. Thank you very much.

Thank you for the wise decision.

Bravo ....bravo (imagine a standing ovation)!:bigbow::bigbow::bigbow:

a person can tell within the first 3 minutes if a conversation is going to be valuable with another poster. typically it's reduced to name-calling or general offenses directed @ groups, & is becomes more common closer to election time. :ohdear:

Very good - we all need to move on and enjoy life

As a couple of people have already said, hiding under a cloak of anonymity is too safe for those who disrespect others. Require a person’s real name and photo and I would bet most, if not all of the disrespect and bullying will disappear.

Thank you for the work you do and for the courage to take action to stop this insane cruelty towards one another.

To the mods: so as a for instance, would this post be appropriate for the new sub forum since it talks about the country and its people being less nice to one another? I'm not being snarky about the post. I'm just wondering if this would fit the description to go into your new forum.

And thank you for addressing this issue.

going to be a long summer.

It also protects those from the extreme nutcases...simply because they don't go along with the majority.

Or from someone becoming enraged, from losing a debate/argument from someone producing actual facts...instead of depending on fringe, extremist websites.

Imagine someone all 'likkered up,' who becomes enraged and knowing a persons name and address (easy to get after the name)...decides to take their rage out on that person or their property.

With all due respect, I don't see you using your real name and address either. :shrug:

This will be an interesting line for the moderators to tow and I look forward to see how it is handled, too much heavy handedness and this forum becomes a worthless world of sunshine and unicorns, not enough and it degrades to the trashy level of may other social media platforms.

While spirited discussions will surely abound in the coming months of the November elections and will be more easily identified as political, what about the grayer areas? Where will you draw the line? A discussion of the 25% property tax increase is most certainly of profound interest to Villages residents and Sumter county alike, it easily shifts to a discussion of those making the decisions and that pending election, where will you draw the line?

Since the posting of this thread you have had no teeth, this post https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...people-307816/ was clearly and purely political and offensive in nature and yet was allowed to fester for 90 posts. A quick review of the threads and posts on may of the forums show a great many clearly laced with political tones and derogatory comments. Where is the line to be drawn on these? When will this line be like a knife at the throat of liberty?

Obviously this website is free to pluck and purn its branches as it sees fit. We can only hope they are not too aggressive as to kill the tree.

I am happy to keep hearing about the rules of these forums, but as others have remarked there is still posts that seem to pass through the cracks. 2 hours after this post from admin was written, there was a thread called "We have a leadership problem" where the 10th post actually names a political leader and has the word "idiots" in it's post. Both political and demeaning. I'm sure it's a very difficult job to moderate everything that is being said, but hopefully we do see real change for the better.

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"Let us remind you that posting about politics is strictly forbidden. This includes the mention of political parties, political individuals, or any political topics."
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SO MANY 'mentions/Threads/Posts' that fall under this area. Just reviewed the Subject Title of the first page of Threads with new posts today - 11 easily fall under "Political Topics". Moderators> you have a 'no win' task, as there are so many gray areas.

I, for one, have had 2 Threads I've started the last couple weeks deleted due to this - started out neutral and newsworthy for discussion, then some Posters degraded it - and poof.

Even with our TV Bubble and Dome in place, we are still a microcosm of the greater society.

It’s important that you remind our users of site guidelines. We are facing a difficult time in this country and emotions will take over as we vent our frustrations. Bottom line is The Villages offers an amazing lifestyle and I thank God everyday I wake up and plan my day.