I understand inability to resist "taking the bait". But here is what many of us do not understand:

When the political forum was allowed, it was by choice that a viewer or commentor here subscribed to that forum. When a person did not subscribe to the political forum, the political threads did not show up in the view of a person who did not subscribe to political.

Therefore, if you did not subscribe, there was no bait to see, much less take. The answer was in not subscribing. I don't see how that is a problem to those who don't want to take the bait but can't resist.

I would be interested in seeing some numbers on how many people view and then post on "non Village discussion" threads vs Village discussion threads. If you just look at this one you can see it has raised a lot of interest.

I wonder... TOTV is a business, after all. Could some of the sponsors have objected to the content of the political forum? If Bucco is right and groups were getting together to push a certain political agenda, some sponsors could have been concerned about affiliating themselves with that.

Just a theory; I have no facts.

I agree, if you don't want to be involved in something, don't do it. I for one loved Political.

Hummm. Good point and I bet your correct.

Well, if that were the case (maybe it is, maybe it isn't), if sponsors were against "a certain political agenda" being pushed by a group of posters, I'd say they are pushing the other political agenda. For every righty comment, there were plenty of lefty comments to balance it out.

Surely the advertisers want business from both righties and lefties since all our money is the same color green and works for all the advertisers at all the banks and all cash registers.

To me, controversy on this board is good for advertisers, because the more controversial/argumentative (not inflammatory or destructive of others), the more views the board gets.

If every thread had 100% agreement when somebody says for example, "The IRS is totally correct in its decision on the tax-free bonds", there would be no discussion and viewership of the advertisements would drop to nothing.

I was a regular participant on the political board, though I occasionally opted out to give my blood pressure a sabbatical. It seems to me it was a worthy and interesting forum, though as some have said, it was not a place to change the hearts and minds of others, but a place where several people could state their opinions. I think that seldom, if ever, were minds changed, or differing opinions accepted, but it was an interesting and entertaining diversion. As an "opt in" forum, it would seem that the firewall would protect those that were not up to the jousting that took place in political. The problem that seemingly led to the demise of political was the inordinate amount of time required by the mods and the administrator to police it during the election season. I was hoping it would come back after the elections, but don't know if the admin really has the interest or the motivation to restore it. The political forum was really populated by relatively few "regulars", and most seem to still be around, so the decision to end political seems to have cost the admin very few contributors. Again, I would welcome the return of political, but I still enjoy participating in TOTV, and am probably personally better off without some of the unpleasantness.

This thread has veered far off the original topic and will be closed.

The Admin/owner of TOTV long ago decided that the political forum and partisan/political/name calling discussions would not be allowed.

This thread began as a 'Thank you' and has been 'hijacked'. We appreciate the positive responses. I've never added up all the hours spent moderating the site each week because it would probably surprise even us. There is a lot of work that is put in by moderators and admin and we appreciate the efforts made by them to maintain TOTV as a good place for research and community.

If anyone has a question regarding Admin decisions, per the site rules and terms of service please email us directly and we will respond.