I notice -last few weeks- the activity in SO is minimal. Vacations, people leaving the forum, illness...?
This site only welcomes right wing people. Every other voice is driven away; ganged up on. I like this place and many of the people in it, but..........it became too difficult to exist here.
I like many of the right-wingers, here. If they go too far with comical assertions and flawed logic, I shut 'em down, no biggie. Most are fairly smart folks who simply like to live in their own safe worlds. No problem with that, either. Sometimes, they even get it right. This board is not for those who simply want to meet people who are like-minded, as I see it. I like to be stimulated by what I read. Dealing with people who always see things as I see it....... boring! As for feeling welcome.... Yeah, I feel welcome, here.
It seems to me you are thinking of the other senior forums that allow even proven false liberal political narratives to flourish under the disguise of Hot Topics but delete or ban any opposing post. Should one on the other forums not be in cinque with the main long-time liberal posters and continually heap praises on them, then they are ignored for the most part. Those forums have very active PM groups that control the flow of the forum and shun or gang up on others that start to gain friends. I have been on here 2.75 years and only once have I been invited into any regular PM group. That was when I first joined and by one that is on the other forum regularly but no longer here due to things not going the way they wanted and only a few supporting friends that also left this forum at the same time. There are two other very liberal senior forums, so if most members here lean a bit conservative, then I think it is great that as a senior I have a place where being an independent with conservative views on many topics, is appreciated by some and I can speak out without fear of being banned or attacked by a mob and then ignored or warmed by a hardcore liberal administrator. You make a very false statement that this forum only welcomes right-wing people. It welcomes people that if they chose to engage in a political discussion, they present what they believe to be fact and why and also something more than short sentences void of anything of substance. The history of this forum reveals that some have joined for the sole purpose of spouting false narratives and making repetitious unfounded judgments against those that have presented their reasons for their conservatism with validity. Ken only bans someone when they repeatedly resort to ignorance such as calling someone racist as their only response to an intelligent discussion. To make my point that your blanket statement is false, I submit that one of my favorite posters here and I consider a friend, was our late Bill Boggs. He was a Texas Democrat and a gentleman. He was well-liked and appreciated by most if not all of the regular posters here. Please consider that you have never told us anything about yourself, nothing! Then never a real profile photo, just playing a game as a cartoon character then demanding we take you seriously. Yes, many never post a photo of themselves, but we get to know something about them from their posts. People leave here for several reasons and very few leave because this is the only senior forum that allows real political discussions where conservative members don't live in fear of banishment or ostracism because of their stand. They leave for a variety of reasons. I think it is unfair to make a blanket statement that cast a false light on the forum.
Over the years, I've noticed that activity on some types of social forums slows down around Easter, due to travel, holiday, spring activities, gardening, travel, etc. By contrast, activity on the motorcycle/adventure forums picks up this time of year as riding weather gets better. I do find it amusing, and perhaps supercilious, that some people feel the need to blame right-wingers for their lack of participation. The felt need to inject political leanings in things is hard for some to resist. The best approach, IMHO, is to focus on areas of common interest and ignore the rest.
Illness, death, busy with spring work, just don't have any topic they want to discuss, and/or they desire to spend their time with hobbies, playing games or watching movies. Speaking for myself, I take a leave sometimes because I realize I am letting things like my music practice go in lieu of the forum or maybe there is nothing I want to discuss, and don't feel like starting a new topic. I also take a break when I realize that I am letting posts or a poster get to me. I ban myself for a time then come back when I feel I can conduct myself in the best interest of the forum.
Very well-spoken, @Faye Fox , and I agree with everything that you wrote in your earlier posts. This forum does tend to have more conservatives , but that does not mean that we chase off, insult, or demean people who are liberals. Some of the people who have been here a long time, and are very well liked by everyone have liberal political beliefs. As @Trevalius Guyus mentioned, active discussion happens best when there are different opinions and ideas, and we share them with the forum, and done respectfully. Name-calling, personal attacks, and insults does not constitute discussion, and never adds to any forum thread, and in fact, is one of the few not-allowed things on this forum. I think that as summer comes, at least some of us are outside (working in our garden ?), and spending less time on the forum. Also, as Faye mentioned, sometimes there is just nothing being posted that we care to respond to, or we think that the responses are repeatedly promoting an agenda (anti-government, anti-medical) regardless of what the thread topic is about. When I see those kind of agenda-blathering responses, I usually just ignore that section, and other people have told me that they do this same thing as well. I think that is probably one of the main reasons we lose regular people occasionally, and also why new people do not register, or do register, read some of the agenda-blathering, and then leave the forum without ever posting.
There are 44 boards here complete with subtopics of which only one board has anything to do with one’s political leanings. If I go to a restaurant and there’s one item on the menu that I think is gross, I pick something I like and don’t pay attention to the one item that is disagreeable to me. Same thing.
Yes, I agree with you on the agenda repetition that is seen in SOC political, religious, and health threads. We are all seniors and should know by now if such bother us, don't read it, and if we do, don't respond. I think that you are right that many members leave (because they joined solely because one of the boards where agenda-driven posts prevail) and then when they realize that their interest is ruled by such posts and threads, they leave. I encourage all to consider and appreciate that such agenda-driven threads, while discouraged on SOC, are NEVER deleted by SOC administration. Other senior forums promptly remove any agenda-driven posts they dislike. Free speech includes the poster's right to post agenda-driven topics as long as it isn't intentional spamming or copy and paste repetition. SOC is the only senior forum allowing free speech. .
And, if someone's post or thread isn't liked, Ken has an "Ignore" area. Funny, but I've done that "Ignore" before, but later on, went back and took the "Ignore" away. Simply can't be mad all of the time! I've been on Ken's forum for over 6 years, have gone and come back. It just happens to be the very best Senor Forum online and Ken has super members helping him.
When I joined there was. My opening resume put me on the blacklist I have no idea anymore and don't care.
I was banned from the "other forum" because I dared to post, without giving names, that a member had invited his girlfriend into a PM thread I had with him (wherein I told him he needed to take down some antisemitic posts), so she could applaud his put-downs of me, in the thread. Other members applauded my good efforts, but when I tried to come back to that thread, I found I was banned by the little dweeb running the board. In here, everyone is much cooler. Free speech is encouraged, and most participants are fairly considerate of others.