If you don't like them don't read them

I think you missed my point. Just by existing, the politics threads push other game-related threads off the front page. Plus, you can't always tell when a thread is political. I'd hate to end up stopping coming the the GC2 website because I can't find game related stuff on it any more.

If you dont like the topics, ignore them.

Easy solution: just don't look at any off-topic posts.

However, look what you've done. You've posted this off-topic thread in GCII. That's more offensive than what you're complaining about!

Hehe. The trolls post the same mindless tirades dozens - or by now hundreds - of times in a row, and then say "Hey, I'm only minding my own business and trying to communicate with people who are desperately interested in all of my political opinions!"

And the funniest thing is that in their tiny little minds YOU are the one who is being rude by asking them to please stop pestering GC2 fans about something completely unrelated to this forum.

Would it be possible to leave off-topic posts out of the recent threads category? I'm fine with wandering into the off-topic section and, lo and behold, finding off-topic threads, but it isn't always obvious from the frontpage of the site where it only lists the title of the thread; half the time, I click on those threads expecting to read about the game, and instead get something very different. While this is not the fault of the poster of those threads, it is kind of annoying.

To be fair, I don't think he is talking about hitting the "Everything" button. I think he is talking about the 10 posts that display on the left hand column of the main page. The heading there is "Recent Posts", and lately, it has been filled with off topic discussions.

Really, it is an issue for Stardock moderators/web development/web support - and what they think best serves the GCII community. I can see arguments on both sides of including or excluding Off-Topic posts in this "highlighted" list of 10 entries on the main page.

Yes, I was referring to "Recent Posts" on the left side of www.galciv2.com. Sorry if I was not clear.

The problem with the Everything link is that it *does* exclude a lot. In particular it excludes the metaverse forum and the developer journals among others that I definitely want to keep track of. I always click Forums and then the More Recent Posts to ensure I'm not missing anything I care about.

As far as the political posts I definitely understand the concern. I used to try to discourage them and then try to calm them down once the inevitable bad feelings arise. The problem is that these kinds of posts must serve a need because they continually crop up. In the end there really are not all that many of them and you realize pretty quickly which ones they are. If the most inconvenience they are is that you have to remember which ones they are so that you don't read and be bothered by them that's really not that hard to do.

You ask what relationship these have to GC2. The answer is that they are a popular topic among many otherwise respected members of our community. That’s the purpose they serve and their reason for existence. The less the people that don't really care for these topics stick their oar in the water so to speak the less obtrusive they are. Just look at it as having to walk down the street in a major city. You need to keep an eye out so you don't step in the dog poo. There are many advantages to city life. Having to avoid the dog poo just isn't one of them.

I am willing to respect the wishes of others. I may not adhere to what they ask but I will not belittle them, at least anymore, for the moment...
Most of these 'off topic' political debates have clearly defining titles to them so the potential reader should have a general idea what he/she is about to delve into. I guess it doesn't bother me one way or the other as I like to read everything in here and as Oz said, these 'conversations' are more interesting when they involve us, the players, people we would like to think we 'know' to some degree. I find all of the opinions 'fascinating' for lack of a better word at this moment and would hate to see these topics stopped. You can tie some of these topics to the game, regardless of content and the more important thing is that the majority of topics floating around lately have remained pretty civil... and those that have started to degenerate still haven't, and let's hope won't, gotten to the levels they once did, flaming and all of that.
Bottom line for me, I will still continue to post whatever is on my mind, game related or not... this is 'my' chatroom if you wish to call it that. This is where people who hold similar interests come together to share with eachother... a community. Why shouldn't we talk to eachother about things besides the game?
Kryo, sorry if my 'attitude' reflects disrespect for your 'wishes'. I have done my best to keep a level head and not flame people during these 'debates' so therefore I have 'done my part'. I cannot adhere to 'restricting my freedom of speech'.
I just threw that one in there because I could imagine your reaction.

The fact that there are several political threads could show that there is a desire for these discussions. I know I'm enjoying them, and one of the reasons is that I'm talking to "family". I don't know if I would find Joe User to be a happy place for me.

Maybe there should be a "Politics" category for threads. I'm sure not everyone wants to talk politics. Would that work, Kryo?

Boy people sure are getting lazy these days. If you're in the Forum section you're only one click away from the sub-forums where they actually have the posts you want. I never even bother with the Recent Posts myself, I usually click on the GalCiv 2 link which brings up only the latest game posts. Maybe you could try exercising that mouse finger a bit more and going in one more level instead of complaining about something so trivial. Not to mention the fact that what you're doing is trying to suppress people's right to free speech.