Rant #3,363: Too Much Talk

I am going to preface this post by stating that the Ranting and Raving Blog has spoken about a litany of topics during its 15 years of existence, and I never believe that any topic is completely out of bounds here.

That is here, where as moderator, I make the rules.

But for some reason, others believe thst they can take over various forums to espouse their own political beliefs, forums which really have absolutely nothing to do with politics.

I belong to one such forum, related to one of my passions, which is record collecting.

This Facebook site has delved into any and all topics related to the hobby, and I really enjoy reading--and posting myself--to like-minded people about a hobby we all cherish.

June has come, and to many, this is sort of a warm-weather Christmas, as it is Gay Pride Month, a month-long celebration of that lifestyle.

OK, that is all fine and good, but at this Facebook site, posts related to Pride Month have overrun the site, both positive and very negative.

Some people feel that the coming of Pride Month gives them license to overrun such a non-political site with things like Pride playlists and the like, and others have taken great offense to this overruning of a site with what amounts to posts with overly political, non-topic themes.

And yes, some of the posts are crude and lewd, and some are offensive.

But most of those against politicizing a non-political site asked the same question:

"I thought that this was a record collecting site?"

The moderator has had to weed out the good and the bad, and some of the respondents have taken others to task, on both sides of the coin, for the existence of this site and what its purpose is.

I don't feel such a site should be overrun by politics of any kind.

It is like I don't watch "Leave It To Beaver" for political themes, and I don't visit this particular site for political themes, either.

If you want politics, there are plenty of sites to visit and to post your views.

I certainly do it here, and I do it elsewhere, too ... but I do not post political views at a non-political site.

I responded to all the havoc at this site with the following post.

I have received several likes, and happily, the post has not been removed, although the moderator has closed down the thread to further posts as the Pride posts continue unabated.

I believe my post said everything fairly without ruffling anyone's feathers, because I believe it is a fair way to look at this situation ... and it goes for all non-political sites on Facebook or otherwise.

Here is what I said:

"Gay, heterosexual or otherwise, I don't really think this should be a forum to promote one's sexuality.

This is a record collectors' forum, and i am sure we have people with all different backgrounds who are members here, and politics really shouldn't be its focus.

This is not a forum run by me, so I don't make the rules, but I simply don't think that this page should necessarily be used by some to promote such a political Pandora's Box.

That is the nicest way I can say this. It was not meant to offend anyone, but I really do believe it gets this forum way off topic 

I run a couple of music-related groups myself, and the last thing that I want is for my groups to get political, because it gets the group way off topic, and most importantly, doesn't serve it's members well.

Just my opinion, and I did not want to offend anyone by posting my view.

This is not an anti-gay post; it is more a pro-all-record-collectors' post."

The topic just happened to be Pride Month, but what I said really does relate to the handling of any political topic on a non-political site.

What do you think?