Dear Jag-Lovers,
I sure would like to get a break form politics. I sure wish this would stop on this site. If it continues I will have to stop participating. I wish these people would have something better to do.
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Who is it, exactly, who’s forcing you to read the politics posts?
See the politics posts? Don’t read them.
Why don’t you just stop reading political posts?
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Well, now there’s an idea… you wild man, you!
I agree wholeheartedly. If there was a way to keep the Pub subjects from showing in the main Forum topics I’d be happy. I have had a lifetime’s worth of seeing political everything. I suspect politics have always been there in the past, but over the past decade or two, like an avalanche they have become an overwhelming presence. I’m NEVER a visitor to the Pub for exactly this reason…I only am posting here because the viewpoint of the original author seems reasonable to me. Before people respond that no one is forcing my to read political posts, I actually am being tacitly “forced” to read the titles of the Pub posts to get through the titles in general, looking for actual car posts. No, I actually don’t really care if anyone agrees with me or not, I’m just adding my 2 cents that a car forum doesn’t need to have the off topics from the Pub showing so blatantly in an otherwise automotive site.
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You can mute The Pub.
Problem solved.
Personally, I enjoy those discussions here as they seem a lot saner than what finds almost anywhere else. Burying one’s head in the sand is certainly an option, but I find I’m much better educated by exposure to the various viewpoints, and those stimulate me to learn details that I would never have picked up otherwise. It does require active searching, though, to research deeper the topics being discussed, but I now understand a lot more about our political systems and activities than before reading here.
The draw for all of here is a love of interesting cars, mostly classics, and specifically the wonderful cars of Sir William Lyons. That common ground helps mostly temper the extreme attitudes in both the right and the left, and helps foster constructive discussion. Yes, it sometimes veers into unpleasant territory, but it usually maintains an even approach grounded in a common respect for our fellow car lovers.
One doesn’t get that in other online venues, where it is impossible to discuss enough to learn more facts and details. Here, politics is mostly discussed in a way that stimulates the mind, not denigrates the opinion.
If that is too much of a burden, it is simple enough to just not click on a topic, and stay in the purely automotive threads.
Which is why I participate in the former: the latter holds ZERO interest for me.
@kassaq @toothboy Hopefully Paul has come up with the solution for you. To Mute a particular category (eg the Pub), just click on the Hamburger symbol at the top right, and select the Pub category. The page that comes up with a list of topics in that category has two button on the RH side “+New Topic” and a symbol to the right of it. Click on that symbol, and you will be presented with a list of options. Select the Muted option, and you will never again know that the Pub exists! The procedure for unmuting a muted category involves using your preferences screen, but I suspect that, like me, you will want to keep the Pub muted in perpetuity 
…or forever! 
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I have tried it the way you describe and also just going through the preferences page. However I do still see “Latest Pub” threads on the right of the the home page. I’m pretty sure it’s because I’ve replied to them.
So to make them go away also if you’ve replied to them, then open each one and look for the same symbol, a bell icon, click it, and select the option to mute it. Then those threads should disappear also.
To access preferences directly follow these steps:
- click your avatar on the upper right
- click the outline of a person in the upper right of the drop down
- click preferences
- click categories
- in the bottom field called Muted" click search
- type Pub, select and save
Easy.
Click on normal under “Share” which is below the last post in the topic.
A menu with four options will appear.
Click on “Muted”.
The topic goes away so far as the viewer is concerned but you can see everything else in the pub.
Thanks Erica, that worked well. I had a couple of Pub topics appear in my Suggested Topics at the bottom of an unrelated thread, and your technique cleared them. I don’t remember posting to those threads, but then again, there’s quite a few things I don’t remember and I did them just the same…
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So would we! We tried to ban politics completely for a long time, but it never worked. Politics would always pop right back up, all over the model-specific categories, causing much disruption. It seems quite a few of our members just can’t help themselves, and since we are a community, we tried to find a solution.
So, we said OK to politics in the Pub category only. That way, those who would rather not see it can easily mute the Pub. And the car discussions can stay distraction-free.
Gunnar
(Admin)
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Thanks to Paul and David! I will now be able to see the “Forums” list and not have to cringe!
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And I think that solution has worked well, and frankly, the politics discussions there, I find illuminating, much more do than on any “politics” sites I occasionally visit.
Speaking for myself , across the pond , and one who , hitherto , had little interest in the political system , either here or in the states , I find these , sometimes heated discussions illuminating and interesting . Politics , whatever your leanings , is about power . The very definition of the word centres around it . Plato got it right when he thought democracy to be as potentially dangerous to society as dictatorship . Because of our species inherent desire to advance ourselves this leads to a seesaw effect between political parties . One side then the other comes to power , each promising much , but delivering little . And so it revolves , and has done since time immemorial . But it gives us something to moan about .
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There’s a price to pay. That threads get summarily shut down after reminders to be civil is evidence that sometimes we’re not. Those who express strong political convictions should recognise that they paint a portrait of themselves that spills over into the car forums. The more their Pub posts push the envelope, the greater the sarcasm, ridicule and name calling (“Libtard” and “Trumptard” come to mind) the greater the likelihood that whatever else they have to say outside the Pub will be ignored by those whose political convictions strongly differ - or even by those who are just so fed up with the back-and-forth they’re rolling their eyes and ignoring the posts of both extremes. All of them. In the Pub or out. When we post something it’s because we think we have something worthwhile to contribute. If what we’re saying is falling on deaf ears we’re wasting our breath.
Which may be what I’m doing here myself. 
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