[Tom Bottiglieri]

I dont think threads involving political issues should be banned, but they should be taken care of. Throwing them in the Chit-Chat section IS NOT taking care of them. The Chit-Chat forum covers such a broad area of topics.. which is pretty much everything, beside FIRST robotics. I enjoy reading and posting on certain topics in the chit chat section, but I do not enjoy seeing political chat on this website. But, does my opinion speak for everyone else on these mesage boards.. No. I am simply a user of the system, and therefore my opinion is exactly that.. an opinion.

I believe that people should have the right to express their opinions, whether they be over politics, religion, etc... but I also believe there should be an option for the common users to be able to choose whether they see these posts of opinion or not. Whether this may be a new sub section of the chit chat area or an option to classify your post as "off topic and possibly offending", I (and possibly others) hope that in the future this issue will be addressed.

Also, this brings up an issue with CD that many people notice but few talk about. While this is a serious discussion forum, it is still a DISCUSSION forum. We just happen to talk about robots here. Robots are machines that work with little need of human input. They dont show emotions, have a sense of humor, or argue. They do what they are told by creator.... People do in fact have all of those things. Now, there are many people on these forums who I would say act more like robots than a humans. People are going to argue, its in their blood. People are going to say stupid things, its in their blood. Bad Talking/neg repping/closing off/banning these people and their posts is not going to do any good. I believe the CD community as a whole needs to just.. cheer up and exersize that sense of humor that I know everyone has. Theres a time for serious business.. but 95% (guess) of the people who post and look at these boards are teenagers, and most teenagers arent very serious. I'll stop now before it turns into a rant.

Tom