Political, Religious and Contentious Discussion on LD
Latest Deals
Hey guys,
We created a chat topic a while ago to get feedback on what people thought about allowing political, religious and contentious conversation on LD.
We got a mixed response - with some very keen to promote freedom of speech and allow all conversation and others feeling that LD wasn’t the right platform for such topics.
After a great deal of thought and deliberation we have decided (for now) to introduce a new rule prohibiting political, religious and contentious content on LD.
In an effort to understand where we’re coming from on this, here is our rationale:
- We fundamentally agree with freedom of speech and allowing people to express their thoughts.
- By it’s very nature, people are passionate about politics, religion and other sensitive issues and this can often lead to heated debate and discussion.
- We recognise that sometimes discussions can descend into something unacceptable from a legal standpoint - whether that be due to sexism, racism, inciting religious hatred or some other reason.
- We are (if we’re being honest) not qualified to be judge and jury as to what content is unacceptable.
- Like all members of LD, the moderation team have different personal views and, as such, it would be very difficult to moderate content on a case-by-case basis without bias and in a standardised and fair way. Ultimately a lot of these things are subjective and who are we to decide what is/isn’t okay?
- LD is first and foremost a deals/money saving community. There are lots of other excellent places to debate the merits of various political regimes, religious beliefs and other sensitive issues.
So, as we’re still a very small team with limited resources we think the best way forward for now is to disallow political, religious, and other contentious conversation on LD. That way, we’re at least fairly prohibiting all conversation (rather than taking sides) and it frees up our time to work on exciting new features for LD and (more importantly) finding great deals!
Please allow us a smidge of wiggle room as to what may or may not be included in this definition. In general, we seek to avoid heated argument unrelated to deals and saving money. Other forums and websites are available to partake in this.
We still very much encourage discussion and debate and think everyone should challenge not only other people’s views but their own too.
This is perhaps something we can revisit in the future when we have a bigger team and/or come up with a fair moderation system. We’d like to reiterate that this wasn’t an easy decision - we recognise whatever the outcome we would disappoint some members - which is never something we want to do!
Thanks as ever for being part of LD 
Hi Kelsey
Many thanks for the detailed explanation. I think that's a wise decision for LD.
The following forum terms and conditions are an extract from The Economist website, and clearly aim to deal with similar issues of inappropriate / sensitive user-generated content in forums, and may be useful background info when further developing your own site rules for Latest Deals.
You are solely responsible for the content of your Messages. You must comply with any rules posted by The Economist on a Forum. You may not:
- Post, link to or otherwise publish any Messages containing material that is obscene, racist, homophobic or sexist or that contains any form of hate speech;
- Post, link to or otherwise publish any Messages that infringe copyright;
- Post, link to or otherwise publish any Messages that are illegal, libellous, defamatory or may prejudice ongoing legal proceedings or breach a court injunction or other order;
- Post, link to or otherwise publish any Messages that are abusive, threatening or make any form of personal attack on another user or an employee of The Economist;
- Post Messages in any language other than English;
- Post the same Message, or a very similar Message, repeatedly....
Source: https://www.economist.com/legal/terms-of-use#usercontent
Interestingly The Economist makes no mention of politics or religion. I guess the terms 'abusive' and 'any form of hate speech' covers it.
The problem with religious and political comments is that it sometimes can be part of a discussion even without being about religion/politics (comedy and entertainment, for example). But yeah, I agree on disallowing topics about that specifically.
Whilst I am an avid believer of free speech (with in reason of course) I don't really like to get into religious/political debates as those debates can quite easily turn into arguments. But it is interesting listening to others.
Lydskyd i think it is fine to speak your mind, beliefs etc. But do not agree with personal attacks on people you do not even know because their thoughts are not same as yours. We should be tolerant but able to speak out against injustice without fear of reprisals.
RegularComper90 I agree with this 100%. Just looking at other forums it’s easy to see how it can get out of hand.
My thread was closed today but it wasn't political at all, in passing i gave example of bad behaviour by humans but without any reference to what it was. My topic was about the human condition and how evil mankind can still be even in the 21st century. The title was changed to someone I wasn't even talking about. But ok rules are rules and I am not going to worry/contest it. However, there are currently five other topics online, open, that could be deemed political. One actually about brexit, one about universal credit, two about snowflake soldiers and another about government stance on smoking. I commented on most of them and did not feel they invited any political debate. But hey ho, I am not here to cause problems, and am first to admit I can be as wrong as the next person. I will be more careful in future and steer away from the deep thinking.
Yes, you were a bit unlucky there, but moderation is not an exact science, and I think you’re wise to let that one go.
Johnny I think some people have forgot this is primarily a deals website and not mumsnet where you talk about everything on their forums.
I 100% wholeheartedly agree with her topic being closed about (her words) "the human condition and how evil mankind can still be even in the 21st century", this is not the place for that. As Tom said, "it was thought to be a political thread".
See Tom's reply here
https://www.latestdeals.co.uk/chat/its-shame-people-dont-use-chat#5c367164d4d6860e00e3bcb1
I think this is a good idea. Political and religious discussions can often lead to a toxic environment and create a great deal of animosity.
Hi Kelsey how do you report others for being racist in the comments, there is nowhere to report comments, only posts. Perhaps something you can look into as I'm sure you can't police all the chats.
Hey GlitchHunter 
If you feel a comment is inappropriate please do let us know via the contact form. We'll hopefully sort an easier way of doing this in the future
Kelsey Where can I find the contact form? I have muted the people involved so I don't see their posts anymore, but I will remember for next time.
Kelsey Hmm you offend long standing members by agreeing with a member who has only been on for a week - no loyalty there Kels its why i no longer post on here and just view the deals now and have moved to TOPUKDEALS - You are part of the problem removing posts that saddos are easily offended by.
I found the posts most refreshing and truthful!#
I despise narrow mindedness and love free thought!
People doing what you are were the ones who worked for the nazis to allow them to take power!
Think about it - you are promulgating the liberal agenda and are therefore part of the problem we have in the uk and its getting worse!
garygemmell Evening
Sorry you feel that way - my comments aren't an attempt to take sides but to provide information - namely how to report something a member might find inappropriate.
As set out in the initial post - we have taken the approach of disallowing political and religious discussion on LD for the time being. As such, we try and remove any topics or comments covering those subjects - irrelevant of the particular viewpoint or position expressed.
It isn't an ideal solution but is the most practical and workable solution we have for the time being.
And that is exactly why inflammatory subjects should not be tolerated on here. People spit the dummy if they don't get their own way and then cut off their nose to spite their face. It is not wrong to ban subjects that may cause offence or be divisive, there are plenty of other platforms for free speech and I for one do not want this site to turn into a nasty intolerant place like Facebook which is an ideal place for those topics.
I totally agree with this, after all this is a deals site and whilst the chat section is great and diverse, issues can escalate rapidly when someone feels passionate about something which won't be everyone's view point. If you had umpteen moderators who had time to look through every post then great, but that is a luxury you don't have, especially when the moderators are all voluntary and giving up their own time. There are plenty of platforms for these topics and it is nice to escape them on here
I agree. Im sure there are plenty of forums, fb pages etc where people can talk about politics and religion. This is a deal site at the end of the day and i think the chat section is a bonus with plenty of topics for those that would like a little conversation.
KirsteyJames exactly, I will walk away from any conversations containing either, best that way as I have seen too many people break friendships over them. Happily talk about animals or chocolate though
I don't inflict my political and/or religious opinions on anyone here so I wouldn't want others using it as a platform for their personal views. That's what makes this site unique.
I dont see the point in having certain topics allowed in the chat forum as there are a group of people on here who think their better than everyone else and can speak down to people and be nasty. Nothing ever gets done. I was once told that since i lost my job (got made redundant) that i shouldnt be entiltied to a phone or a gym membership which were paid out of my saved wages and nothing else.
Microchosm of real life then!
People are people its just a forum so ignore it why bother getting offended you just add more stress to life that you dont need!
You think this site is bad then try HUKD it is horrendous!
Social media unfortunately is a pretty nasty place to be thats why i gave up twatter and facesplat its just wastes so many hours of time arguing and trying to find intelligent conversation with non politically correct people!
The problem is of course, it's all blinking politics at the moment. You can't turn on the TV without there being politics. I guess people can't talk about much else as there literally is nothing else to discuss... that or the coronavirus or Brexit 
I think you know the answer to that, they won't. As much as I like LD just about any sort of deal gets posted even deals with trivial discounts that can be found easily cheaper elsewhere in seconds. The site owners seem keen to get in as much affiliate income as possible which they may need to pay for the reward points Amazon vouchers. Still a good site for looking through the deals but it can be time consuming because of so much padding.
Hey
Just a heads up that I've locked this chat topic now as there were some off-topic comments.
If anyone has an issue with a moderation decision please do reach out to us via our contact form where we'll do our best to help.
The moderation team are human and we'll readily admit to making mistakes and also having to make tough judgment calls where no single action would appease everyone. Whilst we may not always make a decision that everyone feels is correct we're always contactable via the form for feedback and thoughts to help shape future moderation decisions
Join for free to get genuine deals, money saving advice and help from our friendly community
Chief Bargain Hunter
