[iagovar]

Hmmm, this is an interesting take. I may apply it to one of my communities. I've been playing with the idea of banning politics entirely, but that's what most people want to talk about.

Did you notice any improvement on the level of discussion? Or do they just reacted different with each other posts?

Also, do you just censor the keyword or remove the post entirely?

[rrebelo]

Beware: the devil is in the details. The trick is to choose the most provocative, trolling or insulting words. I let people discuss generic terms such as income distribution, fiscal crisis, education, etc. But I filter out terms such as "comunist", "fascist", "Bolsonaro" (the Brazilian version of Rodrigo Duterte) etc.

> Did you notice any improvement on the level of discussion?

So far, people are still on a "treading the waters"/"sensing the environment" period. But I sense that:

* The posts tangent to politics don't immediately trigger a knee jerk reaction. Surprisingly, when people discuss politics in a more abstract way, there is a lot more "I agree with you" between people that used to fight a lot. I count this as an improvement, although it is too early to see an increase of depth of understanding on the issues.

* In the beginning some people complained about my heavy-handed approach, calling it censorship and authoritarianism. I just didn't engage in their complaints. My standard response was "my house, my rules".

* There is a lot more of light-heart, especially among the younger ones. Childish jokes and memes are still around, but nothing offensive. In friends and family groups it is ok, these are habits I don't want to break.

> Also, do you just censor the keyword or remove the post entirely?

I remove the post and post a standard bot answer. Often, the bot gives some false positives, but people find it funny (e.g: "PT" is the acronym for both the main opposition political party and for "total loss" in Portuguese). Because I use regular expressions, people started a game of trying to outsmart the bot. Since it was for fun, it only helped sharpen up the expressions.

[spaniard89277]

Thank you, i may use your approach.

[Kye]

"Politics" is a shaky, fluid concept. For example: Talking about a date I went on would be political to a sizable subset of most communities because of the genders involved. Drawing the line there while others are able to speak about their lives freely would alienate a large part of your community.

Politics is not an innocent team sport with few/no consequences for the losing side. Figuring out where to draw the line requires a deep understanding of what is politicized and why.

[Joeri]

Politics by itself isn’t necessarily the problem, it’s the tribalism that brings out the worst. Politics is just one outlet that leads into tribalism, just like sports and religion.