Covid Forum Access

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83r17h

Puritan Board Freshman
Following seeing a lot of tension in the covid forum, and accounts from other members of the PB expressing how interactions in it have frustrated them instead of edified, and especially going off of @NaphtaliPress comment in another thread:

The solution here was to stop visiting the Covid forum or focusing on that seemingly 24-7

Would it be possible to make the covid forum like the politics one, with a checkbox to enable / disable in user preferences? That would allow the helpful option of just turning it off.
 
It had occurred to me as well to make the forum like P&G and World News. If I can't tweak it I'll suggest doing so to Rich.
 
Is there anything besides COVID to think, fear, ponder, eat, sleep, consider, drink, or breathe about? I thought it’s all that ever was, is, or shall be.
 
FYI. This is becoming a wider problem. One of the big Facebook Reformed groups has just banned any vaccine discussions including passports, because too many flags have gone to the FB censors and they don't want to jepoardize the group's existence. So, while churches are facing govenment bans of gathering if not having passports, one of the big FB Reformed groups is going to insist on silence on the issue. They don't have the option as here where we can segregate discussion, but a ban of anything vaccine related including forced passports seems short sighted and because this issue is not going away but will morph into other things, probably will be short lived. I don't see how we can avoid the issue as much as folks want to return to trite pictures of food and drink and light banter. *edit; three days later they have unbanned it as the ban hand gone in before Biden's speech and the admins realizing all the attended issues of conscience and liberty had to be open for discussion lifted the ban.
 
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FYI. This is becoming a wider problem. One of the big Facebook Reformed groups has just banned any vaccine discussions including passports, because too many flags have gone to the FB censors and they don't want to jepoardize the group's existence. So, while churches are facing govenment bans of gathering if not having passports, one of the big FB Reformed groups is going to insist on silence on the issue. They don't have the option as here where we can segregate discussion, but a ban of anything vaccine related including forced passports seems short sighted and because this issue is not going away but will morph into other things, probably will be short lived. I don't see how we can avoid the issue as much as folks want to return to trite pictures of food and drink and light banter.
For Facebook, that is unfortunately another example of censorship on the platform.
 
For Facebook, that is unfortunately another example of censorship on the platform.
I just noticed today that of the various actions you have on commenting in that forum on FB, there is a "flag with vaccine info" tag. Not enough that their bots do this for everything Covid related, it is now in the hands of every commenter to flag posts and comments.
 
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I think it needs to stay but perhaps do the checkbox thing for those wishing to avoid it. There are many decisions we will have to make as believers yet and having an uncensored place to flesh that out biblically with other believers is important.

Also, not surprising Facebook would mark such things - I deleted mine as using it helps make them money. It does further demonstrate the need for such a place of discussion here.
 
I agree with Chris on the factual need for the Coronavirus forum (and with you, of course, Josh! :)) Serious things are afoot in our world and our nation with this virus/pandemic being the catalyst for it. As wearying as it may be sometimes, I’m thankful that we can speak here without big tech censorship.

Some of our discussion around it seems trivial or of a speculative nature, it’s true. But we have a lot of disparate personalities wanting to weigh in on various matters and that’s just the way it is. Of late we post graphs and studies and early treatments that people can and do debate the value of; but the time may come when we’ll more appreciate the fellowship and encouragement to be had there.
 
Folks should just put their hands over their ears, hum loudly, and board the boxcars to the camps if they don't want to have to think about reality.
 
I am thankful for a place that things can be discussed with others of a similar worldview. This is surely lacking these days.
 
Is PB really safe from this? Let's not forget that Amazon obliterated an entire social media platform. Is PB hosted on its own servers?
I think its hosted by cloudflare but an admin could confirm. That being said the COVID forum is not public and shouldn't be of great interest for censor. You are right - the Gab.com model of owning everything ground up is much more resilient. I'm not sure that is practical for a site like puritanboard but with the smaller user-base and inaccessibility of the forum in question to the public it seems a good deal of risk is already mitigated.
 
https://sitechecker.pro/hosting-checker/ shows that PB is hosted by cloudflare.
I think its hosted by cloudflare but an admin could confirm. That being said the COVID forum is not public and shouldn't be of great interest for censor. You are right - the Gab.com model of owning everything ground up is much more resilient. I'm not sure that is practical for a site like puritanboard but with the smaller user-base and inaccessibility of the forum in question to the public it seems a good deal of risk is already mitigated.
 
I have appreciated the Covid discussions. I have medical Dr friends who are on different sides. It is hard for them to operate freely in the hospitals depending on where their associations are. So the information is creeping along. I appreciate that.
 
Just to be clear on the original point: I agree that having the covid forum available is a good thing. It's the ability to "opt out," for those who find some of the discussions in it harmful to their edification, that I'm requesting.
 
It will be opt in is the plan.
Just to be clear on the original point: I agree that having the covid forum available is a good thing. It's the ability to "opt out," for those who find some of the discussions in it harmful to their edification, that I'm requesting.
 
If I recall correctly, this is why the politics forum is the way it is. Way back when, there was so much enthusiasm on the board for a certain candidate that "Today's Posts" was dominated by political posts.
 
I would love to be able not see the COVID forum any more. Speaking frankly, I've been a member here since 2006 (nearly 20 years!) and the never-ending COVID debates have nearly killed my love for the PB.
 
We should charge admission to the Covid forum (like it was a boxing match), and the proceeds could fund Rich's upkeep of the PB.
 
Wait, just catching up with all this: so we've quarantined the covid discussions? Because people were sick of them? :D
 
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