MyBB Community Forums

Hi guys, sorry if the title is a bit vague or if I am posting in the wrong section!

I currently run a family-friendly forum but due to the average age of our members, I am very careful about allowing certain topics. For example, recently two topics were started: one about World War 2 (it then led to an argument about the influence the Americans had in the Allied victory), and another about the current Israel and Palestinian conflict (it then led to arguments against Israel).

If it weren't for the fact that my forum is meant to have such a wide appeal (we're a Zoo Tycoon fansite forum), I wouldn't have closed anything. However, I don't want anyone to be insulted with controversial debates, moreso when the average member doesn't have the maturity to handle these topics.

If anyone has a family-friendly forum here with a similar appeal, how do/would you handle these type of situations? Should I allow it but keep a close watch instead of being too 'heavy-fisted'?

If your topic Zoo Tycoon I would try to suppress those kind of topics as well. Or, allow debates and require references instead of just heated opinions. And, then just ban the trolls.

People will rage, let the thread develop, close it before personal insults are thrown.

No need to do any of the above. Make it known in the thread that you're the boss, and if anything out of hand occurs you have no problem closing the thread and warning the rule breakers.

Junk individual posts that direct it off-topic.

Allow it.

Certain forums disallow Political chat, that can be one of your rules if you see fit for it.

Thank you for the suggestions everyone! I think I'll just 'suppress' the political topics to avoid the arguments. The only thing that can get annoying is when they try to debate you via PM or publically, saying things like 'abuse of power', 'anarchy', or they start comparing us to other forums that allow it, lol. Seriously, this is what I have to deal with, so I was only curious if there was a better way to handle things, so thanks for the advice!

I'll send you a PM, weBex! (in reference to your request in another topic) I'm still on Zetaboards, so I won't share a link publicly until we're completely converted to MyBB, but we're working on it!

Honestly, you will get some beef, sometimes you will have to give a little, but you have to say a lot. This is why I personally like discussions like this. As long as it's civil and not attacking anyone, it doesn't hurt. The less rules, the better.

If anyone throws the "First Amendment" BS, remember to reply that the forum is your private property, as such it is within your rights to remove unwanted discussion, and that the members on your forum are guests and need to respect your decisions and follow your rules. You might need to phrase it differently depending on the situation, though.

One thing that helps is to have a clear, up to date place where the rules are so that you can refer the users to them when anything happens. This will at least help with the claims of "abuse" of power.