@Jayde
No I do not trust the staff to take care of the individual user issue, because experience shows that they can't/won't fast enough or with consistent levels of force, and many people (for instance you) skirt just under the line while still causing allot of unnecessary strife that IMO belongs somewhere else.
Less people clicking on those topics is obviously helpful yes, but it's clear to me now that most can't resist them selves, won't learn to do so any time soon, and even if they can, others still won't and we then have the spreading anger and grudges to other parts of the forum issue.

Sure, plenty of the previous topics have started out tame enough, though almost always spiraled into something stupid at some point along the way, but that's no longer the case generally over the last few months.  Now it's shit almost from the very start on basically every political topic.
So I don't think that at least a temp ban is unreasonable, and honestly should have been done months ago when it first started getting this bad.

Also, it isn't our job as a gaming forum to teach people how to be better citizens.  You can always go do that somewhere else if you want, or at least in a much more constructive and less divisive way.
In my opinion, political and religious debate never belonged here, and the only reason we think it does now is because we've become so numb to it.  Maybe at one point it would have worked, but I think we've shown quite clearly why we can't have nice things by now.
You might be all for pushing your version of a better world and getting into political (debates) Jayde, but if most of the userbase isn't interested in having charged rhetoric rammed down their throats twice weekly by all sides, and it keeps leaking into other topics and making the forum a more emotionally hostile place over all, than put your self in their shoes and you can see why at this point they might just want the shit gone period.  Deplatform the crusaders fighting a war you never wanted on your doorstep on all sides and it becomes almost a non issue.

TL:DR: This place never should have been your soap box to begin with, nor anyone else's.  People are getting tired of that type of shit, and if you're really surprised by that, than it just proves how selfish people like you have been in your misuse of this site for spreading your various messages.  People get enough of this crap everywhere else, we don't need it here as well.

I mean, everybody knows everybody else's political opinions now anyways. If we ban political discussions, it won't stop the animosity from leaking into other topics, people will just take indirect shots at other members without directly mentioning politics thinking they're being clever.

There is only 1 way to find out. Let the banning commence!

@Lucas1
you're right that some animosity is still going to stick around between longtime rivals, but I am hoping that this will result in less flareups so that for most of those people, things will fade over time.

I think a more appropriate response to this issue - which is, in fact, an issue, and I recognize that - is for us, as a staff team, to ensure that we come down harder on people who are jerks when talking about politics. Because here's the thing. Not everyone who does it is pushy, and not every person who's pushy or loud or abrasive one time is that way every time (present company definitely included here, because yes, I recognize that I have been part of the problem). I would be in favour of a formal (or even informal) amendment to the rules which mentions that we'll be harsher toward people talking about sensitive subjects (politics and religion in particular), and that might cut down on the drama if people know they can't be idiots just because their blood is up. Again, self included here. I have no desire to flout this edict by any means.

So no, Defender, I'm afraid I disagree with most of your points and most of your reasons. I do, in fact, think that most of this should fall to the community directly (staff team needs to do better squashing this when it comes up, users need to be better about not saying or doing stupid things on certain subjects). I do not think that just shutting off a topic of discussion is in any way healthy, not when we have alternatives that would work, and not when enacting this "solution" doesn't actually solve any problems directly. You generally don't get to put the real world in neat separate little boxes, after all...and heck, this is just a forum. Imagine how you'd feel if you were out with your coworkers and a political discussion sprang up, because surprise surprise, it can happen.

I'm kind of with Jayde on this one. As much as it seems quite harsh, perhaps it would be far more effective to crack down hard on incivility. This has been bothering me. If people can't help but resort to name calling when their blood boils at political matters, how are they going to react when things get rough around here again on some other topic? So, I think it might be best to use the political topics to demonstrate who can't keep their cool, and dispense with them as a manner of speaking. Honestly, each of us are sitting in probably comfortable chairs at our keyboards. We can stand to stop, think, and research if necessary. I  think it would be far more productive to handle those who are causing the strife in the political topics.

Well, you shouldn't teach kids to share because adults don't share. If they do, they learn not to quick enough when someone damages or breaks something. Either that, or they become a push-over.

@66, I still haven't seen any evidence to prove that the mods have allowed political bias to interfere with their competency as administrators and moderators of discussions. Just baseless claims. So I think that we'll be fine in that particular area.

They're gonna do what they want anyway. This was never about what the users want, and it never will be.

I can't think of a time that what we wanted made any difference. It may have taken longer, but they got what they wanted in the end.

@72, eh, it wouldn't be the first time members of this forum have accused the mods of nonsense that they know they have absolutely no evidence for. Nor would it be the first time members of this forum have accused the mods of never listening to the community -- despite there being evidence to the contrary. This community appears to have a major, major problem with trusting anybody in authority, and I imagine that even if the mods were replaced with a team that did everything the community wanted they'd still not be trusted and they'd still be accused of nonsense.