There are two kinds of safe haven groups:

[flamin lib]

Safe haven groups protected by a host who bans unfriendly posters and safe haven groups that are protected by massive swarms of the usual suspects being insulting, intentionally misreading posts and claiming intentional lying and subterfuge on the part of anyone not toeing their line of dogma.

The former is much more civilized and it just eats at the souls of the usual suspects that they can't disrupt.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. I requested banning in one group, despite being told they didn't like to ban

but soon found out I could 'trash' entire groups so that I didn't accidentally post there again. That took care of the problem.

[flamin lib]

3. Yeah, but some of them can be sooooooo entertaining nt

[-none]

2. ^^^This^^^

[ellisonz]

4. Is this about the Gungeon?

This group exists so you don't have to go the Gungeon. My life satisfaction improved dramatically after I stopped arguing with those yahoos. And yes, I badly wish DU would just fill in that swamp and plop some nice mixed-use development right on top.

[flamin lib]

5. Yeah. They keep cross posting my threads so they can trash

them unopposed. Lately I've been called out but I refuse to give them the swarm fest. It just really eats at them.

[ellisonz]

6. Disengage. Disengage.

You already know just about everything you need to know about guns and gun control, you're just causing yourself agitation. Trust me, I spent probably like 6 months poking them with a stick and then another 6 months banning every incoming gun troll I could on MIRT. They aren't worth the energy.

Bunch of wannabe 's

[mountain grammy]

7. I think it's disgusting that a story about a child shooting himself

can't be seen on DU outside of the safe haven of a gun reform activist group is a sad fucking day for an organization who wants to see some sanity in America's gun culture. I think the hosts are bowing to the NRA just like our politicians do.

So are all gun stories, all gun deaths, now relegated to a safe haven of gun activists so gun nuts won't have to see it? Is this the NRA or DU?

[ellisonz]

8. Admin has been pretty clear.

The NRA types are allowed on the site and are permitted to post as they wish on their gun obsession.

[Electric Monk]

11. Actually, imho, the DU admins have given a rather mixed message regarding gun trolls

See here, for example: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12628795#post9

They do ban gun trolls, when they can be bothered, but I get the impression that they just got sick of playing whack-a-mole over and over.

[ellisonz]

12. Absolutely.

But they're not going to get rid of the Gungeon and they're not going to ban them en masse or write it into the Terms of Service explicitly, so it's sadly as you describe.

- it's been awhile, as I have been away completing a masters program in public administration.

Can you believe this group has been around for two years now? I still remember the morning of Sandy Hook.

[flamin lib]

9. In the admins defense, the tactic of ganging up

on any post that does not extol the virtues of guns works as well in GD as it does in the gungeon. Post something critical of guns there and half a dozen posters will run the post count into the hundreds, consuming enough band width to start another discussion board. RKBA was banned to the gungeon a long time ago and the GCRA was created s a way to give voice to sane gun policy without all the spittle.

[ellisonz]

13. GCRA was created in part in response to Sandy Hook...

...when the Gungeon spilled out into GD. It works when they're contained, it's a strategy of isolate and ignore.

[NutmegYankee]

10. You can post the stories in either of the gun topic groups.

The General Discussion forum restricts certain topics because those issues have dedicated partisans on either side who tend to quickly pull the discussion into META territory. Think of it as similar to the Israel/Palestine restriction - both sides have very passionate views and are quite happy to "fling poo" at each other all day.

I can attest that most of the forum Hosts are sympathetic to your viewpoint on the topic, but also understand the reasoning behind the SOP created by the Admins. That SOP is like the Host rulebook that they enforce.