With the recent uptick in political images here, I'd like to ask: have the rules for political discussion changed, been considered for a change, or stayed the same?

Furthermore, I have a couple of questions concerning the wording used in that code of conduct rule:

• Does it concern other political topics? Reference to political parties and political figures are banned, but does this also refer to political movements and events that have occurred due to political influence?
• Are there any political topics that this wouldn't cover, or any rules that develop a baseline of what is/isn't considered political? For example, LGBT discussion is not something that would be considered political to some, but it is involved in politics in the case of laws such as the banning of gay couples.
• To what extent would comments be considered political discussion? Consider a comment that simply reads "this is bad" and nothing else on a political image post: would it be considered political, as it can be interpreted as a reaction to the underlying message? Or is it not, since it's ambiguous as to what the message is reacting to?
• Also, building off the above, if one political comment sparks a whole comment section to discuss, what should be reported? Just the first comment, or every comment that reacts to it as well?

I hope none of these come off as "well duh" kinds of questions, haha. I just want to make sure I get a strong sense of what I should and shouldn't report before I screw up and report something innocuous.

From the way I personally understand the rule, it generally means that discussions that could lead to fierce debate are not allowed. Perhaps more simply, if it doesn't critique or add to the actual artwork itself and instead you use the comment section to push your political agenda then it is not allowed.
So if there's a picture of a furry waving an LGBT flag and a comment says "Shit like this makes me sick, it shouldn't be allowed here, LGBT culture is ruining this fandom!" then it should be reported because not only is this not about the artwork itself but it is bringing in debate and pushing personal agendas.
When it comes to artwork itself that's political I tend to see that the mods keep those artworks up. Which they should, it's someone's art and it's someone's expression and I don't think the mods are in the business to censor certain artworks based on what they contain. I just think that the rule is there so comment sections aren't flooded with a bunch of people debating each other and trying to push their political opinions on each other while burying comments that either provide critique or say something about the art piece.

When it comes to political debates already happening, this I am not too sure. I think that the first comment should be reported if meets the criteria of breaking the rule but when it comes to the replies I personally think it depends. Some replies to political comments seek to correct the original comment, especially ones that involve history. Technically when it comes down to it they are still breaking the rule because they are adding a debatable comment that has nothing to do with the artwork (I am a history nerd and I have deleted comments that I have made that I make to correct some parts of someone's debate, however I deleted them because they always end up adding to the debate and I really don't want to get involved or get a negative record over it). But if the replies are simply doing the same thing that the original poster did but with the opposite opinion then I think that they should get reported too because they are breaking the rule.
Again, this is just how I've always understood the rule but I am not a mod so I might be wrong.

Has political discussion reached the paw_patrol images yet?

lance_armstrong said:
Has political discussion reached the paw_patrol images yet?

From what I can tell only as far as disconnected references/slurs, and a handful of posts discussing the morality of cub art.
About half the posts I opened have a hidden comment somewhere though.

poontang said:
(lots of stuff)

That's a valid way of looking at things; political discussion, even if it is commenting on the subject matter of an image, is still political discussion and is up to be reported. I'd prefer for modstaff to affirm/correct this outlook before I go out and report things, though.