This has been an interesting thread, and while the question of whether the forum should be politics-free has been mooted on a number of previous occasions in recent months, the timing here is prescient considering recent events, so thank you Mike S for your poll and for getting the conversation started. As forum moderator, I felt it fairest to allow you all to discuss the matter freely today, and to allow the poll some time before considering the result. Before making this post here I’ve also consulted with Naim’s Managing director, Charlie Henderson to discuss the forum and to get Naim’s view on the way forward.
I have always seen the Naim forum as a Naim hosted open house or club where Naim customers, fans, music lovers, dealers, distributors, and staff are invited to gather to share our passion for music and for Naim audio. We come here to talk about music on formats both new and old, as well to discuss Naim kit from the past, the present and sometimes even the future, speculating on what we’d like to see from Naim further down the road. In the spirit of the open house, some of us bring some fantastic wines along too - even if we can often only enjoy them vicariously via the “which wine are you drinking?” thread! The forum is a treasure trove of advice and experience that enables members to maximise the enjoyment gleaned from their Naim kit and it also serves as a salve and comfort for when things sometimes go wrong. This is the heart of what the Naim forum is all about.
The padded cell has always been a room of the forum where members can discuss things outside of music, Naim and hifi in general. Much like its namesake, it has also served as a holding room for some of the more contentious and rancorous discussions, none more so than the threads on politics and religion. Recently we have all seen how the political threads in particular have begun to undermine the spirit of unity and community here. A number of us have felt that this has now reached a tipping point where it’s time to re-evaluate why we’re here and what the forum stands for.
I have ruminated on this very question before on here and my answer has always been clear and consistent; We are a diverse membership, coming here from all over the globe, from a wide variety of backgrounds, sometimes coming here to learn, sometimes to teach, but always to share and be united by our love of music and our passion for Naim Audio.
So, for the sake of the unity and harmony of the forum, and based on what appears to be a fairly clear majority of opinion among the regular posting membership here , we’ve decided that from hereon, when you enter the forum, you are coming here to celebrate what unites us, our common passion and interest, and to that end, the discussion of religion and politics will be left at the door.
I understand that some of you will be disappointed by this, but as the brief hiatus of political discussion over this summer showed, the forum will be a happier, more convivial and more united place for it.
Many thanks, Richard
p.s. Of course, the question of what defines a political thread has been raised on this thread. As far as this forum is concerned, the definition of what is a political thread is ultimately down to moderators discretion. However for benefit of any doubt, it could include any conversation that is deemed by the moderators to be mainly involving matters of a country’s governance and any debate between opposing parties, their members or supporters. Note that I have also now closed the poll. Again, thank you Mike S.