It goes without saying but especially in these politically charged times politics is verboten. Until such time is needed we’ll carry the following over from the “old” site.
On a personal note, this is not intended to be harsh. There are plenty of places to discuss politics and current events on the web the fact that CDO is a bastion in the sea is a good thing IMO.
From the old site: Although it says it in the rules, I think it’s best to copy it here directly to make people aware:
As they inevitably get heated and are inappropriate for a game forum, we’ve decided that threads/ commentary about politics and religion are not allowed on CDO and will be locked by the Staff.
Who wants to discuss boring real world stuff when there are elves, goblins and loads of other cool things in our fantasy world anyway?!
I quite agree with you! Politics and religion have no place here at CDO. This is a game forum with international participants from different countries with different political and religious systems, so whoever wants to can discuss and exchange ideas in a different setting - but please not here!
As is right and proper. The hobby should be a safe haven of escapism!
I sometimes wonder if a slight caveat to religion discussion is called for, even if only as an unspoken understanding. At least given how literally DakkaDakka enforce that ban.
I once tried to share this gold nugget of writing on Medieval folk religiosity in Europe over on DakkaDakka, because it is highly pertinent to the interests of anyone into 40k background, and WHFB for that matter. I warmly recommend to click the link and read it. It got taken down on DakkaDakka because it related to religion.
Yet it only relates to religion as a historical phenomenon in a learned and detached manner of highest interest as creative inspiration to people wanting to write Warhammer background & stories. With no bearing on contemporary and inflammatory issues.
Such pieces of history ought to be welcome, as inspirational stuff for background writing only.
I think that’s not an unreasonable suggestion. Historical stuff could be permitted to a degree so long as it’s pertinent to what’s being discussed, but something more contemporary should be off limits; eg in the Middle Ages there was a Pope who had his predecessor exhumed and put on trial, which is something I could see an Empire Arch-Lector or an Imperial Ecclessiarch doing, so would be okay to discuss if framed in that context but if, say, the current pope turned around tomorrow and decreed female bishops were now permitted, thatd be off limits.
I think the tricky thing is determining what counts as ‘more contemporary’. For example even though it’s over 75 years ago, discussing Nazi Germany should probably be under a blanket ban for the most part (at most a Bolt Action or FoW blog in the OT blogs section could discuss something like unit markings/uniforms/etc).
We’re in luck there: Warhammer Fantasy (our common bedrock) is historically based fantasy, and do not at all veer into 18th, 19th or 20th century history other than for cheeky out-of-place technology details such as Dwarf Gyrocopters, Chaos Dwarf industry and Grim Burlockson’s invented telephone. Such bits aside, Games Workshop always knew how to play the archaic strings which is the fantasy genre’s strong side.
So we’re not at risk of repeatedly falling into potholes of grey areas, because they’re not inherently built into the setting. Modern stuff like that simply do not concern us, apart from the odd technology. We like it roughly ancient to renaissance. The above rules cover everything else for off-topic discussions which skirts modernity in some fashion.
I would think that it would have to be on a case-by-case basis. Historical religion and politics, that’s a big maybe. I say maybe because I don’t want it to become searching for edge cases, not to say that is what is happening here,
For sure. It worked well on old CDO during the last years. Of course, most historical religions of interest to a Chaos Dwarf site are very ancient and not practiced by anyone since thousands of years. So that’s a wide safety margin to say the least.
Though ancient Mesopotamian religion did share some of the same cultural milieu as ancient Hebrew religion did due to close proximity and some common roots, and such Old Testament-style connections were touched upon in passing: Always in a learned, laidback and good-hearted manner by people interested in the historical basis of inspiration for Warhammer. None were ever in it to spoil the fantasy worldbuilding by bringing real world strife into the discussion. There was never a single tiff about any such side-tracks in any single background & story thread. I’ve read them all since 2014.
We don’t need to write this explicitly into the rules: It should work better as an implied gentleman’s agreement if my experience is anything to go by.
