jjmcgo said:
Can't we abide by the ban on politics on this site? Everyone knows this a contentious subject now. Why start a fight?
In short, the answer is "no", I think.
There are 2 reasons for this imo. First, backcountry issues quickly lead to dealing with competing interests and dealing with competing interests in a non-violent manner leads us to government and law and that leads us to politics. This is to say, I think it is not reasonable to expect folks to discuss backcountry issues without tripping across issues that are either directly or indirectly political in their implications.
Secondly, there is no agreed upon "common sense" understanding of what is and is not political by any group of people, much less among VFTT posters. I work with policy and procedure at my local church where this meta-issue has come up repeatedly over the past 15 years that I've been involved. Currently we
disallow members from advocating political parties or candidates but we do
allow members to advocate for issues or activist organizations. Moreover, advocacy is limited to stay within certain bounds. All of this to say, that we've had to come out and define the limits fairly explicitly. This current policy statement has been place for about 10 years now and strikes a balance that seems to allow issues to get discussed among our members while avoiding the really nasty stuff that is associated with partisan politics.
Luckily for VFTT, Darren has enough time to clarify his interpretation of political on a case by case basis. Since its his site, I would suggest that in terms of what is and is not allowed, politics is as Darren does.
Hope this is helpful,