Yes, ridiculous. Also sad.

Annie D, the person I'm thinking of, if involved, has expressed extreme views before and has expressed intolerance of others. Like so many others of that ilk.

Some people can't handle the truth.

It was agreed here on this forum that if people want to talk politics, but not get into the heated conversations that occur on Hot Topics, to put it in the title that the posting was going to be political. I did that, in big capital letters, with a WARNING - that what I was posting was political. The people that don't want to discuss politics don't have to. Just scroll on by. Those people don't even have to open the thread, because it says in bold letters a warning, followed by the word "Political." Why people continue to insert their opinion of what should/should not be posted here continues to baffle me. It's no one's private forum.

Very true sephia, but what happens is it changes the CLIMATE of The Kitchen Table.

Some (not necessarily me) have been part of this forum for many, many years. It is presented as a place to chit-chat on random topics, sometimes personal, sometimes silly. But usually not heated. Although, sometimes even the personal issues can become heated.

I am not saying that you can't or shouldn't post political topics, it's just not what the folks here are used to.

It is very rare that a political discussion does not get heated. The preferred place would be over in Hot Topics. (Hence HOT)

Again, I am not the forum police, just trying to offer an explanation.

CLIMATE

We've had this discussion before and I will respectfully say now what I said then: KT is a place to show the real us, our ups and downs, our concerns. HT is a tear-your-throat-out mud pit and a good number of people there are not looking for understanding, or expressing concerns, they are there to wet the floor with blood (yours) and be the last man (or woman) standing. There are exceptions, but it is not a genteel place.

THAT is why we discuss politics here sometimes, because we want real thoughts from thoughtful people. And politics seems to becoming a part of our life more and more, and will affect our old age, our children, our grandchildren.

I hope we can discuss some politics here (labelled if you wish) with our usual grace and intelligence, because some of the thoughts you might have here might genuinely help other people here who are trying to think through the same issues.

“Annie D, the person I'm thinking of, if involved, has expressed extreme views before and has expressed intolerance of others. Like so many others of that ilk.”

And what “ilk” would that be, Elmer?

“Sammy, I've read that the 'I just don't like it' removes it from your feed only--everyone else can see it but you. Kind of like putting someone on your 'ignore' list, but you have to ignore them every time they comment.”

Thanks for the info, mama goose! If that’s true, though, that’s a dumb place to put that feature.

Lucille, I feel the same way. It’s enlighting and healthy to have a space where you can share different points of views. There is nothing in the guidelines that prohibits any one topic like politics. I am sure it will be back.

Sammy, here's my answer, it's going to disappoint you.......

My experience is that people who hold extreme views (of any kind, from either major party or no party), political or not political, seemingly think "free speech" means they can spew their extremism and impose it on others but those others need to be silent. That opinions or facts that dispute what they think are threatening to them and need to be avoided or kept quiet.

I was talking about extreme views. People who talk about about the current spate of corruption, law breaking, lying, threats to institutions going on in Washington DC or the very negative reaction of foreign leaders to our current administration aren't necessarily expressing extreme views. They're talking about what they see and hear, not expressing doctrinal positions. That's how I see it, as a person of middle ground thoughts, a supporter of no party or political movement and probably anti- most of the positions most party members of all kinds consistently espouse. You can see it differently.

Conversation needs to take place all the same, MOST ESPECIALLY with those who don't want to listen, and it's so disappointing when people make it personal. Personal for the public people being discussed, or personal about the people expressing their views.

HT is a tear-your-throat-out mud pit and a good number of people there are not looking for understanding, or expressing concerns, they are there to wet the floor with blood (yours) and be the last man (or woman) standing. There are exceptions, but it is not a genteel place.

Some are only there to create havoc. It's too bad Houzz allows that. Spike would have filled the teacups a long time ago with their sorry asses.

I could be wrong as I never read the thread I think you are talking about being pulled BUT .....there is one on the 2nd page started by Sephia with a warning in caps.

Dolly, you put Sherlock Holmes to shame! That was the one I was thinking of.

It was a total fluke that I saw it....glad you have it back.

Thanks Dolly.

I'm glad they put it back after reviewing it!

I don't think it was ever missing. .Just went to the next page.

No. It was gone. (I checked pages back.)

Yeah it was definitely gone. I had the thread up on a tab on my phone and when I refreshed it, it disappeared.

When they bring it back, it just goes back in the "last updated" order, so that's why it was on the 2nd page.

When it was missing, it was even removed from my profile activity log. I looked at that to confirm which thread, this thread was talking about. Glad to see moderator returned the thread.

If none of the postings to the thread are missing, perhaps there's another explanation for its temporary removal. Lately, Houzz has been hit by an anonymous poster or posters who are inserting spam or similarly insecure messages into their postings. No names. No comments. Just live links to some undefined material. Houzz is pulling these as soon as they're reported. A couple of mornings ago...quite early in the morning...there were five of these "contributions" in one thread. One right after the other...and the thread was pulled until it could be cleaned up. So before fingers are pointed and accusations are made...think outside the box. Perhaps no one flagged the thread. It may have been temporarily pulled for necessary Houzz maintenance.

I can't find it and I looked even past page two.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5374629/warning-political-trump-and-nk#n=33

Sephia, I can see your post.

Winter, you can flag individual posts within a thread that are spam. This was the entire thread, which meant the Phantom Flagger flagged the OP.

I can see the post too. Someone said kt is a place to post political views etc. Am I wrong about the kt being a place where religion and politics were taboo?

Those topics used to be discouraged back in the beginning, but that stopped a long time ago.

I think any previous taboo has been replaced with personal responsibility. If you don't like reading about politics, religion, and current events, don't open threads that are clearly about those topics.

The thread is there. Patience, people. Let's not get accusatory about flaggers when you simply can't find a thread temporarily. Fake news.

Winter is right about the influx of spammers. This morning there are 4 spammed threads topping the lists.

Winter, if so, even that info would be helpful for us participants so we know what's going on.

Why would a moderator pull the entire thread to clean up a few spam posts? The only way that's a possibility is if the flagger thinks they need to flag the thread instead of the individual posts.

The only reason a thread would disappear and re-appear is if someone flagged it, it was automatically taken down (like the spam) and a mod reinstated it after review. I have seen this happen a few times on some of the more debated threads. It's gone then comes back a day or two later.

If Houzz had taken it down on their own, I don't think it would have come back, and this thread discussing the removal would have been deleted as well. I've seen that happen many times.

I believe spam is automatically removed based on flagging (I always flag it) and some innocent threads temporarily get caught in it sometimes. Those are put back.

I must say that I came back on here after many years being away. Back then there were several that liked to argue and disagree with others all the time and instead of being kind in their comments, they were just plain rude. I left. I came back on here several weeks ago and should have never ever even looked on a thread that had anything political. It got heated after I expressed my desire to vote for Trump again. Mamapinky and I had a round with it and it was not good. I felt like anything I said I was being jumped on for my views and some of the comments were attacking me instead of my views. Not necessarily from Mamapinky. Same way when I posted on a thread about gasoline in clothes. I may or may not have been attacked but that is the way I felt. To those I have offended and you know who you are I am truly sorry. I still have my political views, but I will keep quiet about them on here. I feel like I must leave here again. Do any of you think I was the one who flagged a post? Well, if you do you are truly and mighty wrong. Forgiveness is asked of those who I offended, please. I am copying a pasting this on the original political post also, so it will be on both threads.

Emory

The thread is there. Patience, people. Let's not get accusatory about flaggers when you simply can't find a thread temporarily. Fake news

Not fake news. The thread was missing over the weekend. It returned on Monday when the moderators returned to work.

Annie....I'm not sure anyone knows what's actually going on with this recent influx of spam...or what appears to be spam. My guess would be it's kiddy scripters home from school with nothing better to do. Or someone with a grudge. But I have watched a thread temporarily disappear while Houzz pulls it in to clean it up. In addition to spam...the live links may contain malware that involves concentrated effort on Houzz' part to identify and remove for the safety of its site as well as its members.. It's one thing when a thread only contains one spam link like this but when the thread has multiple anonymous live link postings as I've witnessed lately, it's not always easy to rid the thread of any threat.

It wasn't missing from my Houzz view over the weekend, CindyMac. Perhaps the problem is more involved than the removal of spam, etc. I've had some heat related slow access issues and there was a cable slashing problem reported recently that affected Comcast and...down the line...other ISP's. Perhaps that caused the problem.

Winter, it was missing. As with others, I didn’t have my post history for it in my profile either. It was GONE. But now it’s back so why is everyone belaboring the issue?

Thistledew, I responded to your post in the other thread.

Spam has nothing to do with the kiddies being home from school and making mischief. Spam is big business. Here is a breakdown of countries producing spam.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263086/countries-of-origin-of-spam/

In programming and hacking culture, a
script kiddie is an unskilled individual who uses scripts or
programs developed by others to attack computer systems and networks
and deface websites.

Ah, yes.

It wasn't missing from my Houzz view over the weekend, CindyMac.

Yes it was. I don't know what your game is, but not interested in playing.

I'm on vacation and being very selective with my reading and posting. What on earth is this about?

There are comments on that thread from Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Wouldn't that have to mean it didn't disappear for everyone? Because I'm quite sure I saw it on the week-end, I just don't remember which day.

ETA: looking at the timing of the comments on the other thread, maybe it was missing from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon??

CindyMac..No! It wasn't. No game. Just fact!

Yes, it was missing for 24 hours. Cindymac had the last comment on Sunday between 1 and 2 pm, and maddielee found it again Monday at 2 pm. It was definitely gone. I had a link and it gave me that "oops" message.

Winter, it was here for most of the weekend but it disappeared Sunday afternoon/evening (depending where you live) so you might have missed it.

Thank you, Chi. I, apparently, missed it's down time. For my viewing and the times I was here...so was the thread.

I didn't follow the thread because it was clearly marked political.

Thanks Sephia for that clear indication! It let me know that I wouldn't enjoy that thread so I just scrolled on by.

You're welcome PKponder. I enjoy talking about politics but don't like Hot Topics. I figured if I clearly marked it WARNING - POLITICAL, those who don't want to talk about politics could scroll on by. It's unfortunate there are those people who don't want to talk about politics but want to stop others who do.

There are a few things people post here that I'm not interested in, like "find the object." Just not my thing. If others want to participate in those threads, I don't try to stop them. I just scroll on by.

Agreed. If I am not interested in a topic... I don't read it. I mean, how many hours in a day, after all! Let others read what they may be interested in, even if it "potentially" may "offend" me. I skip over, if I so desire. I do know how to use my keyboard, after all.

How much do moderators even read of what is posted?