TheCannyOnion wrote:Solomon wrote:This sort of politics is against forum rules...
Just thought it appropriate to point out that user pookpooi too has a rather nasty tendency of injecting irrelevant political remarks into his posts. Specifically, I've noticed that pookpoi has a habit of making snide remarks toward China/Chinese/Chinese poltics and things of Chinese origin. This latest eruption from ewan1971 seems to have been a reaction to an earlier post from pookpooi.
Here's a sample of pookpoi's posts I could find off-hand that are completely unnecessary and against forum rules prohibiting political discussions outside the off-topic forum.pookpooi wrote:A little bit update, DeepMind team will stay in China for 3 weeks, they'll go back to London in June. And yes, they're very exciting on working under 'The Great Firewall' for the first time...pookpooi wrote:This is why I suggest Jubango idea to DeepMind, the next stage is Japan (more press freedom than China for sure), the human representative is Iyama Yuta...
I'd like to appeal to pookpooi to cease injecting politics into his remarks. This forum is not a place to express personal prejudice or grandstand; it's a place to discuss Go.
Thank you.
I agree the latter half of the first quote is unnecessary, though at least unlike the posts that were infracted pookpooi's post isn't entirely off-topic since the first half contains relevant news.
But as for the second quote, it's hard to escape the fact that press censorship has had a direct negative impact on the Future of Go summit. We've had live broadcasts and expert commentary cancelled. Papers such as The Guardian, CNN, and Wired have reported on it, and it earned a mention in the NYT's article as well.
That by itself would be reason enough to avoid the current venue in the future, even if DeepMind weren't in the habit of rotating matches among countries. It's not prejudicial to admit that. (I am ethnic Chinese myself.)
TheCannyOnion wrote:Uberdude wrote:TheCannyOnion wrote:Just thought it appropriate to point out that user pookpooi too has a rather nasty tendency of injecting irrelevant political remarks into his posts.
I've not noticed that. There was quite some discussion on reddit, but less here, about how China blocked live broadcast of the match within China just a few days before the event, probably because they don't like Google. And before he went Aja said his wife would be posting updates for him on facebook as it's blocked there.
Google is not the press, and it's not a beacon of freedom either. It's a internet giant working closely with the NSA, DHS, CIA, FBI and other spy agencies. Ooops, see what I did there?
I simply asked that pookpooi stop his blatant tendency of injecting political commentary into his posts. Besides, if we take pookpooi's suggestion that AlphaGo next play in Japan, then are we not condoning Japan's unequal treatment of women in workplaces, its continued commercial slaughtering of whales, and its inability to apologize for Pearl Harbor and committing mass atrocities in World War II? Ooops, see what I just did again?
Or can please all stop injecting politics into discussions on Go?
This is getting out of hand. If you really feel any of pookpooi's posts violate board rules you should simply report them. Airing personal grievances in public and dragging threads off-topic are themselves violations of the rules.
Personally, I am grateful to pookpooi for their contributions to the board and for bringing Go news.

