> I guess I'm just bugged that US elections polarize people to the extent that they do, and that people feel the need to express their opinions in apolitical forums.
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> Obviously, the front page of RinkWorks is Sam's forum, and he can do with it as he pleases, and naturally he's going to have an opinion, just like everyone else, but I guess I visited RinkWorks today just as I do every other day, as an escape from the rest of the world, so I was less than pleased to see a glimmer of the world creep in at this time of year.

I was conscious of all these facts before I decided to post a front-page political editorial to RinkWorks. Ultimately, I felt strongly enough on the subject that I felt it important to me to express myself. It is, after all, a fundamentally ingrained facet of the human psyche that we must express ourselves -- our ideas, our feelings, and most especially our passions. Even when we keep secrets, parts of ourselves to ourselves, we still find ways to express the passions behind them or languish away in the attempt. The most successful in this pursuit are called artists.

Well there was certainly nothing artistic about my call to vote, but it sufficed. Was it wrong to risk alienating some readers by doing so? No, not at all. Since before I had an audience at RinkWorks, my prime directive has been to infuse RinkWorks with work that engages me, and if it engages anybody else, that's a welcome and happy coincidence. To break this directive would ultimately lead to me feeling burnt out and/or inhibited, which would begin a destructive cycle that would ultimately end the site as we know it.

Was it wrong to "use" my established audience as a platform for a political opinion? I don't think so. We value freedom of speech as a fundamental human right, to the point that many forget the responsibility that comes with that right -- but I don't think speaking when people happen to be listening is inherently a violation of that responsibility.

All that said, I completely sympathize with you on your last sentence. The truth of the matter is that I didn't like using RinkWorks as a political platform either. I felt a lot better about having expressed myself, but then I didn't want to look at my own front page, and I was counting down the hours until Tuesday night, when I could set things back to normal again. RinkWorks is my home page, of course, both at home and at work, so just firing up a browser was downright uncomfortable. I won't promise I won't ever express a political opinion on the front page again, but I don't expect to; next time (whenever that might be) I'll give more consideration to using the Site Journal instead.

In any case, no one need fear that RinkWorks is going to shift from its normal course. Online Entertainment is still the order of business around here.