I would qualify that to not characterize the entire forum; rather, at least part of the “leadership” there appears to relish inciting discussion of hot political issues, and baiting them with references to extremist literature. The sad part is that the moderation function appears at times to be skewed by this personal bias. The guidelines encourage relating political issue to dhamma, but that’s rare, and largely ignored by the more vociferous participants.
One justification offered is that a participant can choose to “turn-off” access to, visibility of that part of the forum – roughly equivalent to the “Watercooler” here.
If though, the context is truly to focus on Theravadan, or EBT, or the like, I find that the presence of extensive amounts of political invective tends to poison the whole atmosphere – when the sila goes south, what’s the point of samadhi (other than the kind of concentration of a safe-cracker or a sniper)? How is panna possible?. In recent months as this has intensified, the amount and quality of dhamma discussions has markedly deteriorated over there. (Not that this couldn’t reverse in the future, as I’ve seen possible in various forums – in the course of being around for in a couple for 3 or 4 years now).
In the recent thread discussing the “Watercooler” forum, I was reassured by an apparent decision, or leaning, to NOT permit that kind of political discussion. Unfortunately, it’s popping up again and again, right here in this very thread, for instance – same topics, same language, same biases, (and same identifying quirks of expression) as these personages have extensively displayed in at least two other forums , albeit behind shifting, often multiple “avatar” personas. For those of us with as yet not perfected equanimity, it’s a bothersome challenge – like a beginner meditator trying to master jhana while sitting in the middle of Times Square (or Piccadilly Circus, or maybe more like the current battle for Mosul).
The treatment by the moderators here has been admirable in many ways; some of it, though, IMO, tends to “feed the trolls” by trying to have reasonable discussion with them (to which they respond by going on and on…).
Btw. An opinion on the OP issue here: I think the manner of that mention of suicide could create legal liability in some legal systems / countries. Something serious happens and can be linked to the website – lawyers and judges could cause the administrators of the website major grief. Like what happens here with reference to potential copyright infringements, immediate and decisive action is prudent.