New Policy on Religious Threads

Hmph. Well, I'll be sure to play my "Get out of Trouble" free card the next time someone seriously wants me banned for a flagrant violation of pre-established and well-read forum rules.

 

I'll buy that from you.

 

I'll trade it to you for two hotels and a house on Park St.!

 

Well well, this thread certainly has gone off topic....

Mods, make an announcement thread in that forum?

 

Deal!


Oh, by the way, those hotels need some serious work. I'm talking a new roof, some walls here and there...

 

"Oh, by the way, those hotels need some serious work. I'm talking a new roof, some walls here and there..."

I think this building should be condemned. There's serious metal fatigue in all the load-bearing members, the wiring is substandard, it's completely inadequate for our power needs, and the neighborhood is like a demilitarized zone.

I'll take it!

 

Well, the last time this was seriously discussed (in April, when Ethril made his "Convert me to Christianity" thread) I was very much opposed to a ban on religious topics. I felt that the thread in question was seeing some very exciting and interesting debate, and was much more intellectual and genuine than most of the crap we see here (fun as it may be).

This is a very difficult decision for the mods to have to make, I figure. I don't think that there's a single one of them who would be opposed to in-depth intellectual discussion, overall. Unfortunately, the areas of debate which have the greatest potential, and greatest history behind them (religion and politics) happen also to be the ones that really stir people's blood. This is not bad in and of itself-- except that it seems that the majority of our members who post in those threads don't have the capacity to be both passionate about a topic, and considerate of the other users' opinions and feelings at the same time.

Any serious area of debate, whether politics, religion, philosophy, social policy, psychology, science, or love, is open to the possibility of turning into a flame war, if those participating cannot emotionally distance themselves enough to have a rational, and above all, polite discussion. I could foresee a Jedi Council where all of the above topics were banned-- and it wouldn't be a pretty sight.

As things stand right now, I must say that I support this particular ban-- not because that's the way things should run around here-- but because some of us took our priveleges here for granted, and walked all over the mods' good trust. When the previous ban was lifted, we were entrusted to keep religious discussions civilized and respectful. Some threads were succesful in this (e.g. What is the Nature of God?, Quote the Bible, and a few others). Others were accusatory, hostile, immature, and arrogant in the extreme (eg. ... well, you know who you are). It is because of the latter, that the former can no longer exist here.

So-- no more religious threads. I can live with that. But what's more important-- I hope that certain people can learn a lesson from this, and start setting a good example for the new members. I don't want the same thing to happen to threads about philosophy, politics, and all the other hot-topics here on the boards. A new commitment, both from members and moderators, to extinguish all flames before they burn out of control, is needed. If serious discussions can ever happen here again, respect, compassion, and consideration should be foremost in everyone's minds, before they even think about hitting the "post" button.

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Okay! Thanks to everyone who made it all the way through my rant. Here, have a cookie!
[image=http://www.bearscookieden.com/Images/logo_no_text.gif]

 

See, BobTheGoon, your post was off topic, but in respect for the Ghostbusters, I'm not deleting it. That's using descretion.

Thank you for your well thought out input, Whimper. And it's not the intention to ban other subjects, I assure you. It's not a requirement here at the JC that everyone get along and everyone agree on everything. It's the sort of problems that are unique to religious discussion that we're trying to avoid.

 

All things should be done in respect for the greatest comedy of all time. All things

 

Well said, Whimper. Now where's my cookie?

 

Here's a yummie chocolate chip one for you!
[image=http://206.166.88.108/highschool/student_pages/heather/cookie1.gif]

 

Thank you much!

 

ummmmmmmmmm, yummy cookie.

Slap a luxury tax on those hotels, please. The JCC needs more revenue.

 

I'm not sure if this has been brought up before, but

1. Does this policy apply only for new threads, or also for old threads?

2. If it applies for old threads, are all the threads that the admins see going to be locked, or just those that are upped from now onwards?

3. Is epic's old discussion thread (that was the only one allowed then) an exception, or are the rules the same for that thread also?

Thanks!

 

I'm only speaking for myself here but since I'm the only admin replying to questions at the moment, by answers will have to do for now.

I closed the threads that I've seen on the first few pages. I'm not going to go through every thread we have in our database, looking for religion threads to close. If they're not upped then I'm not worried about them.

I don't know what epic's thread was. I do know that when this policy was in place before we had one sanctioned religion thread. I don't know whether or not we're going to do that again. Not to pass the buck, but that might be a question for the dedicated Community moderators. Whatever they decide will go.

 

You know, a dedicated religion thread may be a good idea. That way all the religious people here on the JC can get a good dose of Jesus without filling up the front page of Community.

 

Ok, thanks for your answers for the time being, Padme Bra.

epic's thread was the sanctioned thread in Community. I'm trying to find out if it's still sanctioned.

 

Such a thread would only work, if it's title explicitly stated "WARNING: Religious fervour contained within. Enter at your own risk". If such a thread were allowed, its very first post should be a very clear-cut explanation of the rules for discussion. Extra formating and color coding would help too (I know Vertical is good at this ).

Still, however, if people continually saw 1 religious thread on the first page, newcomers might be tempted to create new ones....

 

Yes, I get the idea. We would really have to have very explicit rules that state it out both in Announcements and when people sign up.

I think it's better not to have any threads for now... (epic's thread can be an exception, perhaps the one set aside, though).

 

We used to have sensible debates about religion until a few imbeciles ruined everything and a ban had to be imposed. After a few months of calm, the ban was partially lifted with epic's thread and the ban was eventually completely lifted under the assumption that we would play nice.

Once again, one bad apple spoils the bunch.

This time, you're the bad apple, TrainingForUtopia.

Shouldn't someone who is seriously "training for utopia" spend his/her time in church, or admire the wonders of the natural world, or read the Bible for the umpteenth time, or best of all, take care of the poor in their community instead of condemning everyone to hell on a SW board? Subtle or not, that's what your sig does. BTW, how very crude of you to couple the Quran with the Satanic Bible.


Kudos to the mods for banning religious talk again. It's better to impose a ban than have this become a podium from which fanatics can deliver their twisted version of God's message. This is not the place to carry out a mission.

 

So true.

 

amen to what sith vicious said. (yeah ironic sentence) nice username btw.

 

just goes to prove that we never move on in here, the same issues come and go.....although it is nice to have a hobby horse to trot out every few months, what is up next for renewal I wonder, stars/ranks/registration dates/spoiling/crap?

oh and i agree with the ban, i like debating religion, but I don't think it has ever worked out well in my experience here, it always leaves me tense and angry, probably a natural state for a job seeking athiest

 

This is the most ridiculous decision ever made by the JC admins. What the hell were you thinking? Freedom of speech, anyone? I know most of these threads turn into flame fests but that's no reason to delete all the religious threads. So what's next? Are we going to ban all the political threads? Those republicans vs. democrats threads are flame fests as well, so why don't we ban them too? Or wait a minute, let's start to delete all threads about the death sentence, abortion, etc! Why don't we ban all the 'intellectual' threads??!!!
The JCC is a great place because we can post in both the silly and the serious threads. Why do you want to take this away from us? That's why I propose that we start a second JCC besides the normal JCC. This new JCC allows all threads concerning our society. It would have special rules and admins. That's the only way to control these threads.
I think this decision is absolutely foolish, dumb and simply discriminating. Thank you.

 

Storm5, as I said in my first post, we will not be banning any other topics. We're banning religion because that topic causes problems that should not be an issue in a Star Wars board.

You guys forget that TF.n is not obligated to allow discussion on anything not Star Wars related. They could nuke all of Community right now and they would still have more than enough members for their advertisers. They created Community as a courtesy to the members so they could get to know each other and form friendships, thereby creating a more pleasant environment. Religion topics are in direct conflict with that. So all they're asking is that we avoid that one topic. There are hundreds of forums you can go to to talk about this subject. Freedom of speech does not apply to a message board.