Sonia Loud Resort wrote: » I think it is bad form to edit someones post, deleting a portion of it, without saying anything to the person who posted it. Even worse is leaving a cryptic note, leaving it to the imagination of the reader to speculate about what horrendous thing the poster had said. My comments about the north were accurate. If it was felt (wrongly I would say) that my pointing out of the irony of the south banning mass when the north, founded explicitly as a sectarian state, has defended and protected the right to worship, was too robust, a sentence summarizing what I said could have been inserted in place. Or if my post warranted moderator action, why not card and leave the offending text? Anything would have been better than what Smacl did - an unfortunate lack of basic courtesy.
iagreebut wrote: » As you can see his or her post wasn't offensive, the comment was about Unitarians... they like to question thing's, and if you look into Unitarianism you'll see what they meant... Their comment was just an observation of Unitarians, as far as I can see you jumped to conclusions. I didn't take offense to their post, because I commented underneath that I got what they said. So can you lift the warnings, I wouldn't like to see someone get a warning because a mod didn't understand the depth of their post. Thanks
John Hutton wrote: » 1. I think a superthread on the 'problem of evil' should be started, that one has come up loads
2. Where possible offending posts should be deleted. I think they should be because often the forum can be hit by a poster doing a "drive by" and they wouldn't care about a yellow card cause they get their "thanks". So for example, if a few people posts variations of "god doesnt exist/you're cultists" etc, then delete those and put a comment in saying you deleted some posts saying x, go to y thread or forum for that. This is done on a few forums on the site and seems to work well, keeps threads on track. Some discretion would obviously be needed, if someone posted a big long post and the offending section is egregious but the rest fine, then perhaps that bit should be snipped. I think this would be rare enough, more common would be long good posts with a small bit being against the rules but not egregious, here the normal card/warning would suffice.
John Hutton wrote: » I would have no issue reporting them if they would be dealt with in the manner I described. As things stand I do not think they would be if I reported them, or if smacl or any moderator happened to see them when reading the thread (because of policy, not because of any moderator failings !) The issue here is not me not reporting posts...
John Hutton wrote: » A great deal of the "non christians" are not interested passersby, but rather militant atheists. I do not like the idea of banning non christians. But I think that it is fair to have threads, and indeed a forum, where the christian perspective is the dominant one, and posts that go directly counter to it should be expunged, or confined to specific threads. Take my latest thread, the first response calls the bible absurd, blatantly misrepresents it (Mary was not impregnated against her will). Other posts include people saying that they love satan, if satan was in control things would be more fun, God is not all powerful, others basically calling God a pedophile, another calling him a rapist, a fundamental Biblical and christian teaching called "the most bizarre thing ever on boards", the 'problem of evil' raised again, the usual "priests are pedos" stuff, "you're only angry cause you're not in charge". All the same rubbish that clogs up all the threads, some of the posters are the usual offenders. The examples I gave here are all ones which were not carded. Others were and fair enough. Rule 1 from the charter: 1. The purpose of this forum is to discuss Christian belief in general, and specific elements of it, between Christians and non-Christians alike. This forum has the additional purpose of being a point on Boards.ie where Christians may ask other Christians questions about their shared faith. In this regard, Christians should not have to defend their faith from overt or subtle attack.If I rocked up into the farming forum and just attacked and belittled farming as a concept at every turn I would not last long, and nor should I. If I rocked up into the soccer forum and just slagged off soccer as a sport etc. I wouldn't last long. If I etc. etc. You get the idea. The superthreads need to be used: 1. Creationism and Evolution - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...p?t=2056402682 2. Protestant -v- Catholic Debates - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...p?t=2057593813 3. Atheist -v- Theist / Existence of God Debates - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...php?p=93795311 4. Clerical Child Abuse - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...p?t=2055855692 5. Homosexuality - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...p?t=2056713191 6. Announcements and events - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/show...p?t=2057083946 7. Want to find a Church near you? - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=93462 If anyone raises these issues on other threads their post should be deleted and they should be pointed in the direction of the relevant thread or, where applicable, a more relevant forum. If they persist they should be carded and banned. The forum should be for a "christian perspective" on things - you don't have to be a christian. Posters need to have a fundamental respect for christian beliefs. You are not having "respect" if you constantly contradict, deny, denigrate and challenge the fundamental beliefs of someone all the time in almost every context. There is space for these discussions sure, the super threads. If you don't want the forum as a whole to be like this, then change the prefix to "Christian Perspective", although I think it should be applied to the whole forum. I don't like the idea of excluding non christians, rather there should be a "respect" (In the manner I previously discussed) expected from everyone who posts here, with superthreads to tackle the fundamental issues if they really want. I'm not having a go at the moderator I think he has a tough job, particularly when he is not a christian but rather an atheist/agnostic himself.
Dravokivich wrote: » I don't expect Smacl to proof read every post John. I don't recall seeing examples of what you referenced being reported. If you feel a post doesn't meet the standards, nor is contributory to the focus of this forum, please use the report function. Otherwise you are just going to see the same posts again and again when you read those threads.
smacl wrote: » I don't agree. The option to limit threads to Christians only is already there but has very rarely been used. This suggests to me that the Christians on this forum aren't largely concerned about non-Christians posting. Moderation on this forum is already quite a bit stricter than most other forums on boards and I reckon any further restrictions would have the effect of killing the forum off altogether. More importantly perhaps, the implication is that Christians and non-Christians cannot have a civil conversation on a bulletin board such as this, which in my experience is not the case. Personally I am of the opinion that social media already encourages far too much polarization forcing people to take one side or another of any argument. This can make forums such as this unpleasant spaces to hold conversations which is the exact opposite of what the community is hoping to achieve. I take on board the comments about low level trolling and am actively working to discourage it. To get more decent discussion you need to start creating your own threads and by all means mark them as [Christians only] if those are the only other posters you'd like involved. Similarly, if you see a post that is essentially trolling, report it rather than replying to it. Trolling only works if people respond to the trolls.
growleaves wrote: » I think you should make the entire forum Christian-only. As it stands, every second thread is filled with atheist yobs throwing around stupid digs. How can there be any decent discussion in such an atmosphere? Even when not in breach of charter, there is lots of deniable trolling like insisting Christians aren't allowed to eat shellfish by people who don't understand the relation of the Mosaic Law to Christianity. Very little of worth would be lost and much would be gained by doing this. Please seriously consider it.
antiskeptic wrote: » @smacl. Carded for a post in vaccine thread. Presumably for using the term 'vax-suckers' Clearly a perjorative term. But so is anti-vaxxer to describe anyone who doesn't slobber over the 'vaccination has been the most wonderful advancement ever so that answers all questions'. Tinfoil hat wearers, conspiracy theorists and all the rest. I take it your pro vaccine, but ought not a moderator be neutral and balanced?
CountNjord wrote: » Well I think Smacl was caught between a rock and a hard place when Beannasidhe posted about the wrong doings of Christianity. That was no place to go pointing out to Christians what a lot of them get told frequently and is spouted out on forums and social media all over the world. She's a moderator and should know better, she's been dishing out bans, warnings and infractions for far less herself. She's quite the detective too, and is openly no fan of organised religion especially Christianity. I wouldn't post in that forum she's moderating ever again, because it's just a few regulars putting sticky plaster on the foundations trying to keep it going... It's like a run down town falling apart from lack of maintenance and good will. Smacl in general seems fair, but he shouldn't be allowing people in to troll and have free reign to dish out what they like.I remember a time when there was a moderator there and frequently he'd tell people including A+A moderator's that maybe they should stick to their own forum if they want to post whatever... Zero tolerance. I think the only reason myself and the other guy got carded is because Beannasidhe didn't like our feedback, felt she wasn't getting her own way. Reported us and Smacl had no other choice but to please her. She's always involved in people getting warnings, infractions and bans. Especially men for some odd reason.
John Hutton wrote: » I don't think smacl is biased. In fact he went out of his way to be nice to me and to encourage my engagement and tried to make the forum a better place for Christians to post. Of course, one may make an error or a misjudgment without being biased. If there is an error in this case I cant judge as I have only read what is in this thread, but tbe thought occured to me, wouldn't using the Christian tag when making the thread have avoided this?
theological wrote: » It's also convenient there's nowhere to appeal to on moderation. I think I'm done on Boards in respect to discussing Christianity. This forum is just A&A 2.0.
theological wrote: » Nonsense. The post was off topic and intended to provoke. The fact we were carded for pointing that out shows that this forum is quite frankly a mess. The fact that we can't discuss a simple topic without atheists primarily derailing threads by changing the topic or insinuating that Christians agree with the crusades or the inquisition just shows that amongst the other nonsense in that thread.
Dravokivich wrote: » Theological, If you feel a post is off topic, report it. If you feel a post is contrary to the forum for the sake of it, report it. If you find you are consistently in disagreement with a poster or a group of posters, ignore them. Whatever you do, don't engage them and try to control the flow of the discussion. This is back seat moderation and frowned upon on the entire site. You won't get anything different from the feedback forum.
theological wrote: » I will raise a thread in the Feedback forum on this tomorrow. Your post was intended to inflame and we got carded for pointing it out. It was completely off the topic of vaccinations and what is used to produce them. That's actually an interesting question from a Christian perspective, yet you chose to troll instead of engaging with it.