An abundance of "anti-Christian" threads?

[Magnvs]

In another thread, a certain user was complaining about how the local moderators are letting people get away with posting anti-Christian threads. Personally, I don't think any of these threads are necessarily anti-anything. This is an open forum and all ideas are welcome; however, it's also an academic forum and users are expected to back up their claims with sound arguments and/or conclusive evidence. Free ideas are welcome as long as they are supported with some form of argument.

With that said, I get a little annoyed when the occasional fundamentalist or pro-lifer or anti-homosexual fanatic will walk in and start attempting to argue. Upon being met with criticism, they just repeat the same assertions over and over. They don't stop when their arguments are refuted, nor do they consider any of the alternative ideas being presented to them - they just stick their fingers in their ears and do the whole "LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" shenanigan until people lose their patience. Once the argument has degraded to this point, the opposition will usually just laugh and shrug it off. But somehow, the offended individual feels that his/her rights have been denied and that's when we start hearing complaints of bias and foulplay.

I have seen posts from many different moderators on many different topics. Sometimes I agree with them; sometimes I don't. They're not gods - they're just entrusted with the task of keeping the peace. They have their own opinions and they participate in the discussions as equals. My point is, there is no massive conspiracy and each moderator is different from the others. They have a wide range of opinions and I really don't appreciate people accusing them in such a ludicrous manner.

[Michael]

I think you are citing this thread:
Please with the 10 commandments already
Please with the 10 commandments already - Political Fever - The Political Debate Forums

On the issue of anti religion or other threads, this is an open international discussion board. We are not specifically established as a right wing or left wing or Republican or Democratic or religious or anti religion board. There is a wide range of diversity which makes being an open discussion board difficult, but we try to follow a "freedom of speech" direction as far as possible.

We are not here to censor threads according to one point of view with the exception of troll threads. If you don't like a specific thread or the point of view expressed by the person that started the thread, you can always CHANGE CHANNELS. If someone's intent is to camp out on a thread that disliked all day complaining, moderators may intervene to get discussion back on topic and moving in the intended direction. This type of negative participation may be disallowing others' freedom of speech.

As for discussion of moderators on open forum, that is against the rules. Members should use private messages to moderators to discuss specific situations.

I disagree with the concept that moderators need to intervene because someone doesn't like a thread. Everyone is but one mouse click away from changing channels.

Disagreements happen. They happen a few trillion times in life, so it is a matter of not making them debilitating.

[Chan]

Originally Posted by Magnvs

In another thread, a certain user was complaining about how the local moderators are letting people get away with posting anti-Christian threads. Personally, I don't think any of these threads are necessarily anti-anything. This is an open forum and all ideas are welcome; however, it's also an academic forum and users are expected to back up their claims with sound arguments and/or conclusive evidence. Free ideas are welcome as long as they are supported with some form of argument.

With that said, I get a little annoyed when the occasional fundamentalist or pro-lifer or anti-homosexual fanatic will walk in and start attempting to argue. Upon being met with criticism, they just repeat the same assertions over and over. They don't stop when their arguments are refuted, nor do they consider any of the alternative ideas being presented to them - they just stick their fingers in their ears and do the whole "LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" shenanigan until people lose their patience. Once the argument has degraded to this point, the opposition will usually just laugh and shrug it off. But somehow, the offended individual feels that his/her rights have been denied and that's when we start hearing complaints of bias and foulplay.

I have seen posts from many different moderators on many different topics. Sometimes I agree with them; sometimes I don't. They're not gods - they're just entrusted with the task of keeping the peace. They have their own opinions and they participate in the discussions as equals. My point is, there is no massive conspiracy and each moderator is different from the others. They have a wide range of opinions and I really don't appreciate people accusing them in such a ludicrous manner.

What you're missing, though, is that it seems it's okay to offend and attack certain groups but it's not okay to offend and attack other - politically correct - groups. That's the issue here.

[Oregon Elephant]

We've had numours threads about homosexuals where you could take an anti-homosexual side. So long as one doesn't make general unsupported attacks against all homosexuals as a group, that goes the same to any and all groups.

[Lumara]

What YOU'RE missing, Chan, is the difference between hate speech and criticism of certain religious factions who want to impose THEIR beliefs on others. If you want to bash gays or Muslims or anyone else, there are other forums where you can freely do that, instead of spreading so much negativity about the way this forum is run.

The bottom line is that hate speech is not allowed. Period. End of discussion. Constant complaints will NOT change this rule.

I don't see where criticizing religious factions who want to impose their religious ideas on everyone else constitutes hate speech. You obviously disagree, very strongly which is why I think you may be happier elsewhere since you obviously choose to NOT use the ignore feature and you continue to read threads you have an issue with in order to gripe, complain, and insult. Stop it.

[dc2ga]

Originally Posted by Magnvs

In another thread, a certain user was complaining about how the local moderators are letting people get away with posting anti-Christian threads. Personally, I don't think any of these threads are necessarily anti-anything. This is an open forum and all ideas are welcome; however, it's also an academic forum and users are expected to back up their claims with sound arguments and/or conclusive evidence. Free ideas are welcome as long as they are supported with some form of argument.

With that said, I get a little annoyed when the occasional fundamentalist or pro-lifer or anti-homosexual fanatic will walk in and start attempting to argue. Upon being met with criticism, they just repeat the same assertions over and over. They don't stop when their arguments are refuted, nor do they consider any of the alternative ideas being presented to them - they just stick their fingers in their ears and do the whole "LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" shenanigan until people lose their patience. Once the argument has degraded to this point, the opposition will usually just laugh and shrug it off. But somehow, the offended individual feels that his/her rights have been denied and that's when we start hearing complaints of bias and foulplay.

I have seen posts from many different moderators on many different topics. Sometimes I agree with them; sometimes I don't. They're not gods - they're just entrusted with the task of keeping the peace. They have their own opinions and they participate in the discussions as equals. My point is, there is no massive conspiracy and each moderator is different from the others. They have a wide range of opinions and I really don't appreciate people accusing them in such a ludicrous manner.

THANK YOU!!!!! this is a great post, and not just cos i am a mod

edit: well i made the above response after reading the post, and after finishing out the thread i think that *most* comments above are excellent.