Religion and BTS

Originally posted by blupblup

I agree actually.
An entirely separate place... kinda like RATS or something but without it being hidden... I dunno.
But yes, a separate place that doesn't clog up the boards.

Probably die out fast, those posters get off from getting so much attention.

reply to post by blupblup


FWIW, the best thing to do when you see a thread going south is alert staff.
Some threads just fall under the radar, they could be new and/or moving very fast.
It can't hurt to let us know you think there are violations.

If you are posting in a thread, and you see a post that you think is against the rules, please do let us know.
Don't reply to the post...it just adds to the drama.
And, give us a bit of time to act.

Doing these things help staff keep ATS running smoothly

And, in case it's been missed:
**ALL MEMBERS** The recent surge in Hatred, Racism, and Sheer Stupidity STOPS NOW

Contacting Staff: Alerts, Suggestions, Complaints

reply to post by blupblup

There has been a rise lately in argumentative, baiting and divisive religious thread on BTS.

I thought the ATS and BTS religion boards were just for people to be mean and stupid to each other.

Originally posted by DavidWillts
reply to post by blupblup

 

There has been a rise lately in argumentative, baiting and divisive religious thread on BTS.

I thought the ATS and BTS religion boards were just for people to be mean and stupid to each other.

it doesn't have to be like that.
As I stated on other occasions, I'm an atheist. I'm very critical of arguments provided by people who belief.
Yet I do acknowledge the cultural importance of religion. There should be opportunity to deal with this without being mean or stupid.

Originally posted by NeverSleepingEyes
It could be the start of a debate. However, this wasn't the intention of the author, not at all. The intention clearly was to harass atheists, using a disgusting "soft friendly voice" to call atheists all kind of names.

Yes - I and others have (in the past) complained about the excessive amount of Atheist threads started by Christians (predominately) - - - for the sole purpose of harassment (from my perspective)

Maybe there should simply be 2 threads - - "pro Atheist" and "anti Atheist".

I would really like to learn from the staff of ATS (people I do respect and appreciate for their engagement in trying to keep this a decent website) what their position is. From what I understood, a discussion is going on so I will wait in patience until a resolution is known.

Yes - I fully support Mods. I would never belong to a site that did not have Mods. And I believe the Mods of ATS take the responsibility very seriously.

I'd love to see the BTS religion forum shut down.
It's a serious waste of time and bandwidth.
(and what is posted in it is so outrageous at times .. )

reply to post by wildtimes


well, let's just wait and see how fast I cool down again. And the good news is that I didn't start looking for alternatives for ATS, today. The bad thing is that this thing kept me awake until morning (my responsibility totally, I know) so I didn't continue writing a book that should be finished. And guess what? Today my publisher mailed me to ask where the rest of the stuff is.
Unfortunately it's written in Dutch so even if I wanted to share pieces of it (it's a collection of essays on human beans and their relation with (communication) technology, the role of media in politics and other leftish stuff), it would be pretty useless.

I have no idea who you are but let me assure you that your words do help me right now to get my emotions back to normal (yep, I'm cynical, yep I'm a guy of emotions). So: thank you!

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


That is actually what we do. But Making a third category of threads (Conspirations-Off topics-Religion) would permit ATS to be more structured and encourage those with passion (like the religious people) to express themselves in another category than the ones we use.
Each time I go into Off-Topic I mourn the fact that religious threads are now overflooding the more light and fun threads. I don't mind religion, I just don't think that two categories are now enough for all of us.
Sincerely yours, Swan.

Originally posted by NeverSleepingEyes

Originally posted by DavidWillts
I thought the ATS and BTS religion boards were just for people to be mean and stupid to each other.

it doesn't have to be like that.

There is NO reason for it to be like that....and it will not be tolerated.

You are responsible for your own posts.

We expect civility and decorum within all topics - Please Review This Link.

Well, I reckon I should check in, and I am one of those mentioned by the OP, even inadvertently.

Here is where I stand. I stand for Freedom of Speech. That means EVERYBODY, not just the loudest group, or the most educated group, or the most religious group, it means Everyone.

That being said, I have had the same thing happen, hate mail, trolling again and again, attempts to take the thread off topic, or on a completely different tangent, and outright personal insults aimed at me because I do not accept the spoon-fed dogma that the others gulp down without a second thought, or the gaining of any Intel on that they take in.

I have a very thick skin, but many of our valued membership is not, and some are emotional, and get upset when fighting breaks out. I myself relish it, but some do not. I do happen to back up new members with good theories, when I see one, and I believe it to be the duty of the members who have been here for awhile, and are veterans of the ATS board.

As to the problem, I believe an ignore button on any post would help, and perhaps a call out to the Christian crowd in here to keep it calmed down a little, and stop with the insults and name calling.
Another reason I am glad NOT to be staff!

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


But you have to admit the standards for posting in the religion boards is significantly lower than the rest of ATS.com. If there is a duplicate thread put up anywhere else on ATS it is closed pretty quickly. In the religion boards it is hard to find any thread that has not been put up at least 100 times before.

IMHO if there was a separate forum and I mean you have to click on it, as opposed to seeing in the feeds, it would die out on its own. The purpose for those types of threads is to upset non-religious people.

If religious people had to be in a forum all their own no one would write in them, and they would be forced to keep their judgments to themselves. Its sad that it has to be this way, but I feel that the only forum for those types should be in the "Conspiracies in Religion" forum, as they would have to abide by the rules, and baiting/upsetting others will not be tolerated.

What is not understood by these particular folks is that many not caring about religion is of no importance to the non religious.

Some of these threads should be removed by applying the T&C, of solicitation, as this is an internet way to knocking on someones door, I mean no you dont have to open it, but your annoyed that they knocked in the first place.

Peace, NRE.

BTW, just wanted to add, that with the same philosophy of the door knocking, if we were to ignore them, they would have to stop, I mean who would they be talking too. I am sure that at least more then half of those that post in those threads, do because they feel called out, its fighting preaching, with ego.

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


I don't know if this adds to a solution, but let me share an experience that might contain suggestions...

As being a critical sociologist writing essays no one wants to read ;-) doesn't really pay the bills I sometimes take up ad iterim management jobs.
In 2006 I was hired as a crisis manager for the company that ran the biggest portal over here in the land of french fries, Belgium. I took the opportunity to launch a news site that was added to that portal and faced a huge problem: I wanted that site to be as open as possible yet I couldn't afford to have full moderation (that would imply hiring another 7 FTE's) so our technical wizards came up with a tool that worked perfectly:

all readers could comment, given that they identified themselves with a valid email address.
all comments had an individual rating system: people could give it a "+" or a "-". Depending on the ratio between those appreciations, the way the comment was presented changed:

if negative appreciations grew bigger than the positive ones, the comment was collapsed into a single line, the first line. A message was added that the comment received negative reactions and the opportunity was given to expand the comment.
If the ratio grew too skewed towards the negative, the comment was moved below fold (instead of keeping a chronological position) but could still be expanded
If the ratio went crazy, someone from customer service was alerted and checked if the message was in violation of T&C. If that was the case, the account was closed immediately. No second chance.

This helped the site to grow pretty successful while our competitors were suffering a lot from hate posts (over here there still is a strong extreme-right movement that loves spreading hate towards people with a darker skin).

Unfortunately the technology can't be just handed over to another site as it was totally emerged in the custom developed content management system. If that wasn't the case, I would consider stealing it and offering it to ATS.

Thanks for your contribution. I for one will try to refrain from slight irony the next couple of days ;-)

Originally posted by NoRegretsEver

What is not understood by these particular folks is that many not caring about religion is of no importance to the non religious.

could have fooled me...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Most people who are moved to post in religious threads tend be passionate and have absolute faith in their convictions regardless of which particular belief system they adhere to.

I used to post occassionally in religious threads but I try not to nowadays.

They seem to be dominated with people who want to play scripture and dogma ping pong with very little reasoned debate or open minds.

But then again, I suppose we can all be guilty of that every now and then.

reply to post by NeverSleepingEyes




Fantastic post my friend and what you say really resonates with me and many on this site.
Please don't just leave... I know it's difficult but hopefully something will be done in order to stop this kind of pointless baiting that is on the rise.

There are still some great threads like the one autowrench posted

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And plenty of others from all points of view and sides.

Religion and its origins can be fascinating to discuss, we just need to stop the fundamentalism and nastiness of some of these hyped up, insane posters.
We wont do that by leaving.

So please, at least stay for a bit and see what we can do?

Originally posted by Annee
Maybe there should simply be 2 threads - - "pro Atheist" and "anti Atheist".

Exactly !!

What else is there to say?

Why do we need 27 threads?

Why do we need a new "Atheists Suck" or "Christians are Stupid" thread every single day.... sometimes 2-3 a day?

Originally posted by FlyersFan
I'd love to see the BTS religion forum shut down.
It's a serious waste of time and bandwidth.
(and what is posted in it is so outrageous at times ..

)

Well that's certainly one way I suppose.
There are plenty of interesting religious topics to discuss, but not too many found in that forum.

As I said, perhaps a system whereby new threads have to be "accepted" or vetted before they're allowed to be posted.

If staff look over it and it's just designed to bait and cause unnecessary fights, then it doesn't get posted.

I know both Springer & SO are very good at looking through a lot of the BS on here and detecting subtle and sly ways of insulting and causing trouble on here.

I think something like this.


If these idiots knew their thread would have to be checked before hand, they'd probably not post quite such an offensive and divisive thread.

you want to halt valid discussion between two distinct groups because why?
your feelings hurt?

no way, let the athiests and religious folk continue to bash heads.
there is no reason why they shouldn't. it's in that clash that the greatest ideas of both sides manifest.
how will we progress with stagnant discussions? no passion or energy?

and honestly in my own biased opinion disregarded from the above, religion is a mind control device, and those within it's constraints cannot see beyond the rouse because of deep indoctrination within a muti-faceted apparatus.
jesus, allah, yaweh are a figment of imaginations, creations that create themselves as times move along.

Originally posted by autowrench
I have a very thick skin, but many of our valued membership is not, and some are emotional, and get upset when fighting breaks out. I myself relish it, but some do not.

See that isn't really my issue... I get drawn in and I also relish a good fight.
I've whooped enough people on this site and had some fierce arguments, some to the point that people actually never came back to the site... and I'm not joking.

I'm not one for backing down or letting it get to me.

But for me, It's not about just me kicking ass and schooling people... it's about the community and how pathetic and annoying it is for all the other members to see the forums clogged up with this ****.
It cannot be a good thing.

And when you have idiots like the person mentioned in someone else's post the person who started 2-3 baiting and trolling threads.... and you get nowhere, you can only bang your head against a brick wall so many times.