I have a suggestion. Can we have a sub-forum in the Mature Discussion board specifically for threads relating to religions? Many members avoid what is easily one of the most interesting boards on the forum because of the abundance of threads which are critical of religion. This is because they often devolve into petty arguments and assaults (real or perceived) on individual people. Tempers flare up on a regular basis.
Separating the board with a sub-forum still allows for the discussion of topics regarding religions but makes it easier for some members to avoid them. This will (hopefully) encourage those members who avoid it because of these threads to get involved with the Mature Discussion board again, safe in the knowledge that they won't be tempted to involve themselves in discussions they don't want to.
If you want to go the whole hog, why not make a couple more sub-forums? Have a Mature Discussion General and then a separate sub-forum for Politics, Sexuality, and Religion.
I'm not sure I agree with Locke that it buries and surpresses activity. But for the purposes of... limiting people's exposure from things they are not mature enough to handle... that won't work for a number of reasons. A number of topics will get people incensed and furious. Religion is an obvious one. But so will anything they very strongly believe in, so much that they are hostile to criticism. Any number of political issues. Science issues like global warming or evolution. Social issues like feminism or men's rights. These topics should be allowed. It'll require a bunch of sections. But some people who absolutely cannot tolerate criticism and get explosively violent when opposed will never heed the warning to not go where they'll be offended. So splitting up the section by grouping will be pointless because people won't listen anyway. Prefixes will clutter it up and people will also not listen.
What should be done... is for the mods to use more reasonable judgement and deal with people who get explosively violent when people disagree with them, even if they escalate a situation and provoke other people, and not take everyone else down with that one person. Otherwise there will just be an outpouring of "that's unfair" complaints they will have to deal with and that'll soak up time. And of course to never heed complaints of the type "this thread offends me, take it down", and instead advise the people making them to be more tolerant of other beliefs and if they can't handle their own beliefs being questioned they should avoid those topics instead of trying to cause trouble over it.
As of late even though it has toned down in the past couple of days, there are still a group of members who claim that the moderators are ignoring them and that basically the mods are "abusing" their power when it comes to serious situations.
I realize it's a lot to read through, and you might not have noticed, but there has been no real issue, at all, since this discussion began. And the mods really did ignore a lot in the past. Despite their denials, it happened. BUT... that is no longer the case now that it's been made an issue. But nothing new has come up since then. And everyone hopes that'll remain the case indefinitely. No one wants that kind of problem again. The hope is the problem is now fixed and it's not going to happen again. IF, a problem comes up again, it's not going to be ignored. Mods will know to alert the others if they get a PM (OR a Skype IM or shoutbox IM, both of which everyone repeatedly forgets to mention when saying "I never got anything.")
It seems that at times people forget we have a report button or the Private Messaging system to use in case there is a problem and you want to bring it up to the mods.
You can't report in these situations. You report for a violation of the rules. When a mod oversteps their bounds, you have to PM. But you need to understand that PMs are slow. And... a lot of people try asking on Skype. And there are shoutbox PMs that are faster than message PMs. You can claim: "I never got any PMs" and it could be true, for message PMs, despite the fact that they got shoutbox PMs or Skype IMs. Frequently these got ignored. But I don't think that's going to be a big problem anymore. Not with the issue that was made out of it.
But you see, that's where the line is drawn. Sometimes it is even the person's own fault for violating these rules but still want to feel victim as if they didn't know that what they did was unethical.
The act of ignoring would be unethical.
If you guys may, I would like to ask you this question: Do you have any proof that moderators are ignoring you are simply overpowering a situation? It's one thing to state that you are having a problem with a mod, it's another to actually have prove to your claim. Yea someone can say that they did sent a PM to a moderator, but that doesn't mean they really did. I bet each mod's inbox right now is empty or at least haven't received any recent PMs and those people are just sticking to their belief that people will believe them without proving themselves.
Yes, as a matter of fact, I do have proof. But I will not share it here. I, respect their privacy. And will not post private conversations publicly. I used Skype as my means of contact. And I will be willing to share the proof I have with any mod that asks me one-on-one Skype. I'm not just making it up. I'm sure anyone else who has been ignored or spurned will be equally willing to share any proof of their own privately. This is not a fantasy event that we just made up.
I understand that others really want to make a difference (hopefully positive) in the community, but if you are just shouting out to the public that the mods don't care, it's going to cause tension between the members and mods. New and old members will start believing in the negative comments and the mods will receive huge amounts of backlash simply because a few people are declaring that they do nothing without having any proof that they already have consulted with them prior.
Repeatedly telling people to not talk about it only confirms those suspicions. How many times do I have to repeat that? Whenever you try to cover up anything, it instantly solidifies it as fact in the public psyche, whether or not it had any validity at all. Please stop thinking it's a viable method. People are always going to voice criticisms. Who know what is going to calm people down about them? Calmly and peacefully addressing them to try to fix the issue. Which will show that there's a genuine desire to improve and will always instill a sense of trustworthiness.
I personally think that the moderators are doing the best that they can to solve the current situations. Let me remind you that they can't reply to everyone at the same time so of course the pace will be slow at times. On an ending note, I just want to say that the trust within the community has been rather wearing thin as of now and it's great to see that Locke and his mods are really trying to bring back that trust so this place can continue to flourish in a positive and influential way. The problem is that sometimes the people accusing the authority for being "abusive" of their power are simply the ones at fault here.
They were absolutely not doing the best they can, BEFORE, we brought this up. After, however, sure. They've done pretty good after. This isn't still going on, people need to stop thinking that's what we're saying. We're not. It's already worked out. All we're doing now is crossing the T's and dotting the I's. That's it. The only people dramatizing it now are the ones trying to defend the mods. There's nothing to defend them against. The issue's over. It's done. Stop beating a dead horse. I think everyone's happy with how things are now and are willing to see how they play out from here.
some people just prefer not to have their gender displayed.
