Can we have a Religion and Politics Section?

[Naoto]

Would be pretty nice to have a Religion section, im a orthodox-christian and i respect all other religions that are out there and im interested how they work, i know alot about islam, i would be very interested in learning about other religions.

Koota

No offence, but if you want to learn about religions I hardly think an MMO forum full of 12 year old virgin trolls is the best option.

[Deleted]

Although i'd love such a dedicated area i know we'd see way too many immature people trolling and threads turning to flame wars

[Flaks]

That's the only problem there is, lack of respect. It's easy to have a civil conversation about a topic so long as your respectful and you don't get emotional about it.

And that's an utter impossibility. As far as I've seen this forum is full to the brim of the 'non-religious' types and they'll take any and every opportunity possible to debase, insult and spit on religion in any way shape or form. Religious people themselves are quite emotional about their respective religions and would never let such a thing slide.

A non-trolling, non-flaming religion section is humanly impossible on this website.

Politics on the other hand I've seen discussed in a largely very civil manner though there is always the random liberal/conservative flame bait thread/post that pops up more often than not. So I wouldn't mind a Politics section.

[JeKv]

Well religion is false so maybe just a politics section.

And the third post indicates why such a section is a bad idea.

I'm an atheist too, but these sorts of discussions only cause problems. There's a big enough problem with flaming and trolls on these forums, the last thing we need is a designated place to discuss the most controversial and polarizing topics possible.

[Fuzzzie]

The main reasoning behind not allowing religious topics is people have the potential to get offended to easily. Whenever religion is mentioned in General Off-Topic the threads quickly get derailed. The idea of the forum is to promote discussion not create arguments. If you are interested in discussing religion I'm sure there are thousands of places on the internet where you can freely do so. On a gaming forum such as this, I'm not sure it's appropriate.

As for politics, we do allow some limited discussion in General Off-Topic. Usually if the topic starts out in a neutral way. Stuff like "Obama's bad: Here's why..." is not something we really want. Again, discussions not arguments. The tone of the posting often dictates how long a thread will last, at least to me.

[Blastit]

Well religion is false so maybe just a politics section.

look man, I'm not a huge christian but having a community to turn to that would give there side money saved for christmas to help repair your house that caught fire is actually really nice to have. You are just being intolerant of other peoples beliefs, i don't believe in most democratic and republican views it doesn't mean they are less of people and more stupid for believing in it. I'm just saying that actually is offensive to someone religious but not crazy devout

[Deleted]

No it's not biased at all. You can disagree with something and even give your personal reasons for doing so without attacking the other side. It's called having a mature conversation.

Blergh, terribly thin line there, especially since this tends to be a very sensitive subject - Thus leaving people easily ..butthurt.

[Deleted]

No offence, but if you want to learn about religions I hardly think an MMO forum full of 12 year old virgin trolls is the best option.

touché

and Bearshield, being a former forum moderator myself of the largest America's Army community I know for a fact that teenagers in general have no idea where to even start with "a mature conversation", if they see someone disagreeing with their beliefs that their father taught them, they will think that you're a moron and call you such.

You write this very easy to read "please do not post things like these"-rules, yet they do it anyway, and then you warn them, and then they argue with you instead because they think you're being a dictator, then you tell them that you kinda are, but at least you follow the rule book, then they go on and flame even more and then the ban hammer comes out and after a week it's all rinse and repeat.

maturity comes of age, therefore the term.

[Deleted]

It's biased towards people who can carry out a civil conversation, regardless of their own beliefs.

Being entirely objective on such a sensitive subject is no easy task.

[madethisfor1post]

lotsa words

Your fennec fox warms my icy heart.

OT: We've survived this long without a dedicated politics/religion section I think we'll survive a little longer. Also if you give them a section...what happens when the Rift people come-a-callin'. There's something to think about.

[Tiglits]

touché

and Bearshield, being a former forum moderator myself of the largest America's Army community I know for a fact that teenagers in general have no idea where to even start with "a mature conversation", if they see someone disagreeing with their beliefs that their father taught them, they will think that you're a moron and call you such.

You write this very easy to read "please do not post things like these"-rules, yet they do it anyway, and then you warn them, and then they argue with you instead because they think you're being a dictator, then you tell them that you kinda are, but at least you follow the rule book, then they go on and flame even more and then the ban hammer comes out and after a week it's all rinse and repeat.

maturity comes of age, therefore the term.

I'd like to think maturity comes with experience, not age. Covers the exceptions. But Naoto is definitely right on the above :P

[Sunshine]

The rules on the off-topic forum come from what we've found by experience just can't work on the forum. Any time there's a religious thread, no matter how heavily it's moderated, it ends up in a huge flame war. We try to let reasonable threads go as far as possible before closing them, but some subjects just seem to be doomed.

If we feel that the tone and maturity of the community that reads that forum change in the future, we may adjust the rules to allow more controversial subjects.