Any ideas on how to deal with religious zealots on a forum?

bcc423

bcc423

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Dec 16, 2008
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I run a forum where I allow pretty much any discussion. (Not like WF though. No dickrolling and other shit. Clean language only.)

With my other forums, I always put a restriction: no religion and no politics.

But with this one, I decided to let the users talk about pretty much whatever they want.

The forum is niche-oriented, but has something similar to shooting the shit here.

The problem I'm seeing is that several users, the pseudo-Christian assholes, are turning every single thread into something about God.

It's getting to a point where people start considering my "widgetry" forum to be "Christian Widgetry" forum. This shit is fucked up, so I need a way of dealing with it.

I don't want to ban the fuckers, because some of them are actually skilled at the widgets so they are useful to the community.

But this religion shit is really fucking shit up. It gets to a point where some new user starts a thread about how to pick the best widget for a specific task, and the thread ends up with a discussion about whether Jesus would approve the use of the widget in this situation.

Now, I'm a Christian myself, but I don't believe it's cool to push one's beliefs onto others.

More importantly, fuck my beliefs, this shit has the potential of fucking with my monies-making operation.

So if anyone has any ideas on how to tone those fuckers down without outright banning/prohibiting all religious talks, I would love to hear them.
 


bcc423 said:
I run a forum where I allow pretty much any discussion. (Not like WF though. No dickrolling and other shit. Clean language only.)

With my other forums, I always put a restriction: no religion and no politics.

But with this one, I decided to let the users talk about pretty much whatever they want.

The forum is niche-oriented, but has something similar to shooting the shit here.

The problem I'm seeing is that several users, the pseudo-Christian assholes, are turning every single thread into something about God.

It's getting to a point where people start considering my "widgetry" forum to be "Christian Widgetry" forum. This shit is fucked up, so I need a way of dealing with it.

I don't want to ban the fuckers, because some of them are actually skilled at the widgets so they are useful to the community.

But this religion shit is really fucking shit up. It gets to a point where some new user starts a thread about how to pick the best widget for a specific task, and the thread ends up with a discussion about whether Jesus would approve the use of the widget in this situation.

Now, I'm a Christian myself, but I don't believe it's cool to push one's beliefs onto others.

More importantly, fuck my beliefs, this shit has the potential of fucking with my monies-making operation.

So if anyone has any ideas on how to tone those fuckers down without outright banning/prohibiting all religious talks, I would love to hear them.
Click to expand...

Embrace it; create a religion/fantasy* subforum and strictly restrict that shit to that section.

***'shooting the shit' works too.
 
send in lukep
inb4 lukep
inb4 hellblazer
inb4 everyone else
inb4 hellblazer gets schooled
o look its this thread again
 
Speaking of religion, here's a question that's been bothering me for a while.

The Romulan empire has the ability to create artificial quantum singularities. They power their ships with them. The federation uses Dilithium for power generation.

Both are virtually limitless sources of power, but over time wouldn't the Romulans have a distinct advantage over the federation?

Granted, I don't know what resources the Romulans have to use to create their singularities, but it seems to me that this must be a far more efficient source than Dilithium. Right?
 
Bar religious discussions and start infractions. Deny them signature and avatars for breaking the rules.
 
dude seriously? you need advice on how to moderate your own forum?

If someone brings an agenda that annoys lots of people into every thread, its trolling. Give them an infraction and tell them to STFU. Next.
 
Give out infractions/warnings for breaking the no politics/religion rule. Then start giving temp bans or temp removal of posting privileges after multiple infractions/warnings.
 
Most P&R discussion sections on forums attract trolls, plus the members are only there for the pissing contest.
 
Yep, I agree. Start a subforum for that topic and start giving infractions for derailing other threads with stuff that belongs in that subforum.
 
freezeprogram said:
Embrace it; create a religion/fantasy* subforum and strictly restrict that shit to that section.

***'shooting the shit' works too.
Click to expand...

I have seen this come up with politics in foums, I have been involved in forums for 15 years.

Either ban it outright or do this, keep it in one section. Be strict, say in order to maintain neutrality, or not offend, either off limits (best) or kept strictly in one area. You are going to have to be vigilant without being too censoring. This destroyed one guys forum and it WAS number one in the world for its niche. The guy got too heavy handed about censorship so a competitior started another, less censored BB....He let emotions get in the way of just having a policy and sticking with it.

Tough one and you are wise to understand that it has potential to go south. You also might want to bring in a couple of mods so all the heat doesn't come your way when it comes to moderating.

Post the new rule(s) and then respectfully ask for feedback while announcing the new moderator(s) may be the way to go.

Good luck!
 
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