Should there be a separate category for the Religion and Spirituality hecklers?

Question

Perhaps that way, the people(spiritual or not) who are asking serious and honest questions about things they really would like information about won't have to sift through all the sarcastic people that ask mean evolution vs. creation questions, or start out judgemental and rude from the beginning.
Your Responses:
1. must not be rude or offensive
2. must be related to this section heading
3. must not be disrespectful to any religion, spiritual or personal belief.
Any thoughts?

ps
to "glitterk":
asking a queston and requiring the respondants to be respectful of other's opinions is not a dictatorship, it is a matter of tack and civility
and to "gorgeous":
I've never once claimed I was religious and that's exactly my point. You judge before you know all the info.

Answer 1

ABSOLUTELY. one is sometimes afraid to open up a topic of conversation here because of the backlashing that occurs. i would love to have a religous, spiritual conversation with all kinds of different folk from every country around the world. not some kid saying 'God doesnt exist- finish and kla'!! i vote for a ADULT RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL FORUM!

Answer 2

It would have to be divided, there are so many hecklers in here..
1. General hecklers, make fun of everything.
2. Religion Hecklers, make fun of religion.
3. Monotheism hecklers, just the monotheistic ones, and christianity, which is debated to be monothheistic by some, and tritheistic by others..
4. Christianity hecklers, who JUST go after christians.
5. Christian hecklers, who will tell every non-chrisitan that posts anything that they are going to hell without JAAAYYYYYZOOOOOOZ!!!! in their life.
6. "everyone's an athiest but me" Hecklers, who think that only THEIR BRANCH of chritsianity is right, and all others, no matter what they may think, are athiests (or satan worshippers)
7. Atheism hecklers, who think that there is a definable atheism group they can stereotype and insult, and these are USUALLY christians of category 5..
(for four and five, you can replace "Christianity" with "Islam", or any other religion, and add more categories, but More christians than others pop in here...


At one point in time, this covers the majority of the people here...
Even I do some of these things some of the time, but when I see a serious question that is NOT trying to sell a religion, I will give a serious answer.. Remember, in the end, no one here has to talk to anyone else here, ever, so if you don't like a question or answer, you can:
1. ignore it
2. report it
3. talk about it in a response to it
4. any of the above combined

In the end, if you still cannot handle it, i am sure there are plenty of place you can go where the moderators are less busy, and more strict...

Answer 3

What's so mean about asking an evolution vs creation question? ID advocates always go on about equal time for alternate theories, so you should give evolution advocates equal time too cos their theory is alternate to the ID one.
BTW: I'm in agreement with the others. What would be the point of a heckling category? Not even the hecklers would go there, since there's nobody to heckle.

Answer 4

No. I don't think there should be a separate category for "hecklers".
Enclaves, ghettos, 'separate sections', arbitrary divisions (the good old Us and Them) do no one any good.
There is a simple solution, one I myself apply, from time to time.
When I can't stand the section and 'the insanity' for want of a better phrase, I go somewhere else.
It really is that easy.
I come here as much for the serious debate, as for the shenanigans.
I like to laugh.
Laughing is what makes life worth living.
I like to learn.
Learning is what makes me a better person.
When I come here, I get the best of both worlds.
Why would I support a move to separate those things, those wonderful things.
Those things that enliven, and enrich me?

Answer 5

No, there shouldn't. Those doing so for malicious reasons would not go to a place all their own because they would have no targets to lash out at. Those doing it because they feel their personal beliefs are being attacked will always be present in any group of that nature. Likewise, those with spiritual superiority complexes will also always be present in a group of that nature. The only solution is to wade through the glass to find the occasional diamond. It's not necessarily what any of us want to hear, but it is true. It comes down to the fact that within any group expanded beyond our immediate sphere of personal influence, there will be those who, for whatever reason, we will personally find disagreeable.

Answer 6

No, there should not be a separate category. I don't even know what a hecklers category would be. However 'trolls' are a very real issue on these boards. If you keep having to deal with trolls on a particular board notify the Moderator. If the Moderator does not facilitate the necessary change, leave that group. I don't join groups that are unmoderated.

Start your own group. Yahoo rules clearly state that membership of groups is at the discretion of the List Owner. The guidelines also encourage moderators to keep the list on topic and if subscribers don't want to keep their discussions within the realm of civility and on topic, you have the right to remove them. Of course, I only ban trolls who really need to be out of my life and off of my board.

Don't worry about the people who were bred with a sense of entitlement to something they did not create, most of them could not keep a successful board going without enforcing some kind of rules. Go look at the unmoderted boards on Yahoo, full of spam and porn advertisements. You have to draw a line somewhere.

There is nothing wrong with saying "This board is designed to SUPPORT X. Subscribers who post in opposition to X will be considered OFF TOPIC." When OFF TOPIC posts are recognized, the author should be notified that author that his post is OFF TOPIC and why. If the individual(s) continue to post off topic, they can be removed with no guilt whatsoever. I prefer a minimum of three-strikes within a short period of time.

Don't worry about the people who want to call you a dictator (unless you really are). It's a standard tactic of trolls to call anybody they perceive as having any manner of authority--no matter how insignificant--a dictator. All trolls know how to do is eat, **** and destroy things.

Another tactic of trolls is to resort to melodrama and name-calling. How can you be a dictator? Do you own a small country? Do you have any sort of control over another person's life or liberty? No, you just own a tiny piece of Cyber-space that no-one is forced to join. Yahoo groups is not a democracy. The groups are actually considered to be the property of the list OWNER, not the subscribers.

There is absolutely no reason, without a doubt that any list designed to foster and encourage spiritual growth and development should be forced to endure heckling trolls. This should be a no brainer. If you invite a person into your house and they start wrecking the place and disrespecting the family you have the right to have them removed. They can call you a dictator all they want but you have a responsibility to the house.

How do you recognize a troll? Trolls destroy; they do not build or contribute anything positive. They do not help to foster group homogeneity. Trolls show up for one reason; to throw stones and cause chaos. Order frightens them. Trolls don't like rules because rules are designed to deal with trolls.

Trolls will accuse you of being a dictator or a one-true-wayist and say all sorts of nasty things about how you are against freedom. What they really mean is that they don't like having to measure up to any sort of group standard because that gets in the way of their 'freedom' to destroy your group.

Once you recognize a troll for who they are, there is only one way to deal with them. Ban them. Trolls are trolls and they won't change.

Answer 7

You're describing the way this board *should* be, according to Y!A rules. All they need is a moderator to enforce the rules.

But then again, without the hecklers, this board would be less interesting I think. Most people don't come here with real questions.

Answer 8

I can't imagine that working, not to mention what would you call it? Why would a bunch of heckler's decide to get together to heckle nobody?

I have an idea of what to call it, how about "Free Beer"? That should get the majority of them in there.

Answer 9

Yeah it would be nice. But see, when I did answer a question honestly and shared my experience with a certain issue, YA erased my answer. It was not insulting, it didn't lie, it was not spam. I got erased for sharing an experience that directly related to the question....

Answer 10

i think hecklers period need their own space, i've notice in all kinna catigories there is always one looser that is wasting the questioners time. Some people just dont have a life i guess.