Leaving RF for a while.

[Alceste]

Hi, everyone. I am taking a break, and I want to be completely clear that my reason for taking a break this time is that RF is filled with rampant, continuous anti-gay hate speech and the moderators, however much I love them, are doing nothing about it.

I'm a laisser-faire kind of person, and I'd be fine with it if they weren't moderating ANYTHING, but I've just had a post of mine edited because I said "god damn", and that's apparently far more offensive than saying homosexuality is the basically same as pedophilia or bestiality.

I will check back in a while to see if anything has improved, and I'll reply to this thread for a bit.

Anyway, to all you anti-gay bigots, those of you who have recently nonchalantly compared gays to child-rapists (and you know who you are). You win. You can have RF.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Awh bro, I'll miss

 

[Sunstone]

I'll miss you!!! You can't leave!!

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

...

 

[Willamena]

Hope you're able to return soon.

 

[Songbird]

Nooooooo! STAY. I COMMAND IT.

Did that work?

 

[Drolefille]

I really wish you wouldn't go, even though I understand exactly why you are. I'd like it if we could find another solution rather than driving off long time posters. Is it possible to get the blatant anti-gay posters who are the equivalent of racist slime banned rather than lose you?

You don't know me from adam, but if you ever need to talk feel free to send me a PM. *offers hugs*

 

[9Westy9]

Hi, everyone. I am taking a break, and I want to be completely clear that my reason for taking a break this time is that RF is filled with rampant, continuous anti-gay hate speech and the moderators, however much I love them, are doing nothing about it.

Yeah. I was thinking that a lot of the posts now are quite strong opinions. I don't mind people exerting free speech but speech with no solid argument(s) to back it up is essentially just being prejudice.

Anyway, to all you anti-gay bigots, those of you who have recently nonchalantly compared gays to child-rapists (and you know who you are). You win. You can have RF.

Not while I am still breathing

Anyway. I hope you enjoy your break and return soon. Hopefully by that time our counter strike will have proved successful

 

[Quagmire]

Hi, everyone. I am taking a break, and I want to be completely clear that my reason for taking a break this time is that RF is filled with rampant, continuous anti-gay hate speech and the moderators, however much I love them, are doing nothing about it.

How many reports have you made about any of this Alceste? None. How do you expect us to do our part when you aren't doing your part?

I'm a laisser-faire kind of person,

Is that French for "Lazy"?

and I'd be fine with it if they weren't moderating ANYTHING, but I've just had a post of mine edited because I said "god damn", and that's apparently far more offensive than saying homosexuality is the basically same as pedophilia or bestiality.

Someone reported your post. You haven't reported any of the posts you're upset about. See how that works?

I will check back in a while to see if anything has improved, and I'll reply to this thread for a bit.

Ah, I get it: what fun would it be to just go ahead and help take care of things the way they're supposed to be taken care of? Not nearly as much fun as staging a dramatic exit and issuing a "Maybe, if you're lucky and start doing my job for me, I'll think about coming back" ultimatum.

Anyway, to all you anti-gay bigots, those of you who have recently nonchalantly compared gays to child-rapists (and you know who you are). You win. You can have RF.

Yeah, with this kind of attitude that's exactly what will happen.

 

[Revoltingest]

Some observations:
I see some animosity & opposition to gays. (& Republicans & Democrats & Libertarians & socialists & Xians & Muslims & so on)
But I notice even more hatred & uncivil commentary directed at those who oppose gay marriage. (Hoist by one's own petard, eh?)
It would pay to accept that people will have opposing views, some of which will feel offensive.
We can't beat or insult anyone into becoming more tolerant of an alternative perspective.
But we may discuss & persuade without feeling hatred or smugness.
If you want to change minds, this works best.
Your mental health will benefit too.

 

[Drolefille]

Some observations:
I see some animosity & opposition to gays. (& Republicans & Democrats & Libertarians & socialists & Xians & Muslims & so on)
But I notice even more hatred & uncivil commentary directed at those who oppose gay marriage. (Hoist by one's own petard, eh?)
It would pay to accept that people will have opposing views, some of which will be offensive.
We can't beat or insult anyone into becoming more tolerant of an alternative perspective.
But we may discuss & persuade without feeling hatred or smugness.
If you want to change minds, this works best.
And your mental health will benefit.

While an ideal, an oppressed minority shouldn't be under the expectation of civility when insults are hurled at them couched in polite language - like everyone knows that kids raised by gay people aren't as happy and everyone knows gays are more promiscuous.

Those are direct insults to individuals here, not hypotheticals about others. This is something that the non-minority often neglects to take into account when chastising the minority for being angry.

In my short time here, I notice that most responses start out reasoned and logical and it's only under persistent use of the same poor arguments - not just the fact that the other person doesn't disagree- that people give in and just say EFF YOU BIGOT. I understand the feeling, and if someone has decided they don't want to listen to the other side, but simply preach to hatred to us, expecting us to be the better people puts the onus on the minority rather than the majority.

 

[waitasec]

ahhh man :sad:

 

[Quagmire]

Reality check people: RF's staff is comprised completely of volunteers, ie., people who have agreed to donate their time to help keep this place running the way it's supposed to for free. There are staff members here who put in 20, 30, sometimes anywhere up to 40+ hours a week working for you, for free.

Compared to that, is it really too much to ask that when you see something going on in here that needs to be dealt with you move your cursor to the right side of your screen and click on this: " " and then just type in something like "Troll" ?

If that's too much to ask, then too bad. Staff can't be everyplace at once, we don't have the means to read every single post every body makes in here, and if your answer to a problem that you refuse to help do your part to deal with is to leave, cya later.

 

[Revoltingest]

While an ideal, an oppressed minority shouldn't be under the expectation of civility when insults are hurled at them couched in polite language - like everyone knows that kids raised by gay people aren't as happy and everyone knows gays are more promiscuous.
Those are direct insults to individuals here, not hypotheticals about others. This is something that the non-minority often neglects to take into account when chastising the minority for being angry.
In my short time here, I notice that most responses start out reasoned and logical and it's only under persistent use of the same poor arguments - not just the fact that the other person doesn't disagree- that people give in and just say EFF YOU BIGOT. I understand the feeling, and if someone has decided they don't want to listen to the other side, but simply preach to hatred to us, expecting us to be the better people puts the onus on the minority rather than the majority.

I understand giving in to anger.
I am still a seething cauldron of rage.
But I also cope with it better than I have in years past.
I find that one may still care about things without becoming angry that others disagree.
To respond with insults & meta-bigotry doesn't help either side.
If abuse cannot be diffused with civil discourse, then alerting the mods is a good option.

Reality check people: RF's staff is comprised completely of volunteers, ie., people who have agreed to donate their time to help keep this place running the way it's supposed to for free. There are staff members here who put in 20, 30, sometimes anywhere up to 40+ hours a week working for you, for free.

Hah! We all know that you guys type on golden keypads as you sit in plush leather recliners while sipping fruity drinks.
You're worth it though.

 

[Alceste]

I'll miss you!!! You can't leave!!

We can still be email friends,otherwise I would miss you too! I still have your blog on my RSS feed too.

 

[Drolefille]

I understand giving in to anger.
I am still a seething cauldron of rage.
But I also cope with it better than I have in years past.
I find that one may still care about things without becoming angry that others disagree.
To respond with insults & meta-bigotry doesn't help either side.
If abuse cannot be diffused with civil discourse, then alerting the mods is a good option.

It doesn't help, but sometimes it is all the minority can do when again, outright bigotry is cloaked in beliefs, and lies are couched in "common sense".

If we want to stand up for ourselves how are we but to cry out in anger into the black?

Not clicking a report button isn't laziness, but ignoring the content for the lack of a report button is saddening.

 

[Me Myself]

Some observations:
I see some animosity & opposition to gays. (& Republicans & Democrats & Libertarians & socialists & Xians & Muslims & so on)
But I notice even more hatred & uncivil commentary directed at those who oppose gay marriage. (Hoist by one's own petard, eh?)
It would pay to accept that people will have opposing views, some of which will feel offensive.
We can't beat or insult anyone into becoming more tolerant of an alternative perspective.
But we may discuss & persuade without feeling hatred or smugness.
If you want to change minds, this works best.
Your mental health will benefit too.

I would like to echo this statement.

I too am pro gay rights, but I think it is natural and should be remembred that delicate issus will appear in a religious forum. This is precissely the kind of place where such issues should appear.

We have the catholic DIR in place in this forum. Wouldn´t it be hipocritical of the forum to only allow "anti-gay" (notice the """) only outside of it for example? Or should we limit their expression of their today completely in canon religious view regarding marriage to their DIR, as if their reassonings are not worth anywhere else?

It should be remembered that even unpopular opinions can be voiced in decent manners. To oppose gay marriage =/= to opose gays, as most (if not all) the members in this forum that oppose it argue. If they find it to be in line with bestiality, they are in a place to debate it, it is my personal opinion, and if their posts are deliberately inflamatory and they are not thoughtfull in their replies nor try to better their comprehension or break rules of the forum, as the mods have said, the report button exists.

I just felt it was important to remember all this. There are whole ideological views on the other side of the philosophy. Based on false premises? Well, we are all religions and ideologies here, half of the forum thinks the other half has terribly wrong premises .

We must be able to separate this to the people, ideas to ideologies.

Well, that´s my input on it, felt like saying it.

 

[beenie]

It doesn't help, but sometimes it is all the minority can do when again, outright bigotry is cloaked in beliefs, and lies are couched in "common sense".

If we want to stand up for ourselves how are we but to cry out in anger into the black?

Not clicking a report button isn't laziness, but ignoring the content for the lack of a report button is saddening.

Again, the Staff cannot see every post made on this forum. We rely heavily on our members to help us see offensive posts. That's why the report button is there from the first day of membership; there's no "special club" or "post minimum requirements" to report a post. Please, let's keep this fair; we always encourage members to report any post they find offensive, etc.

We can't fix what we don't see. In addition to the fact that we don't discuss moderation publicly, it's hard for you all to see what we do backstage.

I'm sorry to see you're so upset, Alceste, but I'm a bit sad you didn't give us the opportunity to rectify this via reporting posts before you reached this point. Please reconsider.

 

[Revoltingest]

It doesn't help, but sometimes it is all the minority can do when again, outright bigotry is cloaked in beliefs, and lies are couched in "common sense".

Civility is always an option.

If we want to stand up for ourselves how are we but to cry out in anger into the black?
Not clicking a report button isn't laziness, but ignoring the content for the lack of a report button is saddening.

I don't propose ignoring wrongs, but I think responding in kind is counter-productive.

We aren't that far apart.....I notice that you tend towards civility.

 

[Father Heathen]

Sorry to see you go, but I wouldn't let simple bumpkins get the best of you like that...