<[Updated OP]>-Religious thread prefix idea

Ignore the poll for now.

Ok so now the idea is to require that religious (and possibly other controversial topics) threads have a [RELIGIOUS] in the heading, making it so that people are warned before entering the thread, avoiding conflict. People come here to converse with others, and shouldnt have to worry about accidentally wandering into a thread that may cause them emotional distress. The solution isnt just "Well dont post", because for many people, just viewing the topic can create distressful feelings inside them. I believe that if people are allowed to have religious threads, there should be at least some warning or flag on the title so that those who wish to never deal with religious topics on EMC dont have to worry about accidentally stumbling upon them. Same goes for Atheist threads. If this is required, arguments about religious discussions on EMC will be kept to a minimum, and those who wish to discuss the topic may do it knowing that there is no excuse for someone stumbling upon the thread and attacking them for it.

I think Jack's idea above would be very effective, especially when combined with the prefix requirement idea.

Please voice your opinion on this UPDATED idea, and not the old one
Use the quote below to bypass any of the oldish discussion:

I think we should have a religious forum category. It would prevent the small little battles we sometimes have. How would it prevent that, if it is just a little category? Simple If you are a supporter, you are automatically listed as someone who can access the supporter only forums. So why not have a restricted religious forum? I don't think it would require too much work to have "button" that you click in the forums tab. By default, everyone can access the religious forums (unless it would be easier to make it so you have to "subscribe" to the access list). If you don't want to see it, then opt out by clicking the button.

The only bad side (that i could think of) of this is that it could/will divide a small part of our members, just maybe. But do we really want them (myself included sometimes) to come into contact with each other in that type of thread? The ONLY threads that i have seen that are more hostile than a religious thread were the 1.3 wilderness reset debates. Anybody who saw them knows that they got very contentious, very fast.

The good side, which i believe heavily outweighs the bad side, is that those who want to openly and freely discuss religious topics can feel "safe" inside that area, knowing that only people who are willing or want to see those threads will see them and participate in them. Kind of the same thing for the other side. Those who don't want anything to do with religious threads, and find them an issue, will be able to just sit back and know that they WONT run into any of them anymore.

Feel free to discuss this and point out more pros and cons Yes, I'm making the poll private. Some people will likely want to stay anonymous, so that they don't get sucked onto either side. Feel free to mention how you voted if you want to though

If this is taken as offensive, it wasn't meant to be, and i have no clue how it could be taken that way. Just typing this because sometimes my tone is transferred as well as i would like it to be.

Just be generally nice, and whatever you do... DO NOT bring religion (saying that you HAVE to preach) into any reasoning for your posts, and same thing (saying that you have to be the counterweight to the situation) goes for the other side.

I don't see a need for this... might as well have a sub-forum topic for memes, cool videos, song, ect. We have the Miscellaneous topic for a reason.

It wouldn't prevent religious threads getting out of hand. In fact, it would be worse because 1) more of them would be "encouraged" with it and 2) trolls will go there with the precise motives of annoying others.

If you don't want to participate in religious threads, just don't click on one with an obvious title or go back if you're on it.

I like the idea. Some members really want to air their views.

I don't think we should be having that dry of kindling for a flame war anywhere on the forums.

No, and here's why.

It's the individual's responsibly to keep themselves under control on the forums just as it is in game. We aren't going to create a subforum for every debatable/senstive topic out there - it's on everyone's shoulders to see that they stay under control.

The empire rules apply just the same on here as they do in game and we've had more than a few cases of in game bans or site bans coming out of people's actions on the forums. If you see someone breaking the rules on the forums - either use /report in game or PM a staff member.

Edit: I see i've been beaten to some of this by others

Well no one who would argue against religion would wander in

Thats the thing though... Im just going to use jtc as an example. He makes a lot of threads, but only one so far has been obvious in that it was a religious thread. The other religious ones are only obvious to those who know what hes talking about. Its kind of like an inside joke. Those who know find his threads obvious, those of us who dont, well we wander in and are intrigued to figure out what the topic is. And i picked jtc because he has threads and discussions i like to see. I, and i hope im not the only one, dont want to ignore him completely JUST because we cant figure out from the title what the thread is about :/

Or, I'm assuming, you can use the "Report" button under every post.

Quite the opposite, actually. If they're bored, just join in on one of the many religious threads and start a nice debate.

Click it, if it's not for you, click back.

We are just forums for a game. Why religion? There are just seperate forums for that.

I support this. Although I have a slight fear this might prevent the secular majority (i.e. the entire Empire Minecraft community) and the religious minority (i.e. Jtc) from coming to a consensus on the issues of religion and preachiness.

This seems like a bit of a quick fix solution to what is a more complex problem. A lot of Jtc's threads have required cleaning-out by moderators due to what has been interpreted as rudeness. If I may propose rules and guidelines on making religious threads as an alternative to your suggestion:

1. Everyone has the responsibility to post relevant content and, if they wish, criticisms in threads.
2. Religious threads are allowed, providing they are not directly provocative.
3. If any form of a claim or argument is established or asserted in the original post of a religious thread, any form of countering or criticizing it may be considered relevant.
4. A lack of tolerance for religion and criticism of religion are not the same thing. The staff seriously need to re-evaluate their point of view that anything remotely negative said about religion is punishable under Commandment 6. All points of view should be allowed in all threads provided they're relevant, and the religious have no right to declare opposing points of view irrelevant to the overall topic matter.

But discrimination is forced restriction, and this would be 100% optional.

Are we talking about those who can argue together nicely, or those who (when bored) would provoke certain feelings? For the second group, anyone who would go in would be punished appropriately. But sometimes what i say, and i know i am miss-interpreted a lot, comes off as hostile. Its not meant to come off like that, but it does to people with opposite views. If they feel offended by what is supposed to be a normal statement, it feels like im in trouble for being "rude", when its really just a miss-interpretation. And it works both ways.

Both types of comments/debates (in most cases) shouldn't be happening in threads that share resources, and currently mods deal with them accordingly as they pop up every now and then.

Right now, religious threads are being made to share videos/songs and religious resources. Making a new topic for these religious threads will CAUSE and ENCOURAGE debates, as most people will think that it's there for the specific purpose of debating and not sharing.

...Much like if you create a topic about "guns", people will assume that it's for debating, and not discussing various weapons, ect. Even the one thread sharing some information will start a debate in most cases.

Once again, if you're sharing, use the Miscellaneous topic and mods WILL protect you from getting attacked.

What you're suggesting is a new topic for religious threads, which is just not needed and the reasons why have been covered in these posts ^

It will just start constant flame wars!

Its not all about posting in it, some people (sometimes myself included) get upset by viewing a topic.

Maybe a "controversial" category, with "religion" and "atheism" as subcategories. Each with their own "subscribe" option. I completely see your point, but there are some things that should be just dealt with separately. Many other forum groups do this.

Its the "recent" list of threads that makes all the categories null. If anything, i think that there should be a [Religion] or [Atheism] heading in any respective thread, just like there is for auctions. People can easily avoid auctions because they have that heading. Same thing could apply for religion and athiesm threads.

No, if anyone were to start those wars, they would be dealt with accordingly. If it were my choice, they would be blacklisted from that thread category. This is meant to end flaming

I would just like to say that i absolutely LOVE EMC's acceptance of virtually any topic. Many forums im on wont let anyone even speak of religion, ever. I think the way EMC handles it is good, but i think that members should have the option to remove themselves from being able to see the controversial topics. It would be like a /ignore in game, except instead of a person, it would just be a topic that just seeing makes them uncomfortable.

Wth no

What if you have the NEED and the build-up of anger to do that without thinking, like me? I swear to god I have ADHD -_-

Personally, I think that a [RELIGION], [POLITICS] or similar prefix being required on the appropriate threads would be suffice.