I was reading in the thread regarding early LDS beliefs that the LDS no longer believe. I read some comments by posters and wondered :
HOW CAN A READER TELL WHAT IS AUTHENTIC LDS DOCTRINE AND LEGITIMATE INFORMATION VERSUS MIS-INFORMATION THAT IS POSING AS GOOD DATA? This principle determines to a great extent, the value of any internet site as a source of legitimate information. What if we allow any sort of informational "junk" to be posted in the place of what is real. As a "hypothetical" example, how could one tell if some posts are legit or not?
How does a poorly informed person tell which posts are legitimate or not among those that are not merely controversial, but contain mis-information and obvious deceptions? Especially since what might be true and what might be false may have a similar appearance. Also, since we are often talking "beliefs", almost ALL of us will offer some "misinformation" from time to time (which someone else who perhaps knows better - or not, will disagree) . It becomes complicated.
This is NOT just an LDS problem, but I've noticed anti-catholics posing as catholics, non-muslims posing as muslims, most of the time with the intent to discredit and mis-inform and to attempt to hurt the religion they are posing as members of but want to do harm to.
Regarding the occurence of religious deception; it is starting to crop up more often. The anti-religionist, poses as a religionist, and then teaches the outlandish and the foolish; all in the attempt to damage and do harm to the religion they are against. For example, though there are rules against “non-mormons” posting trash against the mormons, the distinction to be mormon lies in a simple label, next to Under out internet name. Thus, individuals very obviously avoid rules of spreading mis-information by deception.
One can simply CLAIM, under the "religion" tag to be "mormon" or "catholic" or "muslim", or "new" mormon or "New" Catholic or "new" Muslim, or add the words "really really authentic" before the religion, or “wide-eyed mormon”, and then, as an anti-mormon, with relative and temporal impunity, spew whatever anti-mormon; anti catholic or anti islamic doctrine they want. It is a very satanic type of deception that is easily recognized by members of the specific religion themselves, and authentic investigators who read the posts can see "something doesn't sit right" and thus can discern something is wrong, but such tactics undermine the value of a forum as a source of legitimate information on any subject.
In the same way we have "posers" in the LDS forum who are obviously NOT LDS despite a deceptive claim. When I was on the Islamic forums (very cordial interactions there by the way), I saw a muslim, masquerading as a Christian and spewing junk in an attempt to make the Christians look badly. I've also seen individuals pose as Muslims doing the same harm to Islam. I suspect the Athiests may also suffer from misguided religionists posing as a poorly informed athiest in order to do the Athiests beliefs damage. Though the LDS and Catholics and Muslims and Athiest THEMSELVES have a good feel for who is deceiving, (since they possess the underlying data sets and understanding to have a feel for this), others do not.
Is there anything to be done about such deception? Perhaps, to decrease such deceptions, the forum administrators could allow specific religions to form their own group of 5 or 10 individuals to look at such deceptions and have some authority over what individuals put under their "religious preference" label?
Any ideas on how to combat such deceivers?
Is there a way to at least post an "advisory"? (such as "the LDS committee has deemed post number so and so to contain mis-information?)
However, such a method could become so unwieldy since, some of us DO get things wrong from time to time and post things that seem honestly legitimate, but are, in reality, dis-information. It becomes complicated.
On the historical forums, or the science forums or the archeology forums, it is very, very easy to spot deceivers since one is dealing about data which tends to be more factual in nature and thus difficult to fake. However, in a religious forum, we are dealing about beliefs and deceivers don't deal with facts per se. In fact, they cannot ply their trade in a factual world, but MUST stay in the safer and darker areas of fantastic claims and rhetoric (since factual information reveals what they are).
It is complicated, not merely to identify the deceivers, but as what to do about them.
Clear
HOW CAN A READER TELL WHAT IS AUTHENTIC LDS DOCTRINE AND LEGITIMATE INFORMATION VERSUS MIS-INFORMATION THAT IS POSING AS GOOD DATA? This principle determines to a great extent, the value of any internet site as a source of legitimate information. What if we allow any sort of informational "junk" to be posted in the place of what is real. As a "hypothetical" example, how could one tell if some posts are legit or not?
How does a poorly informed person tell which posts are legitimate or not among those that are not merely controversial, but contain mis-information and obvious deceptions? Especially since what might be true and what might be false may have a similar appearance. Also, since we are often talking "beliefs", almost ALL of us will offer some "misinformation" from time to time (which someone else who perhaps knows better - or not, will disagree) . It becomes complicated.
This is NOT just an LDS problem, but I've noticed anti-catholics posing as catholics, non-muslims posing as muslims, most of the time with the intent to discredit and mis-inform and to attempt to hurt the religion they are posing as members of but want to do harm to.
Regarding the occurence of religious deception; it is starting to crop up more often. The anti-religionist, poses as a religionist, and then teaches the outlandish and the foolish; all in the attempt to damage and do harm to the religion they are against. For example, though there are rules against “non-mormons” posting trash against the mormons, the distinction to be mormon lies in a simple label, next to Under out internet name. Thus, individuals very obviously avoid rules of spreading mis-information by deception.
One can simply CLAIM, under the "religion" tag to be "mormon" or "catholic" or "muslim", or "new" mormon or "New" Catholic or "new" Muslim, or add the words "really really authentic" before the religion, or “wide-eyed mormon”, and then, as an anti-mormon, with relative and temporal impunity, spew whatever anti-mormon; anti catholic or anti islamic doctrine they want. It is a very satanic type of deception that is easily recognized by members of the specific religion themselves, and authentic investigators who read the posts can see "something doesn't sit right" and thus can discern something is wrong, but such tactics undermine the value of a forum as a source of legitimate information on any subject.
In the same way we have "posers" in the LDS forum who are obviously NOT LDS despite a deceptive claim. When I was on the Islamic forums (very cordial interactions there by the way), I saw a muslim, masquerading as a Christian and spewing junk in an attempt to make the Christians look badly. I've also seen individuals pose as Muslims doing the same harm to Islam. I suspect the Athiests may also suffer from misguided religionists posing as a poorly informed athiest in order to do the Athiests beliefs damage. Though the LDS and Catholics and Muslims and Athiest THEMSELVES have a good feel for who is deceiving, (since they possess the underlying data sets and understanding to have a feel for this), others do not.
Is there anything to be done about such deception? Perhaps, to decrease such deceptions, the forum administrators could allow specific religions to form their own group of 5 or 10 individuals to look at such deceptions and have some authority over what individuals put under their "religious preference" label?
Any ideas on how to combat such deceivers?
Is there a way to at least post an "advisory"? (such as "the LDS committee has deemed post number so and so to contain mis-information?)
However, such a method could become so unwieldy since, some of us DO get things wrong from time to time and post things that seem honestly legitimate, but are, in reality, dis-information. It becomes complicated.
On the historical forums, or the science forums or the archeology forums, it is very, very easy to spot deceivers since one is dealing about data which tends to be more factual in nature and thus difficult to fake. However, in a religious forum, we are dealing about beliefs and deceivers don't deal with facts per se. In fact, they cannot ply their trade in a factual world, but MUST stay in the safer and darker areas of fantastic claims and rhetoric (since factual information reveals what they are).
It is complicated, not merely to identify the deceivers, but as what to do about them.
Clear
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Did you parents not teach you to have any integrity at all?