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ATTENTION -- RF Member Survey

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
This series of questions may influence forum-wide changes. Please answer them in as much detail as you can.

In this specific case, if moderation or interactions with a specific member or members are involved in your answer, please PM me the answer so that your answer doesn't violate Rule 2 or Rule 1, respectively.

- What brings you to RF?

- What, if anything, would discourage you from posting on RF or make you less likely to come here?

- What, if anything, would you like to see done differently, whether in regard to forum sections, member interactions, or moderation/the rules?

(Again, for answers related to the last quesion, please PM me the answer instead of posting it publicly, per Rule 2.)

- If you used to be less active but have become more active, what has caused this change?

- If you used to be more active but have become less active, what has caused this change?

Speak your mind as openly as you want and use PMs if need be (for the reasons clarified above). This survey is important. Your answers will be forwarded to the staff for consideration unless you explicitly request otherwise.

Thanks in advance.
 

Phaedrus

Active Member
- What brings you to RF?
One would think the answer should be "to learn", but the truth is that I have already learned enough about various religions in my lifetime to understand them from an objective viewpoint whereby I cannot believe in that which I personally view as false. I am here on the forum because I enjoy the process of sharing my thoughts on religion as well as perhaps engaging in a meaningful debate whereby I have no misconceptions of ever coming out as a winner against someone else who is as resolute in their beliefs as I am in my non-belief.

- What, if anything, would discourage you from posting on RF or make you less likely to come here?
It takes a great deal to upset me due to the fact that I am rather tolerant. However, there may come a time when someone expresses a heinous personal viewpoint that is detrimental to reason as well as overall personal well-being for those who find such offensiveness has no place in any type of forum. It could be reasonably understood that ignoring it is condoning and supporting it, which would then cause me to leave the forum. As it is currently, simply placing someone on "ignore" seems to do the trick.
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
One would think the answer should be "to learn", but the truth is that I have already learned enough about various religions in my lifetime to understand them from an objective viewpoint whereby I cannot believe in that which I personally view as false. I am here on the forum because I enjoy the process of sharing my thoughts on religion as well as perhaps engaging in a meaningful debate whereby I have no misconceptions of ever coming out as a winner against someone else who is as resolute in their beliefs as I am in my non-belief.


It takes a great deal to upset me due to the fact that I am rather tolerant. However, there may come a time when someone expresses a heinous personal viewpoint that is detrimental to reason as well as overall personal well-being for those who find such offensiveness has no place in any type of forum. It could be reasonably understood that ignoring it is condoning and supporting it, which would then cause me to leave the forum. As it is currently, simply placing someone on "ignore" seems to do the trick.

Thank you for your answers. We will discuss them as part of the survey.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
the requirement of posting the words....I believe
should be dropped

if I am posting.....anything....
it is that I believe it
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
This series of questions may influence forum-wide changes. Please answer them in as much detail as you can.

In this specific case, if moderation or interactions with a specific member or members are involved in your answer, please PM me the answer so that your answer doesn't violate Rule 2 or Rule 1, respectively.

- What brings you to RF?

Entertainment, the ability to discuss ideas outside my own realm of experience.

- What, if anything, would discourage you from posting on RF or make you less likely to come here?

Excessive or unreasonable censorship.

- What, if anything, would you like to see done differently, whether in regard to forum sections, member interactions, or moderation/the rules?

A way to dislike a post.

(Again, for answers related to the last quesion, please PM me the answer instead of posting it publicly, per Rule 2.)

- If you used to be less active but have become more active, what has caused this change?

- If you used to be more active but have become less active, what has caused this change?

The only time I stopped is in the case of some censorship, not that I disagreed with the rules or the judgement, but I felt I couldn't as freely express myself as I wanted. Just didn't feel I could trust myself, my desire to express myself freely to keep my posts within the rules.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
- What brings you to RF?
I'm compelled to shoot the breeze with people, but real life is too limiting.
When my old forum was disbanded, I came here.
- What, if anything, would discourage you from posting on RF or make you less likely to come here?
A lack of interesting posters.
- What, if anything, would you like to see done differently, whether in regard to forum sections, member interactions, or moderation/the rules?
1) Change access to restricted political forums to be like DIRs.
By requiring registering as a member of a group, this will prevent
accidental posting in the wrong forum. This will avoid ruffled
feathers, & posters being sanctioned.
2) A "Progressive Only" forum would be useful.
3) Do not give the option to negatively rate a post.
I've been on a forum with that feature, & saw it cause
widespread retaliation.

Others are by PM.
 

Deeje

Avid Bible Student
Premium Member
- What brings you to RF?
The ability to express my own opinions and beliefs and to learn about what others believe as well....preferably in a civil manner. This is sometimes made difficult for those who come to debate forums and then when their beliefs are confronted, get their feelings hurt as if you just insulted their mother. If you are overly sensitive, then debate forums are not somewhere you ought to be IMO.

- What, if anything, would discourage you from posting on RF or make you less likely to come here?

Unreasonable posting rules. Like being sanctioned for disagreeing strongly with someone when they had been strongly disagreeable as well. If you dish it out, you should be "man enough" to cop it back......but in a civil manner. We are supposed to be adults here.

I came to RF and stayed because it was a place where civil discussion was possible without getting banned every time someone reported you for a minor infraction. I loved the fact that no one said...."you can't say that here". Free speech is being curtailed everywhere you look these days. I hope it is preserved here for the benefit of everyone.

Religion and politics are highly emotive subjects so passions can run high....but please not to the stage of a personal slanging match. I agree with the rules on that. Disagreeing with a person's religious views is as old as history, but it doesn't have to be taken as a personal attack.

It must be assumed that all who post on these forums are expressing their own opinion.....otherwise why would they bother to express themselves at all? Giving everyone equal opportunity to be heard allows the readers here to hear all points of view. That has to be a good thing.

- What, if anything, would you like to see done differently, whether in regard to forum sections, member interactions, or moderation/the rules?

I am wondering why a 'political' forum is necessary on 'Religious Forums'? It has nothing to do with religion and can be an unnecessary excuse for abuse and name calling. Do we really need it?

If a report is made on any forum, it should identify the one making the report to the poster, and a right of reply given before any action is taken. Every story has two sides.
Identifying the reporter makes them own their complaint instead of handing it over to someone else and slinking off into anonymity like a coward.

Speak your mind as openly as you want and use PMs if need be (for the reasons clarified above). This survey is important. Your answers will be forwarded to the staff for consideration unless you explicitly request otherwise.

Thanks in advance.

I hope this is a catalyst for good changes.
happy0025.gif


Some other suggestions......

Better emoji's. I believe that an emoji can express more than words....and even temper or tone down a post. I also know that some people hate them....they don't have to use them.

A "Do Not Agree" button may take away the need for lengthy replies to explain disagreements.

Also an "Agree to Disagree" button would be helpful IMO......FWIW.
happy0144.gif
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
This series of questions may influence forum-wide changes. Please answer them in as much detail as you can.

In this specific case, if moderation or interactions with a specific member or members are involved in your answer, please PM me the answer so that your answer doesn't violate Rule 2 or Rule 1, respectively.

- What brings you to RF?

- What, if anything, would discourage you from posting on RF or make you less likely to come here?

- What, if anything, would you like to see done differently, whether in regard to forum sections, member interactions, or moderation/the rules?

(Again, for answers related to the last quesion, please PM me the answer instead of posting it publicly, per Rule 2.)

- If you used to be less active but have become more active, what has caused this change?

- If you used to be more active but have become less active, what has caused this change?

Speak your mind as openly as you want and use PMs if need be (for the reasons clarified above). This survey is important. Your answers will be forwarded to the staff for consideration unless you explicitly request otherwise.

Thanks in advance.

I think this forum has been successful in keeping proselytization guidelines which is good... But striving to discuss religion to me, just for the sake of this being Religious Forums, seems to be beside the point. To me, just getting religious people together, with others, to talk about all things including science, arts, politics, philosophy, history and a range of other topics seems to be the most productive, and interesting path to take.

Lately, from the last survey, it seems like now we talk much more frequeny about is religion. But I'm not too, too interested in talking about anyone else's religion, since I'm not a seeker, and I don't think most people are... Once in a while it's okay, but I don't think that should be the main focus.

As @Phaedrus pointed out, I want to learn. And what I would like to learn would need to be useful information that can be shared with everyone, such as facts or new ideas.
 
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Cooky

Veteran Member
As far as rules go, how about off-topic posting? I have experienced some off topic posting that has caused disruptive behavior, and I felt it was also unfair to the OP's point of creating a thread, which is rude IMO.

Of course, humor and good intentions should be something handled light-handedly, but someone wanting to hop on their soap box and preach something random, unrelated to the topic is disruptive behavior, if not just weird. IMO.
 

Lyndon

"Peace is the answer" quote: GOD, 2014
Premium Member
I think there should be a rule limiting the number of threads started by one person in one day, to like 3 or 4 threads, several spammy posters abuse this priviledge and it makes it hard to follow other important threads from other posters because their thread gets bumped from the right hand column of new threads quite quickly because the new threads is filling up with spam from the same poster.

There is only room for 10 new threads on the right column and if that is filled up with 7 spam threads from the same person, it doesn't leave much room to follow other new threads by regular posters.
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
I'm compelled to shoot the breeze with people, but real life is too limiting.
When my old forum was disbanded, I came here.

A lack of interesting posters.

1) Change access to restricted political forums to be like DIRs.
By requiring registering as a member of a group, this will prevent
accidental posting in the wrong forum. This will avoid ruffled
feathers, & posters being sanctioned.
2) A "Progressive Only" forum would be useful.
3) Do not give the option to negatively rate a post.
I've been on a forum with that feature, & saw it cause
widespread retaliation.

Others are by PM.

Only thing with having political forums like DIR's is that it's going to be hard to define what each is.

I know I'm for America first, passing tough immigration laws and enforcing them and pretty much everything Trump stands for.

...But I'm socially liberal, I don't care much about the budget like most conservatives do and I don't mind tariffs, so some conservatives might consider me more socialist than them.

I don't think it's an impossible task to accomplish, but I do think it will take some effort to put it together in a functional way.
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
I think there should be a rule limiting the number of threads started by one person in one day, to like 3 or 4 threads, several spammy posters abuse this priviledge and it makes it hard to follow other important threads from other posters because their thread gets bumped from the right hand column of new threads quite quickly because the new posts is filling up with spam from the same poster.

True.
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
How about a food forum? We could cover kosher, halal, regional, vegan, vegetarian, bacon and those things made out of lamb lungs. Besides, talking about food makes everyone happy. :)

...I'd suggest putting it in the Living World.

<EDIT> NEVERMIND:
Food and Beverage Forum
 
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Cooky

Veteran Member
The ability to express my own opinions and beliefs and to learn about what others believe as well....preferably in a civil manner. This is sometimes made difficult for those who come to debate forums and then when their beliefs are confronted, get their feelings hurt as if you just insulted their mother. If you are overly sensitive, then debate forums are not somewhere you ought to be IMO.

Don't worry, I'm cool with you calling my Church the whore of Babylon anytime you want... But just you. ;)
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Thanks for your feedback, all. I have read and will think about all posts in this thread without exception.

Out of all suggestions so far, I can only comment on the dislike option and say that we will most likely not implement that anytime soon, if ever. We have discussed it in the past and come to the conclusion that it would fuel negativity far too much for it to be something we would want to add.
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
A "Do Not Agree" button may take away the need for lengthy replies to explain disagreements.

Also an "Agree to Disagree" button would be helpful IMO......FWIW.
happy0144.gif

the dislike option and say that we will most likely not implement that anytime soon, if ever
Maybe not the "dislike" option (good plan not to have; would make RF rule "improper funny use" being punishable a bit funny even)

Deeje her idea "do not Agree" option won't make others unhappy, AND frubal count goes even up (who will object to that except some monks)

Deeje her idea "Agree to Disagree" even more soft, AND handy because some people keep continue if I said "Agree to Disagree";)

And it might take the edge off, when you really feel the urge to grant someone a dislike frubal:D.

I use the "Winner" frubal if someone really irritates me (now that funny is prohibited)
 
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crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
I agree with Revoltingest: Make the political only groups to require registration like the DIRs.

Perhaps narrowing the DIR registrations down more to major general religions (for example: separate registration for Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Baha'i instead of just the general Abrahamics section,) if at all possible, to avoid cross DIR-spamming and trolling.

Do not add a dislike button: instead, refute the argument given through dialog via a post response in the given thread.
 

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
Here's a condensed version of what I told Debater Slayer in PM, and a bit of an update to my thoughts based on seeing responses here:

-More focus on lighthearted discussion like hobbies, with more hobbies boards

-More incentive for me to get Premium Membership, which kind of works two ways because it will help us to help them. Don't get me wrong, I don't want Premium Members to have superior privileges, but I do feel they need something a bit more for the money they're putting in

-A section on the site of optional small free video games to pass the time. It'll give us something more to discuss or even try to get High Scores, leading to more discussion in the Forums Games section

-I did state there should be a firmer stance taken in the religious and political boards. In the case of the religious boards, I'm just going to agree with Landon Caeli about off-topic posting, I think that all it needs is stricter rules on off-topic posting and that's it. In the case of the political, I actually think Revoltingest's DIR idea will fix any problems I have with the political discussions.

@Debater Slayer

@Landon Caeli

@Revoltingest
 
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