I know I’ve made a few people upset by deleting the recent “are you a Christian?” threads. Let me explain why we like to keep away from religion and politics in our forums (for any new users this might be the first time you’ve heard of these guidelines).
Before I go on I must admit that I (a life-long Christian, I might add) was more than just a little amused by the comment “The persecution of Christians continues” by GearDrivenSteam in the second thread after I deleted the first thread. I’m not persecuting anyone… in fact, I’m trying to avoid persecutions by not allowing talk about religion.
Simply put, most discussions about religion and politics typically lead to arguments between otherwise perfectly good friends. Everyone has their own beliefs on the two subjects, and they can vary greatly. The last thing we need between the otherwise perfect friendships that we have in this forum is for someone who’s not a Christian to stand up and say “what about my religion? Do you think you’re superior to me?” Believe me, it’s happened and all H-E-double-you-know-what has ensued. Thus, we don’t allow it.
In closing (and most of you long-time users have heard this before), when I was a teen my father told me to never discuss politics with a friend because it would only lead to bad feelings. At the time I really didn’t understand it, because most teens have a million things on their mind before politics. As I grew, I added religion to that list. If I’ve established a friendship with someone without prior knowledge of the beliefs, why should I care later on what their beliefs are. A few weeks back I added marital status (after that simple question lead down an argument-filled road).
I hope you all understand my point of view. We’re all here under a common bond: model trains. Let’s not ruin that bond with discussions about topics that may potentially be harmful despite the best intentions.
Well put Bergie my Grandfather many years ago taught me the same… never talk religion or politics with a friend or at the dinner table… I apologize for any part of the confligration that I may have added to.
Thanks for letting us know Bergie, I really appreciate you responding. After the thread that I posted was deleted without an apperent explination, I was about ready to back out of these forums. Although I disagree with you (and the Great Commission kinda does to [;)]) I will abide by the rules. Again thanks for the reply and I will climb off of my [soapbox]
Randy Johnson
Another way to know that maybe you shouldn’t go where you are headed, if your statement starts:
“Don’t take this the wrong way…”, or “Just out of curiousity…” you need to think about whether what you are saying needs to be said at all.
No, the same rules apply over there. If you see it please e-mail me at editor@trains.com with a link to the thread in question and I’ll get rid of it. I encourage all of you to help with the policing of our forums… it’s impossible for me to see everything that goes on here.
I haven’t visited the Toy Train forum, but they probably have a different moderator. Stuff might be getting past. I know it’s hard for a moderator to be on line 24/7. I’m on another forum that was almost closed down by the moderator because things got so hot and heavy. Not an easy job, but I see Bergie’s point. If we want to talk about our religious and political differences (or similarities) we can always e-mail each other. I’ve got several friends on this forum that I correspond privately with.
Tom [:)]
Hey Bergie- I like to think that we’re all pretty good poeple posting here and pretty self policeing with profanity by useing[censored][banghead][soapbox] and try to keep this a family friendly place. Do you get a lot of nasty stuff being posted here that we never even get to see before you delete it?
No, this forum is indeed great and it has a lot to do with users tipping me off (via e-mail) when inappropriate topics/language, etc. appear throughout the forum. That self-policing society certainly helps keep users in line.
I know I’ve made a few people upset by deleting the recent “are you a Christian?” threads. Let me explain why we like to keep away from religion and politics in our forums (for any new users this might be the first time you’ve heard of these guidelines).
Before I go on I must admit that I (a life-long Christian, I might add) was more than just a little amused by the comment “The persecution of Christians continues” by GearDrivenSteam in the second thread after I deleted the first thread. I’m not persecuting anyone… in fact, I’m trying to avoid persecutions by not allowing talk about religion.
Simply put, most discussions about religion and politics typically lead to arguments between otherwise perfectly good friends. Everyone has their own beliefs on the two subjects, and they can vary greatly. The last thing we need between the otherwise perfect friendships that we have in this forum is for someone who’s not a Christian to stand up and say “what about my religion? Do you think you’re superior to me?” Believe me, it’s happened and all H-E-double-you-know-what has ensued. Thus, we don’t allow it.
In closing (and most of you long-time users have heard this before), when I was a teen my father told me to never discuss politics with a friend because it would only lead to bad feelings. At the time I really didn’t understand it, because most teens have a million things on their mind before politics. As I grew, I added religion to that list. If I’ve established a friendship with someone without prior knowledge of the beliefs, why should I care later on what their beliefs are. A few weeks back I added marital status (after that simple question lead down an argument-filled road).
I hope you all understand my point of view. We’re all here under a common bond: model trains. Let’s not ruin that bond with discussions about topics that may potentially be harmful despite the best intentions.
Glad we got the air clear. There’s a whole internet out there for people of this or that religion, persuasion, race, etc. We’re here because we have something else in common…
So let’s leave religion, politics, and other heated subjects to forums that focus on those things. We’re here to talk trains.
Toot toot.
EDIT - I think some folks might not quite get the concept of a focused forum…if there’s something else you want to talk about, there are a gazillion other places designed for you to talk about that thing. I guess it makes sense if you want to discuss certain things with friends you’ve made here…but if things got lax it would be pretty darned inconvenient to have to search through pages of fluff to find one good thread on something related to trains. Maybe we should have a general-general forum seperate from everything else for folks who want to shoot the breeze…
But then again…if you don’t want to talk about trains…well you’re definitely in the wrong place.
Tainluver1, you may not agree, and Bergie, I’m pretty sure, would insist on your right state as much, but he sets the rules, and participation here is contingent upon following them…or else…
I said it myself earlier in that other thread; we signed on agreeing to rules of discourse, and one of the rules was not that we could choose which ones to ignore.
That why we have a place like the Coffee Shop, an entire off-topic thread. If you don’t want to talk about trains, you don’t have to. True general discussion is the name of the game there. Or, you could just go to another forum strictly about whatever you want to talk about.
Well, I must disagree. I’m not sure about you, but I don’t like the flaming that goes on it this forum. And I congratulate Bergie for his police-work efforts, as well as the members for their self-policing efforts. Yes the real world is far from perfect were arguments are very common, but I do like to get away from that every now and then.
While I must agree with your comments in general (we are here to discuss trains after all) I feel that I must comment on your thoughtful post.
You see, ALL religions, and indeed even atheism and agnosticism (they are religions too), shape a persons world view. All religions, and even no religion, shapes how a person views themselves and everything around them. This is a basic psychological and philosophical truth.
It would be difficult at best to not have some sliver of your worldview enter your conversation, after all, that shapes how you see things. If you were to never let your viewpoint be known then you would be little more then a machine that has no personality and only spews out fact and figures.
Now I know I have seen many worldviews put forth in suttle ways right here on this forum. There are some people who often have a negative word for whatever is being discussed. I have seen people who use language that I feel is offensive. I feel sorry for them as they probably have had a very rough life and have very little hope. Maybe this hobby is their only enjoyment out of life. They just are so overwhelmed by the rest of life that it just creeps into their writing. Others that post here are often full of encouragement and usually have kind things to say. They may have a much easier row to hoe then the others, and it shows.
I think that you can see what I mean. Your world view definately influences your thinking, and therefore, how you respond to the world.
I am a Christian, like you. I am actually in pre-seminary school now (well, not this exact second, but you know what I mean). I feel called to proclaim my Savior in all that I do (in fact, thats what Scripture commands a Christian to do)(see my signature; this is my motto).
I do know however that this is not the focus of this forum, so I try to limit the scope of what I write about to the topic at hand. I am sure though, that if one were to look
