Hey all!

[trotsky]

What have I missed? Just thought I would stop by and see what there is to laugh at these days. Has anything improved? More of the same?

[dmallind]

1. Welcome back. Not a lot and mostly

A couple of "rogue" juries slapped down some christofascist hate despite howls of outrage, but they let most of it stand and blame militant atheists for deserving it far more frequently. Similarly occasionally an atheist can get by being just slightly terse, but not much more in response.

[trotsky]

2. Great.

I had hoped a little time would maybe have a positive effect but it would seem things are only entrenched more as they already were. More poisonous and unwelcoming than DU2 ever was.

But I did just see that a certain someone finally get their pizza in a spectacular flame-out, so that was nice.

[dmallind]

3. Yes. Lost a couple A&A too though

One apparently warranted although I missed the juicy details, but one fell afoul of the now apparently blanket non-canine usage of "bitch" ban.

Telling people they will fry in agony forever due to the spite of a loving omnipotent father figure is peachy of course. Much worse to call them (in this case an extreme RW political figure) a female canid.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. Yo trotsky, you're back!

Nice to see you made it around to our little ghetto!

Nothing much has changed, unfortunately. Still a lot of that majority-rule "Christian tolerance" rearing its ugly head.

[trotsky]

7. LOL, saw the ghetto thing.

Too funny. As frustrating as this place can be, I gotta admit I missed the laughs!

[onager]

5. Don't listen to these grumps!

The Religion group is NICER than ever, gosh-darn-it!



I dunno...it's like a FRESH NEW BREEZE is blowing thru that group, or something...

[trotsky]

8. Nothing like a little break to clear one's mind...

even though the breeze from the Religion group still has some of the same odors.

[rexcat]

6. Welcome back...

Still some xians making remarks in A&A and not realizing this is a safe zone for some of us. Religion group about the same. All of the juries I have been on have not hidden any posts. I think this is getting a little better.

[trotsky]

9. Seems like the juries still have most of the same flaws.

I do like how some of them take the "Lighten up, Francis" approach to garden variety snipping though.

[rexcat]

10. I just wonder how many people look at a hidden thread...

I ususally open them up to see what the hell is going on. I have been on a bunch of juries and to date I think I have only voted once to lock a thread because it was a personal attack, otherwise the posts did meet the criteria for hiding (IMO). Just saw a post by Silent3 in Religion which was locked for being off topic. The lock was pure chickenshit since the reason it was locked was it belonged in "Meta/Help" forum. Someone does not understand sarcasm but that is the Religion group for you!

opn edit: someone has their panties in a wad: I sent a DU e-mail to the religion host or whatever and this was the response to my e-mail: "No. The chickenshit hosts will be leaving it locked". I should have realized that some do stalk us!

> "Please, oh, please let there be a believer only religion group." This post belongs in the Religion forum since it is sarcasm, not the Meta/Help forum. I believe the poster had a point to make and the post should not have been locked. Please reconsider.

[trotsky]

31. I do like that feature.

I think it's good to be able to judge for oneself if a deletion was warranted.

[rexcat]

34. This is a good feature...

I did not want to get into a pissing contest with a lurker/stalker of A&A forum and after a PM from EorC confirming my suspicions about said lurker/stalker I deleted the post! Said lurker/stalker got their panties in a wad earlier with me. It looks like I will be having "issues" in the religion forum and any other forum they are hosting for a while because of said lurker/stalker.

Had to delete a duplicate of this post. Bad connection tonight!

[deacon_sephiroth]

11. welcome back

I was always a fan of your posts.

In other news, I got censored for my first tme the other day. (I implied that Humblebum was lacking some basic congitive faculties since he kept veering wildly off topic in random directions... I'm sure it would have stood if they knew him better :p)

[trotsky]

12. You speak the truth.

You must be silenced!

[EvolveOrConvolve]

13. I got called a fucking asshole and the post wasn't locked

Jury system? Meh.

[deacon_sephiroth]

16. I saw that, and was displeased

a jury system is a neat IDEA, it's a good concept on paper, but in reality it's opens some rather nasty doors.

real admins have a position of trust and authority that most of them take very seriously, whereas random anonymous people on the internet will often behave less than admirably. It seems that the reality of the jury system is that the majority will discrimintate against the minority, especially if the minority has a negative public image.

[Rob H.]

19. "It seems that the reality...is that the majority will discriminate against the minority...."

Yep. I alerted on a post over in Religion as being flamebait and the responses (after the post was allowed to stand, naturally) were basically a mix of "Flamebait? Nu-uh!" and "Yeah, well, atheists say worse than that all the time and those posts aren't locked!!11!!!1" Two wrongs apparently do make a right here on DU3.

(Sorry for truncating your sentence--it was too long to fit in the reply title.)

[trotsky]

30. A fucking asshole is the best kind.

At least you have more than one purpose.

[laconicsax]

15. More of the same, really.

There have been some changes:

-We learned that calling someone c*nt and advocating violence against them is fine by both jury and admins.
-We also learned that the lead host of a group can do whatever they like with no oversight and I'm currently ruling skeptics with an iron fist.
-TMO is replying in threads more than starting OPs.
-MarkCharles got banned for flying off the rails over a locked post in LBN.
-Kurmudgeon got banned for being the RW theocrat he's always been.
-HysteryDiagnosis got banned because according to Skinner, "Basically, his entire existence here is a violation of our Terms of Service."
-The anti-vax brigade seems to have disappeared.
-I use a Dvorak keyboard now instead of QWERTY.
-Darkstar is retiring as host and we're looking for a replacement.

That's just off the top of my head.

[deacon_sephiroth]

17. I nominate trotsky for the vacant host spot

[trotsky]

27. I for one welcome my laconicsax overlord.

Being an atheist, I fully support totalitarian rule of course, as long as you are executing every religious believer as per the sacred texts of atheism and the ruling of our pope, Richard Dawkins.

LMAO at the HD banning.

[BiggJawn]

32. Kurmudgeon earned his stone?

Can't say I'm sorry.
Welcome back, Trotsky!

[laconicsax]

33. Oh, yes. He most certainly did.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=263692&sub=trans

Pro-tip to lurking theocrats: If you're going to be virulently anti-choice (you probably call it "pro-life&quot , starting a thread complaining about the reception you're getting isn't going to be the pity party you're hoping for.

[LeftishBrit]

18. Pretty much the same, I think

Someone (Kurmudgeon, I think) went over the top and called pro-choice people 'pro-deathers' and called abortion 'murder for convenience' and then had a tantrum in the Meta forum about having his posts censored. Finally he got banned, to my relief.

As I live in a country where religion is less dominant and less associated with the right than yours, I am far more neutral about religion as such than most people in this forum; but I HATE the political pro-life movement, which has been causing problems in my backyard, so to speak, for the last three years or so. As per typical, it is becoming increasingly associated with homophobia. They do seem, however, recently to have aroused something of a backlash; see the following post:

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/12189390

[trotsky]

29. I read that flame-out in the Help & Meta forum. Impressive.

And good fucking riddance.

Nice thread you tried to start, too. I understand why no one wanted to discuss it, though. Makes the believers uncomfortable with their preferred head-in-the-sand view of how today's religion is.

[mr blur]

20. Plus ça change...

Sadly.

Still, I haven't been banned yet.

[trotsky]

25. That you are still here makes me happy. :)

[mr blur]

36. Aw, shucks...

[trotsky]

37. Hate to ruin the moment, but you should know that whenever I think of you...

I think of butt candles.

[deacon_sephiroth]

21. this should sum it up

A randomly-selected Jury of DU members completed their review of this alert at Tue Mar 13, 2012, 03:36 PM, and voted 3-3 to LEAVE IT ALONE.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: Atheists have owned this forum for a long time by using exactly the behavior described by MADem. S/he is calling them on that behaivor. There was no personal attack. Don't go crying to the jury when you get a dose of your own medicine.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: MAdem has a good point, wasn't calling all atheists "fucking assholes" I say this as an atheist) and doesn't seem to be violating community standards. And alerters "frankly frightening" is over the top.
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT and said: This poster has gone over the line. Stereotyping others just because you are displeased with the discourse of a few people is never excusable. The point could be made without the foaming unhinged tirade.
Juror #6 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given

Calling atheists fucking assholes, is just "a taste of their own medicine" and it's fine.

[laconicsax]

23. I think that result is half topic-related, half poster-related.

I stopped alerting on that particular antagonist. There's no bigotry or prejudice I haven't seen them openly defend, yet no matter how over the top they go, at least half the jury thinks it's fine.

[Rob H.]

24. My favorite response from that particular poster,

after being called out for using the phrase "butt the fuck out" wrt to atheists coming into the Religion forum, was saying that that was taken out of context--as if there's any context in which saying that could be considered a good thing.

[trotsky]

26. Dang, so nothing's changed.

That's depressing.

[skepticscott]

38. Faces change

But the shallowness of thought, the illogic, the constant evasions of substantive questions and the passive aggressive BS stay the same. Must be in the water.

[trotsky]

39. You are so completely out of touch with today's developments in theology.

There are no Christians who think differently than me, except those that do, and I'm not going to acknowledge them.

[skepticscott]

40. Same fucking evasion

that drives me up a wall in Religion. I don't understand why someone like you would even want to post on this board. It's just a ghetto, anyway.

[laconicsax]

41. I'd like to counter this jury decisions with two of my own:

First:

At Sat Mar 17, 2012, 11:04 PM you sent an alert on the following post:

Well there it is spelled out for everyone again. Most of the atheists here want no

REASON FOR ALERT:

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate. (See <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=aboutus#communitystandards" target="_blank">Community Standards</a>.)

YOUR COMMENTS:

Nasty, mean-spirited broad brush.

A randomly-selected Jury of DU members completed their review of this alert at Sat Mar 17, 2012, 11:11 PM, and voted 4-2 to HIDE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: This is no worse than the venom atheists spew at believers all the time around here.
Juror #2 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to HIDE IT and said: Post is nasty. Post is mean spirited. If post had not said "most atheists 'here'" I would have voted to leave it, but it is an attack on atheist DUers.

Second:

At Sun Mar 18, 2012, 12:03 AM you sent an alert on the following post:

Most atheists "here" as in this website, this forum, our progressive "friends" that post here,

REASON FOR ALERT:

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate. (See <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=aboutus#communitystandards" target="_blank">Community Standards</a>.)

YOUR COMMENTS:

2nd broad brush against in the same thread

A randomly-selected Jury of DU members completed their review of this alert at Sun Mar 18, 2012, 12:24 AM, and voted 4-2 to HIDE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to HIDE IT and said: "childish pricks" and "having respect for them" is what did it for me, for what it's worth
Juror #3 voted to HIDE IT and said: This does not help your cause and is the opposite of constructive.
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT and said: And right back atcha.

Hide.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given

Thank you.

[Rob H.]

43. This one mirrors a response I got to one of my alerts

"This is no worse than the venom atheists spew at believers all the time around here."

I think there are people who don't understand how the jury system is supposed to work. If there's "venom" being "spew(ed) at believers," people can alert and try to get those posts hidden, too. The kind of so-called reasoning above is, in essence, "But, but, but atheists do it, too, so I'm voting to leave it just to get back at them," imo. (And if similar sentiments are considered venom when they come from atheists, why aren't they considered venom when they're directed at atheists?)

[greyl]

22. Welcom back, ya damn heathen! nt

[trotsky]

28. Wish I could say it was good to be back.

But it IS good to be back in the company of friends.

[cynatnite]

42. Let me check if I'm still an atheist...

Yep, I am.