deconversion

Please let me know who they are and I'll be more than happy to ban their IPs. The blog is for de-converts to discuss our exit from Christianity NOT for Christians to try to re-convert us. It's ok for us to respond to those who are trying to understand who we are and why we came to our decisions or even to those who attempt to give us that nugget that would cause us to see the light. However, relentless posting of Bible verses, cut and paste sermons, etc. only serves to detract from our discussions.

Thanks,
Paul

Well obviously the current idiot-in-residence is George Z. For the moment he's amusing, but it's pretty obvious that he's the sort of troll who will not go away. So at some point you're going to have to step in a say, "Hit the road." or maybe not tell him and just boot him and bar the door.

I think he's way past his time, but I'm new here. Maybe you folks have more patience than I do with pointless exchanges. I think he sometimes uses just "George" and who knows what other name, so I'm glad you can ban the IP.

Ok.... George Z's posts go to the Moderation queue so he's not totally banned but I will have to approve what is posted.

Thank you, I think that's an appropriate response. Considering that we have one commenter who used to be a troll, but then he got over trolling and started listening and talking and is OK now, I'd hate to ban George outright. But reviewing his comments and deleting the preaching, I'm good with that!

I take a different tack. Let them spew their nonsense. Maybe, just maybe, if they hang around long enough, they may read something that'll either open their minds or at least unnerve them. I could be hoping for a bit too much, but once upon a time, I could see myself trying desperately to 'rescue" folks like us from disbelief. I eventually found my way out. Perhaps they might as well.

I just think about how quickly atheists and de-converts get banned from Christian boards, so my question is do we really want to be like them?

Bruce, you have a good point, but I think it's about degree. If a Christian is here to have a discussion, that's one thing. If they are here to throw around their anger, to frustrate, to confuse, to prophesy, to convert, yada yada, it is my understanding that this is just not the forum for that.

It is logical to consider the purpose of the blog and to moderate things that are outside the scope of the blog for the sake of the community that has a vested interest in the blog. I have seen this approach work in all kinds of settings quite well. For example, I run a forum that has a secular purpose, so if people start talking about religion, those posts are moderated out. Period. Not because I am an atheist - in fact, when I was a Christian I moderated them out too.

If the blog is indeed about the de-conversion process, with the purpose of educating and supporting (which I beleive it is), then any discussion about de-conversion is on the table. This would allow for some spillover of Bible verses and talk about the Bible, but probably doesn't allow for end-times prophesies, continuous damning people to hell, discussing ancient religious nations, etc, unless those things are directly related to educating about de-conversion and supporting de-converts.

That is how I see it anyway. One can always send a nice note to the person who is being moderated and explain the purpose of the forum and why part or all of a comment was moderated. Of course, if someone requires moderation of more than a few comments, it is probably best to just ban them from commenting entirely rather than spend hours picking through stuff.

Maybe I am different than most people here. I don't want to de-convert people. I don't have anything to preach. I just wanted to meet some people who understand and learn more about my new-found freedom. The constant back-and-forth about the Bible is not meeting my needs at all, but evidently it's meeting George's quite well. Maybe that is the intention of the blog - to endure verbal beatings from Christians and reach them for anti-god. Maybe I should have expected that this would not be a place where we are really free from religion and the hate that comes with it.

Crap, I was going to delete my post. I got to thinking about it and yeah, there needs to be at least moderation of trolls. That's true on any board, regardless of subject matter. My bad.

http://de-conversion.com/2007/08/01/god-an-imaginary-friend-for-grown-ups/#comment-37542

Paul, would you PLEASE either moderate George's comments or just block him all together? I am doing my best to avoid reading his hundreds of posts. I glanced at one paragraph a minute ago and was once again insulted. It is pretty ridiculous that someone like this, who is obviously ONLY interested in God and Jesus and Israel, has been allowed to post hundreds of times on a site for de-converts. YACK. Who is the site for again?

I know it is a PAIN to moderate people's comments. Maybe you tell him you will only approve his first post everyday, so he better make it a good one. I don't know...there has to be some way to limit his preaching without taking too much of your time and energy.

Allow me to propose a new guideline for comments on the blog.

Comments that claim that one religion is true and condemn "unbelievers" will not be published. Comments that excessively quote scriptures as the source of all logic and truth will not be published. [Or something to that effect]

This makes sense to me, as most de-converts do not believe in the authority of any one religious scripture anymore than the authority of any other. So people who come here and make those arguments are not contributing to meaningful discussion in the de-con community. Enforcing a guideline like this would allow a moderator to simply go through and unapprove any comments that include excessive Bible quoting and condemnation. Clicking "unapprove" on a comment is pretty easy to do. Then if someone writes another comment and says "where did my comment go?" They can just be referred to the "Who are we" page that also mentions we don't publish Biblical arguments and condemnation.

If the blog is supposed to be a place for the de-convert community, a guideline like this certainly would help us toward that goal. I know there would be some grey areas, but this site is a private site, and no one has the right to expect that their comments will be published here.

Of course, if the purpose of the blog is to stir up hostile interaction in the hopes of gaining de-converts, then enforcing such guidelines would blow our chances of de-converting people...at least through arguing scripture.

I don't know if they are a christian or not, but wl1201 has posted 12 blog posts within a couple of hours. I'm struck by the fact that all of the references to "things" have links to storefront sites.

I don't know what their game is or even if they will be back, but I think they bear watching.