Ban on discussion of religion or politics prevents film discussion.

[owa]

I think it's better to keep it out of the discussions. Every site I've been on that has allowed political/religious discussions has evolved into a nightmare for the mods and frequently it would spill over into other sections of the forum (b/c people just got too upset). Of course, it was probably worse in those cases b/c the sub-forum was just for discussing politics and religion whereas here, at least, it should be related to whatever movie being discussed. Anyway, I still think it's a bad idea to allow it.

[miokti]

there's a ban? I didn't know. anyway, I think any ban is not necessary if all of us can be civil. but since we are all not civil, the ban is all that the mods can do to keep the peace around here.

[blckshp]

I believe the owners of the site and the mods are well within their rights to limit this and it is too controversial a topic to be able to control fully with limited resources. I'm sure the ban wasn't there from the beginning and resulted from it getting out of hand, since not everyone can be counted on to remain civil. Religion can be a very passionate topic and a lot of people feel offended if they believe that their belief system is being contradicted.

I would recommend that if you really need to discuss this, that there are other forums you could find to do so, or you could create your own forum. I don't see that it is absolutely necessary to discuss those aspects here since this site is more about a format than the films themselves. Just my opinion.

[WickyWoo]

I'm speaking here for me personally, based on my personal experience moderating both political and religion centric forums (in addition ot other kinds).

It's impossible to contain. It takes 2-5 pages of discussion (maximum) before people start getting offended. So either you have it be the focus of the forum, or lock it down entirely.

There are plenty of political forums out there to have these discussions in who would welcome it

[GORT]

There are to many trolls out there who would jump in just to inflame the forum and then it gets out of hand and its just to much of a pain in the a##

[Merrick]

Originally Posted by ground chuck

oh my....this is what it's come to, this is not a church and state forum, its friggin blu-ray forum. our constitution separates church and state, not moderators of a forum site. first ammendment rights, maybe they should be practiced.

Umm, actually... no (though I whole-heartedly support you call for 1st amendment rights!). The US Constitution does no such thing. It *specifically* states that congress and *congress only* keep its mitts out of *an establishment of religion* and has nothing to say about any other kind of interaction between "church and state" in any other shape or form. That actual words of import here:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Notice the one and *only* direction of interaction prohibited here: Congress ---> institution

And *absolutely* no statement regarding the reverse: institution ---> Congress

And notice additionally how Congress' relation to "an establishment of religion" is pretty explicitly equated with "freedom of speech", "the press", "the right of the people peacably to assemble and to petition the Government for the redress of grievances."

So, free speech is ok as long as it doesn't interfere with government? Don't think so. So the same clearly isn't true of "establishments of religion."

For the record, the oft-quoted "separation of church and state" appears in no founding Federal document, and certainly not the Constitution or any amendment. The phrase "building a wall of separation between church and state" was written by Thomas Jefferson in a January 1, 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. Sorry, but no honest person can consider that binding on the either the Federal government or American citizens.

[Blu-Beard]

Well if is wasn't for the belligerent ignorance of most of society we wouldn't have to exclude these topics in our forums. But since the majority of people can only see one side("THEIR SIDE")to these subjects, I agree we shouldn't discuss them.

Not that I don't fully enjoy an intelligent discourse, I just feel that after reading threads about such things as trivial as "XBOX vs PS3" and seeing how ridiculously childish they can get, I can already imagine how threads with a more serious subject matter would easily get out of hand.

[GORT]

Originally Posted by Merrick

Umm, actually... no (though I whole-heartedly support you call for 1st amendment rights!). The US Constitution does no such thing. It *specifically* states that congress and *congress only* keep its mitts out of *an establishment of religion* and has nothing to say about any other kind of interaction between "church and state" in any other shape or form. That actual words of import here:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Notice the one and *only* direction of interaction prohibited here: Congress ---> institution

And *absolutely* no statement regarding the reverse: institution ---> Congress

And notice additionally how Congress' relation to "an establishment of religion" is pretty explicitly equated with "freedom of speech", "the press", "the right of the people peacably to assemble and to petition the Government for the redress of grievances."

So, free speech is ok as long as it doesn't interfere with government? Don't think so. So the same clearly isn't true of "establishments of religion."

For the record, the oft-quoted "separation of church and state" appears in no founding Federal document, and certainly not the Constitution or any amendment. The phrase "building a wall of separation between church and state" was written by Thomas Jefferson in a January 1, 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. Sorry, but no honest person can consider that binding on the either the Federal government or American citizens.

A+

[davidPS3]

And the answer is??

[buckshot]

and i say we take this initiative a step further and ban all discussion of lord of the rings, star wars, black bars, grain, and did i mention star wars? the penalty for mentioning these will be a flogging

[CAB]

Originally Posted by buckshot

and i say we take this initiative a step further and ban all discussion of lord of the rings, star wars, black bars, grain, and did i mention star wars? the penalty for mentioning these will be a flogging

and football. It's bound to get bad and soon.

[Merrick]

Originally Posted by CAB

and football. It's bound to get bad and soon.

And we'd better throw in American Idol, Coke vs. Pepsi, Tastes Great/Less Filling...

[WickyWoo]

And that ladies and gentleman, is a prime example of why we can't have these discussions here.

[Merrick]

Over in "Ban on discussion of religion or politics prevents film discussion" WickyWoo wrote:
"And that ladies and gentleman, is a prime example of why we can't have these discussions here."
And closed the discussion.

I've re-read every post in that thread twice again now. I think that everyone was being very respectful, and at the moment it was closed I thought that everyone was having a good time joking around. Perhaps there was something about that was seen as disrespectful to the moderators that I'm not understanding.

In any event. I've had a great time here. It was a pleasure talking to you all, but things just seem to be horrendously tense around here too much to really enjoy myself any more. I honestly hope no one will take that personally - it's much more intended as a statement about myself than about anyone else.

God bless all of you!

[shug7272]

Originally Posted by Merrick

Over in "Ban on discussion of religion or politics prevents film discussion" WickyWoo wrote:
"And that ladies and gentleman, is a prime example of why we can't have these discussions here."
And closed the discussion.

I've re-read every post in that thread twice again now. I think that everyone was being very respectful, and at the moment it was closed I thought that everyone was having a good time joking around. Perhaps there was something about that was seen as disrespectful to the moderators that I'm not understanding.

In any event. I've had a great time here. It was a pleasure talking to you all, but things just seem to be horrendously tense around here too much to really enjoy myself any more. I honestly hope no one will take that personally - it's much more intended as a statement about myself than about anyone else.

God bless all of you!

Wait a minute.. are you serious? They are giving out fish? HELL YEA. Hope its fried. Im going to find that post.

[Sylin]

Respectfully, to the owners of the site and to the mods, I agree with the OP.

I'm not sure what his position on the Blu-ray.com hierarchy is, but I believe WickyWoo plays favorites, allowing some members to get away with posts and language that the rest of us peons get modded down for. I also think his inexperience and/or lack of understanding result in biased closings of threads or deletion of posts that were innocuous.

No offense, Wick. I'm sure you're a great person, but I do not enjoy you as a moderator.

I wish this site had a feedback page, so I didn't have to post this publicly. But again, that'll be something the admins will have to work out.

[Dogdvr]

So,
the mods close a thread in the feedback forum, and you decide to open another thread in the general discussion forum to talk about it?


Brilliant

[Marcusarilius]

Closing the thread was due to the deviation of discussing the BD and moving into the discussion of religion. It was correctly closed per the rules and warnings of such conversation. It may have become civil in the end but the middle of the thread was shall we say... "heated" and that was an understatement. The mods did their job and this is a reminder to all that the rules will be enforced as stated. These threads will happen from time to time and be closed. No big deal. Move on and play better next time.

[dobyblue]

Religious conversations and political conversations have no place here.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Religious conversations and political conversations have no place here.

Absolutely right.

As a political science major I spend all day debating political issues (and polls... and candidates... and policies... etc) and even among intellectuals in an academic setting these debates can become fairly heated and rapidly off the original topic. The last thing I want when I go online to a Blu-ray forum is another extended political debate.

As for religion... well that only becomes about 10x more heated than politics.

I don't understand why this is even being debated.

(P.S. I'll let WickyWoo defend his own honor, but the comment directed at him was WAY out of line, and has no basis in reality.)