Site stuff type question

[picklemewalnuts]

Could we report comments on this board and have them deleted for being effectively 'off topic', please?

I've noticed it's really hard to have a conversation specifically within a religion, without people spamming the thread with 'God doesn't exist/your God is evil' type comments.

It's really off putting, and makes a decent conversation hard.

I'm not trying to stifle discussion, but when the OP has specified they want a response about or within the Christian tradition (for example) or a response from Christians, it would be good to be able to keep it free from 'only idiots and psychopaths believe in God' type comments.

Your belief in a god is not automatically more universally sacrosanct or deserving of respect than someone else's belief that Paris is a rubbish holiday destination, toilet brushes are brilliant or that Taylor Swift is the best singer ever.

But the point is not that nobody should criticise religion. The point is that it is annoying when threads about one thing get repeatedly hijacked by another.

It's also fine on Mumsnet to post about your happily childfree life, ask if it's worth having children in the first place, or discuss the morality of bringing new life into the planet. But it is not fine to do those things on a thread titled "Help, my 4-month-old won't sleep, urgently need advice from fellow parents of bad sleepers."

The point is that it is annoying when threads about one thing get repeatedly hijacked by another.

Ok, so are you suggesting that MN impose a blanket zap rule on posts which are not strictly answering the OP, or are arguing about a related point, or an issue which has come up as part of the developing conversation on the general topic, or are a bit argumentative and maybe unhelpful? I think it would be hard to legislate for that across all boards without needing a lot more mods and without turning threads into Swiss cheese, and without just making the site so restrictive as to make conversation and debate a bit hard.

I’m suggesting that people refrain from derailing threads, as per MNHQ’s own rules, and perhaps while they’re at it exercise a modicum of sense about other people not necessarily finding them as fascinating as they find themselves.

Most people are capable of managing this, with a bit of effort, but perhaps if people really do struggle with the concept we could set up some kind of quick start guide to not derailing or something? Training sessions? (“Here’s a post about the Archers, asking fellow Archers listeners what they thought of the last episode. What do you do?” “I immediately reply to say I have never listened to radio and I was asked to leave Archers Sunday school as a 6-year-old for asking difficult questions!” “Oh dear. Let’s start Unit 2 again…”)

As I understand it, could be wrong, the Black mumnstter section is a "safe space"

Could not part of Christianity be as well?
But there again. Ah. Christans are not supposed to hide their light. Far from it. hmm.

There is the option of the secret part of the site. Cant remember where it is right now.

Started a thread over there

That's only any good if the people you want to talk to know about it though. And it's not invisible to other posters. I nearly added a post to keep you company but wasn't sure you'd take it in the spirit I intended.

Other boards get massive derailing - feminist threads including ones specifically aimed at other feminists, sometimes clearly 'support' threads, get all sorts of troublemakers. You just have to either report, report, report - or find other tactics like 'grey rock'.

Feminism absolutely does, yeah. And has (used to have?) the additional joy of a bunch of people who saw their main form of activism as frantically refreshing those threads to report anything that broke pronoun rules to MNHQ. At least nobody’s trying to dob me in to the Vatican here I suppose.

I was going to say we should encourage more people to start threads rather than derail others if they wanted to talk about religious stuff. But I just realised I haven’t ever started a thread in here myself! Should maybe try that first…