Can we have a proper 'woo' topic?

[IndigoBarbie]

Dear MNHQ, I fully believe in freedom of speech and experiences, and as such I go out of my way to assist those who are asking more angelic/psychic etc questions, since this is my real life in a nutshell. Getting sooooo fed up of threads becoming all about others who don't believe and blatantly attacking those of us on thread who want to actively discuss and share and I think a lovely new topic of 'woo' or something you feel is an appropriate title could be provided for us to have proper sharings and discussions.

That is one person.. it isn't all of us.

If I hadn't have known how the thread would have gone, I would have posted on it and taken the poster to task myself with everybody else. But because of the constant attacks on those threads I couldn't face it.

there's an irony in there somewhere I think.

No just to state for the record.. it is mega frowned upon to charge people money.

The OP of this thread may have her agenda for wanting their own topic.. those of us who have posted saying yes please don't share that perceived agenda. It's insulting to group us in and shove us into a pigeon hole when all we want to do is chat without loud shouting about how rubbish it all is until the thread dies.

LtEve That's a pretty extreme example, do you honestly thing that our own topic will be filled with shit like that? and if it did crop up that it would go unchallenged?

come on.

Agree with gamerchick

"'Just not true'??? Well MrsRTea, that is what I understood from the opening post of this thread

"Dear MNHQ, I fully believe in freedom of speech and experiences, and as such I go out of my way to assist those who are asking more angelic/psychic etc questions, since this is my real life in a nutshell. Getting sooooo fed up of threads becoming all about others who don't believe and blatantly attacking those of us on thread who want to actively discuss and share and I think a lovely new topic of 'woo' or something you feel is an appropriate title could be provided for us to have proper sharings and discussions.""

I just don't know what can be done about such misunderstanding.

Surely all the other posts, from different people, make it clear that what we are talking about is not a protected topic where people can go unchallenged. Even if you misunderstand the opening post, read the rest of the thread.

There is no such topic on MN. Who would want one?

So why is that being argued against?

Idontseeanyicegiants, could you PM me a link to the other forum you know? TIA.

I hasn't read the angel thread when I agreed initially with Indigo, just had a look now and I'm not impressed. (Not going into the angel bit itself).
The vulnerable people aspect is very clearly demonstrated on there, talk of messages from deceased children etc on top of charging 'clients' for services rendered is precisely what I was talking about further down - it's that type of thing that lumps us all in as fools and frauds.
Am considering a response...

Pm'd you Mrs x

Thanks, Icegiants, much appreciated.

MrsRtea.Every post on this thread that I've read suggests that non believers would not be welcome on such a topic.

milk I don't think that's true. Everyone is welcome. It's the sneering and bullying and trying to grind posters down that's not welcome - as on every board /thread

Again, I don't know what can be done about such misunderstanding. I don't know how people reading the posts on this thread can possibly have formed that misconception.

Hello

Thanks for the suggestion.

As most of you will know, we like free-range discussions on MN and we rarely ask anyone to stay on-topic, or to only post on a thread if they agree with a premise. We make some limited exceptions to this, but it's on a case-by-case basis really.

We also already have the religion/philosophy/spirituality topic, which seems to us to cover most of the relevant bases really.

This also, tbh, seems as though it would be only a sticking plaster for the actual 'problem' - which is people having extremely strong views about the usefulness/danger of belief in (for want of a better term) woo things. That situation isn't going to be addressed by a new topic; posters will continue to disagree strongly, and we don't ask people with different viewpoints to stay off each other's threads, as a rule.

If you think people are breaking our Guidelines, please report and we will always take a look. Even if individual posts aren't breaking Guidelines, we sometimes mail posters to ask them to take a step back if we think their overall style is becoming needlessly aggressive.

We have in the past had similar complaints/reports from people who strongly hold religious faiths and who feel that their beliefs are being disrespectfully treated on MN - and tbh our answer is usually the same there too: we will always take a look to see if Guideline-breaking is going on, or the situation is generally Not In The Spirit Of The Site, but we're reluctant to do something that would imply that we were clamping down on simple disagreement and debate.

We could maybe consider an 'Unexplained' topic if there's a lot of call for that - but threads there wouldn't be treated any differently from threads anywhere else on MN, and we wouldn't delete posts for being robustly argumentative.

At the very least bullying is against Talk Guidelines. Why don't you report it when you see it? A new topic will also be governed by the same guidelines, after all.

Give me a minute and I'll get some quotes.

So if somebody says something that you profoundly disagree with or know to have been scientifically proved to be false, what do you say? Do you have to let it stand, and possibly mislead other people out of "respect"?

Sounds very fair Rowan. I quite like the sound of an unexplained topic. Even though ism anti woo, i do agree with previous posters who've said (paraphrasing!) that the stuff of fantasy often pushes forward research & new discoveries.

I could go for an unexplained topic. Maybe the anti wooers could have a scientific topic for balance

'Yes it's a good idea.. it's bloody tedious when you get the non believers pissing and vomiting all over what could be a good thread.' Gamerchick

' KeeperOfBees
I agree with Indigo. Many times I would've loved to participate but wasn't up to the ensuing arguments.

IDontSeeAnyIceGiants
I'd definitely be be up for that, it would be nice to discuss sincerely held beliefs and related topics without certain other posters coming on and rather rudely dismissing them..
I think that some people don't realise or care that 'woo' can actually be a part of someone's religious beliefs. Dismissing that is hugely patronising and really bloody annoying.
As fashionable as atheism is these days, there should still a place to at least talk about things like this without having several posts merely saying 'bollocks'.
If we have our own woo topic could we please ban anybody from bringing up that million pound prize as well? That would be nice.'

MrsRTea
It's a question of freedom of speech.
Although clearly there are some MNers who would say "no platform for angel-believers and their ilk". But actually we only want a little corner of MN where we can discuss stuff unmolested.

Gamerchick.
Yes it is.. but you're just not allowed to chat about these things in there without a slew of non believers stamping all over it. It really is quite irritating.
It's like it offends them so they won't let it lie. Odd!

OK so how about a self help topic under body and soul or psychological support? To cover things like meditation, mindfulness and other useful techniques that are not woo based?

None of that suggests to me that non believers and their views would be at all welcome.

Milk most of us were talking about the tone of the debate degenerating into insults and vitriol. As I and I think Gamerchick did actually state in another post.
If you read all of the posts rather than pick and choose you'll see that debate was in general welcomed, not by everybody admittedly though.
It was the sneering and loud cries of 'bollocks, next!' Type of posts that we were objecting to. Which isn't discussion, it's shutting down someone because you don't share their beliefs.
We've actually tried to explain that many times on this thread but it apparently gets overlooked...

Science and Nature topic for your delectation and delight

And I've since revised my opinion, apparently also overlooked, presumably because I've identified as a 'woo' believer in some respects?

I've read the entire thread thank you,more than once.And I'm still convinced that any dissenting opinions will not be welcome.

'Yes it is.. but you're just not allowed to chat about these things in there without a slew of non believers stamping all over it. It really is quite irritating.
It's like it offends them so they won't let it lie. Odd.'

There's another.

They might not be welcome by some, I agree, a decent debate would great though. Preferably without insults and name calling.
There's dissent on all sides, not just for woo and against, it's endlessly discussed on other forums but with at least a degree of civility. It doesn't seem to happen here though.
That was what some of us thought we were agreeing with in the first place. And yes at least some of us will call out anything we don't agree with or find morally wrong.
It's a moot point though because it's not going to happen.