Anti-Religious Trolling On Mumsnet

[DioneTheDiabolist]

I get that not everyone is religious and that some people are very anti-religious (some with good reasons).

But some MNetters are religious, others are simply curious. So how come so many threads are allowed to be derailed by anti-religious trolls? Today a thread about Good Friday was deleted because a troll came on. FFS, it's Easter! Threads about Islam are regularly derailed by Islamophobes. On a thread seeking information on Judaism in the Philosophy & Religion topic, a troll has posted LMFAO. Ok, serious question, why does the Jewish God make all men wear a funny beards? She continues venting for a few posts before eventually exiting the thread saying that she is on drugs because It's Easter, party time.

She is a MN regular, like most of the anti-religious trolls here. I have reported her posts but they still stand.

Trolls are not interested in knowing what other people think or believe. They have no desire to discuss the point of actual threads and rarely start threads of their own regarding their issues with religion or belief. They just derail threads in the hope of driving all talk of religion and different beliefs off MN. And they are succeeding.

Why are MNHQ allowing this to happen? Deleting threads instead of dealing with posters? Allowing blatant anti-religious trolling to derail threads that people may find supportive or informative? Is MN a religion free zone? Because if it is, that's ok. I just think that religious posters should be told. Then they can go elsewhere if they wish to discuss their beliefs.

Exactly bertrand.

So someone starts a thread about how to find a good childminder, someone mentions the added difficulty of childcare and single parents, then a few pages about government legislation and time off work for parents, then a little chat about working in a nursery, should all these posts be banned?
Mumsnet would be a very boring place if discussions were to tightly monitored.

pearl potentially derailment could be moderated in all topics, the potential to use it as a means to say things without being challenged or to shut down a particular topic of discussion, is the same for any discussion board. However derailment does seem to be particularly pertinent to religious threads as it has been observed the OP's question is rarely discussed without people coming on to globally challenge Christian belief, which can shut down discussion

Bertrand I think most moderation has a subjective element, this would be no different. Posters could report for what they see as an attempt at derailment.

I think purposeful derailment, in order to shut down discussion or say things without being challenged, is different to the occasional diversion or natural evolution of a thread topic. People get caught between ignoring the poster who is attempting to derail or defending their position - the discussion often gets heated as posters are frustrated. People would report in this situation but they wouldn't have to if digression was more well intended and welcome. I think the difference would usually be quite clear cut. Add a 'warning' element before deletions occur, gives added opportunity to discuss what was requested or decamp to a new thread.

Oh for goodness sake

I thought it was a good point.

BigD using the term 'Sky Fairy' on threads where the OP is seeking to discuss specific aspects of faith or managing worship is derailment. The thread is not there to defend or challenge religious belief, it is there to discuss aspects of it. For the reasons I laid out above derailment can have the effect of shutting down discussion.

In defence of this term, on MN, you quoted someone who criticised current day Christian believers in terms of atrocities other members of the Church have committed, even though those crimes may bear no relation to posters on here or their beliefs other than the people who committed those crimes identified as Christian. If I identify as feminist, am I accountable to all the complaints against feminists, as men haters, as laid out by a chauvinist? Doing this on a thread, again, is further derailment - an attempt to shut down discussion.

I'm not referring to the validity of the point, I'm questioning the appropriateness of it? As has been stated numerous times this is a thread about trolling on a religious thread not the argument between atheism and religious belief. I have no quarrel with neither Christians nor Athesists but I think the derailing exhibited here has been quite ridiculous

BigD it is derailment because it is off topic, in relation to the OP. Just because people mentioned they do not like name calling (inc name calling of the particular deity they believe in), which can also derail and is a personal attack, does not mean defending the name calling is not a derailment.

I'm sorry that you feel uncomfortable posting about your religious beliefs here, but I've got to point out that mumsnet is an online forum, so you're going to get some tactless responses regardless of what you post. Mumsnet can't censor everything, because where does it end? There'd be barely any posts to respond to. You should be free to speak your mind, and if it insults someone else, they are free to call you out on it.

Religion is hotly debated all over the internet, and you may find that your religious posts are equally insulting to non-religious people.
ie: for someone who doesn't believe in God/s, reading a religious response to something they want taken seriously can be infuriating, because although it might be dead serious to you and an important part of your life, to them it's a tiresome fairytale concocted years back by tribal humans who feared the unknown and they simply don't want to hear about it again - hence the flippant and sometimes downright inappropriate responses.

Saying this, I do think that there should be a measure of respect for the threads which are specifically allocated for the religious community using mumsnet. If you have such a massive problem with the religious community, why would you bother to read through the posts and throw your weight around a like a small child? Seems like a waste of time and energy.

capsium it sounds like you are referring to my responses to the discussion about showing religious beliefs respect.

I don't agree that my argument, about many followers of religious faith not demonstrating respect to others, was a derailment. It was pertinent to why I feel there is no precedent for religious beliefs to deserve a special sort of respect.

Do as you would be done by, comes to mind.

I also wondered why Muslim threads are not similarly targeted.

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/14/anglican-church-sanctions-against-liberal-us-church-same-sex-marriage

Now the link above is a real derailment. (smile)

Until the CofE separates itself from the abhorrent views of the Anglican Church in both parts of the U.S. and Africa I will have no truck with respecting their faith. It seems to me that faith and belief is less important than political expediency.

The derailing is typical of the way religion threads go thus people tend not to post on them. So the sharing of experience and giving of support around issues of faith has been shut down. How mumsnethq can deal with it is tricky as anti theists have made it clear on this thread that they won't respect people of faith so the normal netiquette that people sign up to on discussion boards doesn't apply. Maybe those of us who do post on that board need to be alert to derailments be maybe we have a handy list to refer to.

1 OT derailment
2 Historical derailment - crusades, Spanish Inquisition etc.
3 Bible should be taken literally derailment
4 All Christians are stupid derailment
5 I want the link between church and state broken - bishops in the house of lords etc
6 No collective worship in schools derailment
7 Fairer admissions.
8 People of faith can't be respected derailment

Anymore common ones?

Indeed, muslins are essential for new mothers, but rarely seem privileged.