General discussion of moderation procedures: The Sequel

I've just ploughed my way throught the posts that have accumulated on the meteorite thread and also the suspensions and bannings thread. While I agree that moderators should take steps when insults are used, I have great difficulty in agreeing with the suspension of roxrkool.Has it really escaped admin's attention that Faith had been hurling insults for much of the thread? I know that we do make allowances for YECs who have difficulty in handling the mountains of data hurled at them, but should we also not make allowances for the other side of the debate when they've been subjected to derisory comments, "hypotheses" based on total ignorance of the subject they insist on pontificating on?Every one of us has a patience threshold and the thread has shown just how patient people have been in the face of Faith's illogical and totally absurd schemes, not only that, but most of the impatience has actually been shown by Faith.I exited the thread a while back as I could see the way the wind was blowing. Faith would be allowed to continue with half-baked ideas with no attempt at providing evidence or even demonstrating that she was even bothering to read most of the replies to her. I don't have that much patience and so I got out. However, the whole thread infuriated me, mainly because no serious attempts were made to rein Faith in when she flouted forum guidelines time and time again. Roxrkool steps out of line once and is suspended.Yes, Faith is intelligent and articulate, but that's no excuse for flouting forum guidelines, nor is is a good reason for allowing the guidelines to be flouted. I'm sure that roxrkool is just as intelligent and articulate, the only thing he lacks seems to be habitual rudeness which appears to be Faith's standard MO.Please, Admin, can we get the playing field a bit less like the north face of the Eiger? Scientists on this board are insulted time and time again, their honesty is called into question, their intelligence, their hard work and their years of experience are hand-waved away. Not only that, but their patient attempts at explanations are treated with derision and flippancy. Is it surprising that people lose their cool eventually?Edited for a really dumb typo!This message has been edited by Trixie, 05-27-2005 05:21 PM

Hi Percy, thanks for your reply to my post. Can I say that I do understand why you cut Faith so much slack and also spent so much time trying to help her understand what "evidence" actually means. We are very short on creationists who can string an argument together. However, I would suggest that Faith's latest performance demonstrates that she lacks the ability to do this where science is concerned and has no intention of learning. Moreover it is evident that she will continually and wilfully flout forum guidelines in every science discussion that takes place.To your credit you attempted to help her and you managed to keep smiling long past where I would have been tearing my hair out. For that alone you deserve a medal! It ended as most of these things do, however, when she turned on you. Your attempts to help buzsaw ended the same way and when Sylas took over with buzsaw, the same thing happened.Maybe we just have to accept that attempts to help people with the forum guidelines are doomed to failure. After all, if they're posting here they can obviously read and write and so shouldn't have problems with the guidelines. If they're ignoring the guidelines, cutting them some slack isn't going to help, it's just going to make matters worse.I think this came up before, but would it be possible to have a "Report this post" button? At least that way you wouldn't have to plod through hundreds of posts to find the problem ones. I liked Tony's idea of a system whereby malicious reporting would earn the complainant a penalty to discourage overuse. At the moment there is no system visible and I have to admit that I'm not keen on e-mailing admin with a whinge, but if a "Report this post" button was there it would feel less like telling tales out of school and more like helping admin to do a difficult job of policing all the posts.Also, given that roxrkool put up with so much before he flipped, would a "two strikes and you're out" be fairer, ie one warning then suspension?I do appreciate all the work done by the moderators and I do understand that sometimes things get missed.The one hilarious thing about all of this is that Faith still thinks she gets a raw deal!

The only time I've ever felt my Christian beliefs have been treated with less than respect has been by "christians" and not by non-believers. Once again my beliefs have been insulted by that hoary old chestnut that if you accept TOE you can't be a Christian. Can I suggest that Eltonian be reminded that there are many people active in science who accept the TOE and are Christian? Since he/she admits to knowing bugger all about science he/she must be in total ignorance of how Christianity and TOE are not mutually exclusive.Eltonian, as a scientist and a practicing Christian I'm a damned sight more qualified than you to make sweeping pronouncements on the incompatibility or otherwise of the two. I manage it although I suppose I'm at an advantage in that I understand what science is about. You don't, so how can you make judgements about the compatibility??

I don't think that trying to make fun of a piece of science you don't understand counts as political satire!! I find his sig offensive and wouldn't like to be the parent of a child who looks in on this board and has to explain the hot girl on girl action.However, while I do find it offensive, I think it should be left as it is - that is poetic justice since the sig makes him appear like an uneducated moron.Please note that I am not calling him an uneducated moron, his own sig is.

I think you'll find the title is "Why won't Creationists learn?" It is NOT "When will Creationists learn?" and it is a valid question. With all the scientific info given in posts on this board and with a desire to engage in scientific discussion, why won't they learn the basics of the science they are trying to rubbish? How can they know a theory is wrong if they don't actually know what the theory says? Why won't they learn what the theory says before they dismiss it?