.

“Dude, where’s my country” was a very good read.

@JWW:

Oh and I got like 5 chapters into the 1st book on scientology

LOL Yeah those books are kind of you know boring

Book: And 5 billion blah blah blah (A really long time ago) there was a cell
Me: Are you kidding me? Do you think I care……

@aequitas:

The Bible

Much Better!

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)

I can’t recommend highly enough.

@Guerrilla:

An ex of mine (God I miss her…she was even in town tonight passing through moving back to Denver and I didn’t get to see her) had me read that and the other two in the trilogy.  I loved them.  Wasn’t so much into the Lord of the Rings (read The Hobbit after that trilogy, then tried reading Fellowship and just couldn’t bring myself to read the Hobbit 2: More Hobbity).  You just brought back a ton of memories.

Mine would be:

Art of War
Romance of the 3 Kingdoms
Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Road
Blood Meridian
Game of Thrones series
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Life of Johnson
Tao Te Ching
Confucius’ Analects

I’m sure many others that I’m forgetting…

Nietzsche : Human, all too human
every book from Carlos Castaneda

WHAT HAPPEND TO FLASHMAN’s POST?!?!?!?

@Gargantua:

WHAT HAPPEND TO FLASHMAN’s POST?!?!?!?

It was deliberately off-topic and political. Young Grasshopper’s post and Imperious’s post which both were referring to it were removed as well. Grasshopper’s response to Cromwell was not removed by me, he must have removed it himself.

GG

Yea when somebody else removes the posts, its no issue. Only when i do it does it become an issue.

Funny how that works. :roll:

If the price of aircraft carriers is 16, and you buy one for 14…. You’re a cheater.

The point is, rules are rules, so let’s try to live by them.

@Imperious:

Yea when somebody else removes the posts, its no issue. Only when i do it does it become an issue.

Funny how that works. :roll:

I vehemntly disagree with GG’s decision to remove the post.  It was about a book that has clearly had a profound impact on many lives! Hence my complaint.

The difference here is that GG is willing to talk openly about it, and be responsible for his actions - thus earning my RESPECT.  Thus ending the debate.  He is well within his confines in his approach, and method.

So IL, in reference to your comments :
Here’s a bowl of “YOUR WRONG” to eat. Let us all know how it tastes.

@Young:

If the price of aircraft carriers is 16, and you buy one for 14…. You’re a cheater.

The point is, rules are rules, so let’s try to live by them.

An Aircraft Carrier for 14 is just a “light” carrier.  That’s all. :)

Cheating? pfftp… I would never…

I vehemntly disagree with GG’s decision to remove the post.

vehemently=vehemntly

Anyway you said nothing and you didn’t create 5 threads about moderator abuse. So unless i mention anything you say nothing except to save face. How does the truth taste?

You already know how lies taste.

Can I just clarify:

No politics and no religion?

If that were the rule I’d understand completely.

The subject is “what books have had a profound influence on your life”; my point was that this book has profoundly influenced everyone’s life, for good or evil.

I was not even condemning the book - merely arguing that, through ignorance, it has been profoundly misunderstood and cynically misused.

Perhaps I begin to understand why that ignorance keeps being perpetuated.

I am perfectly fine with anyone responding to this post via threads below, but understand those threads will be treated with the same attention to detail dedicated to any thread, so no one can complain that I’m “suppressing” dissenting opinions to what is stated here. I locked and stickied this thread.

That being said…

axisandallies.org started with a general discussion board and a politics board. In the politics board, any topic was open for discussion and debate, and flames and baits were strictly enforced. I joined the moderating team in January 2006, and at the time, our political boards were already out of hand. Just about every single debate brought up by the first page had a flame. And not just from people who were expected to be trolls; those individuals would get banned rather quickly. Instead, the people inciting the flames and debates were our regular, 1000+ or even multi-1000+ members, steady posters with well formulated opinions and arguments. Some of those people aren’t here anymore, either cause we had to enforce the same standards that were put against standard trollers, or they left out of utter frustration.

The worse part of the board was it literally build feuds up between individual members. All that had to happen was for one particular member to post a discussion, and immediately the other member of the feud would find some way to bait out the member, and the topic would devolve from there until it was closed. For the moderating staff, it was a pain. It was I believe 2007 or 2008 when the political discussion boards were axed, and members haven’t been lost to frustration, feuds, or any other such consequence of political debates.

If you were an owner of a website which marketed itself out as “content production” and “dissemination,” and you were losing members due to this one side section of your website, and if subsequently that section was making members leave (who would otherwise be advancing the main purpose of your site), wouldn’t you axe that section? I do not say any of this as someone against political discussion. I love argument; in fact, it’s taken a lot of self control to not jump into some political debates that have arisen in this forum, even when I felt I had a better argument to offer the opposition, but I understand the necessity of why it needed to be closed.

This is the real world (the General Discussion Board) in the sense that real emotions come out through words. I think it’s far too easy to loose sight of that. Recently, I heard a member make the claim, “People are too sensitive, that’s why this thread was locked,” in regards to why a certain political thread was shut down from General Discussion. I have heard this argument from multiple people on this board. My response is yes, people have feelings. Everyone does, even the person who contends it is only “the other troll” who has feelings; those same accusers don’t realize they are operating out of those same “said” feelings when they continue a flame, or offer a bait, or get worked up over the smallest thing. The “schoolyard” mentality of “the mod tattle-talers are just weak wusses” is ludicrous. If you get offended enough to post an argument, plus a dig against another poster (or just the dig), you are ruled by the same emotions you pin on your nemesis poster. You just happen to leave it in the open for a mod to correct it swiftly.

And no, this is not constructed to preach down to anyone. I’ve had members come to me frustrated that their threads are closed, or that their posts get moderated and asking, “Why can’t we have political discussions?” For me the reason why is obvious. I am saying this cause it is the facts of the case, and they are simple. Since I run into them as a mod more often, perhaps they are that much more of a reality to me, and I willingly acquiesce that, I am also willing to acquiesce that there are arguments against the reasoning above posted. Yet, I am happy that we don’t have to deal with the veracity availed in the political discussion right now.

We are a community concerned with a wargame, not a wargame within a community. Thanks for reading.

GG

In Flashman’s defence… religion isn’t even mentioned in the most “recent” post on inappropriate materials. :P

And neither are BOOKS! Because that’s what was being discussed! :P

Of course, the case is closed on this item. :)

@Flashman:

Can I just clarify:

No politics and no religion?

If that were the rule I’d understand completely.

The subject is “what books have had a profound influence on your life”; my point was that this book has profoundly influenced everyone’s life, for good or evil.

I was not even condemning the book - merely arguing that, through ignorance, it has been profoundly misunderstood and cynically misused.

Perhaps I begin to understand why that ignorance keeps being perpetuated.

First off, thank you for responding, I have a better understanding of what you were trying to say in that post. I still think it was off base, and I’ll explain why below. Also, If that was the case (ignorance continually perpetuated), it wouldn’t be under debate in almost all academic circles, nor would there be such widespread literature defending one side or the other.

The rules to this forum are different; This is a secular website, and my personal bias aside, I read your post as a philosophical argument, presented in a way that would be engaging toward members who had already posted. You said [paraphrased], “I doubt many Christians have really read the Bible, otherwise they would doubt what they read.” You mentioned Christians directly, you engaged in a religious debate. And no, that’s not splitting hairs.

Anyone who would have had the chance to respond would be bringing up a philosophical/historical argument back, trying to defend a religion. They would be wrong as well. But, they would have not initiated the conversation. If you wish to rephrase the comment, go for it. I am not opposed to it having a robust discussion on Biblical inherency i.e. from a historical standpoint, how it has affected people, from a non-religious standpoint, purely talking about the Bible as a book. In fact, please discuss the work as a piece of literature, I would be happy to see that discourse. Just don’t come out of the gate with your gun pointed at a people group, specifically forum members. And my personal bias is honestly not here.

I would judge anyone who would go the opposite direction to attack atheists/agnostics… How is that possible, you might ask? The following is an example: [If someone had been attacking Nietzsche’s work due to his late-life mental illness, and thereby suggesting that atheists/agnostics were illegitimately basing their opinions on his views <– Offensive and not my opinion at all], that would be a post I would have had to take down. They would have to come out and defend their viewpoint, and the discourse not only would be “a viewpoint debate,” it would be way off topic, not discussing the books, discussing the religious/non-religious belief systems of others, and expressing it in debate form. Does that clarify my position, and why the post was deleted? Any discussion on that topic is welcome, go for it. I don’t mind. If you want to try and address the topic again, I won’t delete it without posting in such a way that you can edit it this time (using my [] to ask if you can make any edits), understanding now where you are coming from.

GG

@Gargantua:

@Imperious:

Yea when somebody else removes the posts, its no issue. Only when i do it does it become an issue.

Funny how that works. :roll:

I vehemntly disagree with GG’s decision to remove the post.  It was about a book that has clearly had a profound impact on many lives! Hence my complaint.

The difference here is that GG is willing to talk openly about it, and be responsible for his actions - thus earning my RESPECT.  Thus ending the debate.  He is well within his confines in his approach, and method.

Garg, I appreciate you understanding what I’m trying to state. Let me clarify, the issue is completely open if it needs to be discussed, and if Flashman has a way of re-editing the post, I will gladly allow it into discussion. Please read my reply to Flashman for any further clarification.

GG

@empireman:

@JWW:

Oh and I got like 5 chapters into the 1st book on scientology

LOL Yeah those books are kind of you know boring

Book: And 5 billion blah blah blah (A really long time ago) there was a cell
Me: Are you kidding me? Do you think I care……

@aequitas:

The Bible

Much Better!

By that train of thought GG, this post should also be removed…. it has made a negative comment about one religious book, while making a positive endorsement for another.

@Young:

@empireman:

@JWW:

Oh and I got like 5 chapters into the 1st book on scientology

LOL Yeah those books are kind of you know boring

Book: And 5 billion blah blah blah (A really long time ago) there was a cell
Me: Are you kidding me? Do you think I care……

@aequitas:

The Bible

Much Better!

By that train of thought GG, this post should also be removed…. it has made a negative comment about one religious book, while making a positive endorsement for another.

Wasn’t aimed at any one group or opinion, in fact, it was aimed at the work’s merit itself, and whether it held the reader’s interest… It could even be interpreted as empireman finding the Bible a “better” fictional read than “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health(?).” JWW’s post was upheld using the same rubric, even though that was disaffirming the historicity of the Bible, and even the belief systems that people have based off the Bible. Again, what I offered in my addendum, if Flashman or anyone else wants to address a written work directly, that’s fine, but not people groups.

GG

Satanic Verses was awesome, I recommend it to everyone…. The Bible sucks!