On the topic of including religious content in signatures.
We have always banned discussion of religious topics because they consistently degenerate into arguments. However, we have not specifically addressed the issue of religious quotes, sayings, verses, etc. in post signatures. This is consistent with our TOS and AUP because technically it is not discussion, and frankly it has never seemed to be an issue that needed to be dealt with by policy. However, recently some members have complained about religious content in signatures, asserting that it is not or should not be allowed by policy, and it's offensive. We ran a poll, allowed extensive discussion on the topic, and it's clear that we need to address this specifically.
I've corresponded with many of you on both sides of the issue, and consulted with the management team. My conclusion is that we will continue to allow religious content in signatures, subject to the guidelines below.
I'm sure you all realize that there is no 100% solution to this. I can only do what I think is fair, balanced, and reasonable. I try to make decisions which benefit the greatest number of members from two perspectives; improving the quality of pen making information, and enhancing the spirit of community and friendship. Banning religious content in signatures, while it might improve the experience for some members who take offense at such content, does not significantly further either goal. Furthermore, determining whether something is or isn't religious is difficult. What one person thinks is a simple song lyric he likes, another person feels is an assault on religion.
The simple one-click solution for me is to turn off signatures. That completely solves the problem in a way that nobody can complain about. No names, no towns, no links, no graphics, no funny sayings, no song lyrics, no bible verses, and absolutely no chance to misinterpret anything. We wouldn't need the concept of tolerance because there would be nothing to tolerate. Easy on me, easy on Curtis, easy on all of you. While I'm at it, I could close Casual Conversation, Other Things We Make, disable smiles, avatars, and bring on some more moderators to scrutinize every single post for anything that looks unrelated to penturning.
There is no real NEED for any sort of signature. We don't need to know anything about each other to exchange information. However, part of belonging to a community is getting to know each other. In order to support each other and build and maintain friendships and care about each other, we need to have the opportunity share parts of ourselves that we feel are important and help define us as individuals. Sometimes that peek into your personality includes something of a religious nature, and I think forbidding that holds us closer to maintaining anonymity rather than building community.
I can't let our community degrade into a boring, vanilla place where the only thing we care about is penturning. Some of you have written to me saying, "I come here to learn about penturning and nothing else." Well, that's fine and maybe someday a forum will spring up where they don't know a darn thing about each other can limit their discussions to CA fumes and wobbly mandrels and how to cast cat fur. But that's not this place. If you are purely here to exchange pen making information, see the note below about turning off all signatures and avatars. That will provide a more sanitized experience for you.
I have never guaranteed that you are going to have an experience here free of anything that offends you. I can't possibly know what offends you and protect you from it. I have to ask you to take some responsibility for that yourself. As the TOS says, we don't tolerate things which are clearly "...threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous...", etc.
However, let's be realistic -- we simply can't be nitpickers and try to shoehorn someone's bible quote or mention of evolution into the concept of harassment just because it's different from your viewpoint. If a particular member's signature offends you, visit the options pane of your user control panel and add that person to your ignore list. If you don't want to accept a member's unique personality, which might include a religious viewpoint, why accept their penturning knowledge - it's a package deal.
I'm going to add the following to the Signature Guidelines section of the AUP:
If you find a particular signature offensive, you have options:
You need to interpret the TOS and AUP and decide how you want to be portrayed by your fellow members. If specific complaints are received about your signature, I will evaluate the complaint and decide whether or not your signature falls within the spirit of the signature guidelines in the AUP.
Thanks for all your comments on this issue.
We have always banned discussion of religious topics because they consistently degenerate into arguments. However, we have not specifically addressed the issue of religious quotes, sayings, verses, etc. in post signatures. This is consistent with our TOS and AUP because technically it is not discussion, and frankly it has never seemed to be an issue that needed to be dealt with by policy. However, recently some members have complained about religious content in signatures, asserting that it is not or should not be allowed by policy, and it's offensive. We ran a poll, allowed extensive discussion on the topic, and it's clear that we need to address this specifically.
I've corresponded with many of you on both sides of the issue, and consulted with the management team. My conclusion is that we will continue to allow religious content in signatures, subject to the guidelines below.
I'm sure you all realize that there is no 100% solution to this. I can only do what I think is fair, balanced, and reasonable. I try to make decisions which benefit the greatest number of members from two perspectives; improving the quality of pen making information, and enhancing the spirit of community and friendship. Banning religious content in signatures, while it might improve the experience for some members who take offense at such content, does not significantly further either goal. Furthermore, determining whether something is or isn't religious is difficult. What one person thinks is a simple song lyric he likes, another person feels is an assault on religion.
The simple one-click solution for me is to turn off signatures. That completely solves the problem in a way that nobody can complain about. No names, no towns, no links, no graphics, no funny sayings, no song lyrics, no bible verses, and absolutely no chance to misinterpret anything. We wouldn't need the concept of tolerance because there would be nothing to tolerate. Easy on me, easy on Curtis, easy on all of you. While I'm at it, I could close Casual Conversation, Other Things We Make, disable smiles, avatars, and bring on some more moderators to scrutinize every single post for anything that looks unrelated to penturning.
There is no real NEED for any sort of signature. We don't need to know anything about each other to exchange information. However, part of belonging to a community is getting to know each other. In order to support each other and build and maintain friendships and care about each other, we need to have the opportunity share parts of ourselves that we feel are important and help define us as individuals. Sometimes that peek into your personality includes something of a religious nature, and I think forbidding that holds us closer to maintaining anonymity rather than building community.
I can't let our community degrade into a boring, vanilla place where the only thing we care about is penturning. Some of you have written to me saying, "I come here to learn about penturning and nothing else." Well, that's fine and maybe someday a forum will spring up where they don't know a darn thing about each other can limit their discussions to CA fumes and wobbly mandrels and how to cast cat fur. But that's not this place. If you are purely here to exchange pen making information, see the note below about turning off all signatures and avatars. That will provide a more sanitized experience for you.
I have never guaranteed that you are going to have an experience here free of anything that offends you. I can't possibly know what offends you and protect you from it. I have to ask you to take some responsibility for that yourself. As the TOS says, we don't tolerate things which are clearly "...threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous...", etc.
However, let's be realistic -- we simply can't be nitpickers and try to shoehorn someone's bible quote or mention of evolution into the concept of harassment just because it's different from your viewpoint. If a particular member's signature offends you, visit the options pane of your user control panel and add that person to your ignore list. If you don't want to accept a member's unique personality, which might include a religious viewpoint, why accept their penturning knowledge - it's a package deal.
I'm going to add the following to the Signature Guidelines section of the AUP:
If you find a particular signature offensive, you have options:
- Tolerate it as an alternate viewpoint you don't agree with.
- Add the user to your Ignore List in the options section of your user control panel.
- Turn off viewing of all signatures from the options tab of your user control panel.
You need to interpret the TOS and AUP and decide how you want to be portrayed by your fellow members. If specific complaints are received about your signature, I will evaluate the complaint and decide whether or not your signature falls within the spirit of the signature guidelines in the AUP.
Thanks for all your comments on this issue.
