![\"crybaby2\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2015\/10\/crybaby2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n[public domain \/ Pixabay<\/a>]<\/p>\n * * * * *<\/p>\n Once again, an atheist came\u00a0onto my page, guns blazing, was banned, and now he is crying in his beer and<\/span> gathering all his like-minded cronies about him<\/a>, group hugging, with lots of warm fuzzies, \u00a0singing of Kumbaya<\/em> (oops! atheists don\u2019t sing that<\/em>, do they?), and whining and crying about how nasty all the wicked Christians are (me foremost of all, of course), who deign to ban a person who violates their blog rules. This is the<\/span> second time<\/a> in the last ten days\u00a0that an entire atheist \u201cfeeding frenzy\u201d thread was devoted to how nasty, terrible and all-around\u00a0unsavory and stinky I am. I\u2019m Attila the Hun and Vlad the Impaler, all wrapped into one hideous beast.<\/span><\/p>\n All joking and fun aside, the main reason I wanted to respond was to this remark he made (my bolding): \u201cAnd, of course, he never actually said what the rules<\/strong> were that qualifies a person for banning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Now, take note, ALL who comment on my blog (especially those who take it upon themselves to be my vocal critics): Look at the top, under my top header. There are two lines of links up there, mostly for my topical index pages (there are nearly 50 of those). On the bottom line of the two, in the middle of my page left to right, is found,<\/span> \u201cDiscussion Policy.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0That tells anyone everything\u00a0they need to know.<\/p>\n I have a zero tolerance policy towards insults<\/strong>. It has served me very well, here and elsewhere. I think I have managed to achieve on my blog, for the most part (with a lot of hard work, sweat and toil), pretty good atheist-Christian discussion (kudos and many thanks to my atheist friends who have \u201cbehaved\u201d and shared their thoughts); especially considering the rock-bottom level of most of it to be found online these days. Both sides are very hard-hitting on ideas, and everyone knows I am a bulldog in argument (though always with a soft \u201cvoice\u201d and a half-smile \u2014 if only I could be seen), but all in all \u00a0we are civil and at least listening<\/em> to each other, before both sides fire back with more contrary opinions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now, in order to achieve<\/em> that, I had to ban\u00a0several people (a tiny tiny number out of the whole) over the past 2 1\/2 months since I arrived here: those who only wanted to insult, preach, or troll. This is what it takes to develop a congenial atmosphere, where real discussion and dialogue can take place. This guy who is now whining, came by and almost immediately stated that he had read one<\/em> of my posts and it would be his last<\/em>. So of course I commented on the inanity and closed-mindedness of that, and it went from bad to worse.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, it is fashionable and chic and trendy for \u00a0atheists (and not just them) who have been banned to get together and pretend that they were banned, not because they acted like incorrigible asses, but because I am arrogant, wicked, power-hungry, scared of opposition, hate atheists, am the typical judgmental Christian, and all the rest. Well, folks, look around at some of the monster atheist-topic threads on my blog lately (one has<\/span> 392 comments<\/a>, another,<\/span> 161 comments<\/a>, etc.), and you\u2019ll see plenty<\/em> of atheists \u2014 scores of \u2019em \u2014 , free to comment and criticize all they like, safe as they can be, as long as they stay civil and keep it on the ideas. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s obvious that I\u2019m not running in abject fear from the atheists, fleeing to the hills, deathly afraid of how they\u2019ll make me look, because (like all theists and Christians, right?), I have no answers to their charges (so we are told). Practically every day I am wrangling with 10 or 12 of them at any given time (with 553 comments up on just those two posts alone), putting up new dialogues where I take on five or six at once. But I\u2019m scared<\/em>, huh? Right; makes perfect sense (in some alternate goofy universe in Stephen Hawking\u2019s multiverse scenario).<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover, I am just as tough on fellow Christians who violate my rules. Today I deleted a number of comments from someone who is a friend of mine, that I have known for years, and issued several warnings, that if he persisted in calling atheists names, he, too, would be banned. Just ten hours ago I pinned a comment<\/span> at the top of one atheist-Christian thread<\/a>, asking for those on both sides to cease with the personal attacks:<\/p>\n Please abide by my discussion rules (linked at the top of this blog). I\u2019ve already banned one atheist who came in here, guns blazing, calling all theists \u201cidiots,\u201d etc.<\/span> [present note: NOT the person referred to above]<\/span> I\u2019m close to banning a Catholic who has reciprocated. And I\u2019ve deleted several worthless and unedifying exchanges.<\/span><\/p>\n Insults are not tolerated. I don\u2019t care WHO makes them. If the POPE came here and started calling all atheists idiots and morons, I would ban him! LOL<\/span><\/p>\n Strong words against ideas are permitted (I do a lot of that myself). Direct attacks on people or their motivations or intelligence or character, etc. are not.<\/span><\/p>\n A word to the wise is sufficient.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are my three comments directed towards my Catholic friend:<\/span><\/p>\n Please refrain from personal attacks (\u201cI was calling anti-Philosophy Atheists morons\u201d). I\u2019ve worked hard to create an atmosphere of relative congeniality here.<\/span> [link<\/a>]<\/p>\n I will indeed ban you if you can\u2019t control yourself and abide by my discussion rules. [atheists: note that X\u00a0is a Catholic and online friend of mine, but he must follow the rules, too, lest I be guilty of unfair moderation. I do usually give a few warnings.]<\/span> [link<\/a>]<\/p>\n Gratuitous insults are a stupid thing, whether typically \u201cScottish\u201d or not. Horse thievery and rabid anti-Catholicism were also traditionally Scottish. Does that make them good?<\/span> [link<\/a>] [we are both Scottish-Americans; that\u2019s where that<\/em> came from]<\/span><\/p>\n To his credit, he issued an apology. But this shows that my moderation has nothing whatsoever to do with affiliation<\/strong><\/em>. It\u2019s all about the discussion and fostering a warm, inviting atmosphere for dialogue and people actually getting to know each other as human beings and maybe even developing mutual respect and friendship. I feel that I have made some new friends. I hope and trust that some atheists think kindly towards me, too. It takes time. It\u2019s tough. Our two groups aren\u2019t known for our warmth and affection towards each other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I was even complimented by an atheist today<\/span> (Gandolf<\/a>) who commended me for leaving my comboxes open for discussion, whereas so many other venues do not do so. And another atheist<\/span> (TheMarsCydonia<\/a>) made note to the offending Catholic that<\/span> I had strict rules<\/a>: \u201cPerhaps you didn\u2019t know but the author of this blog bans commenters leaving this type of comments. Look at his comment policy.\u201d A third atheist has been posting some highly offensive comments about the Catholic Church supposedly being in bed with Hitler and Hitler being a Catholic all through the Holocaust. He\u2019s still here. I haven\u2019t banned him. I did tell him I thought his remarks were \u201cbigoted\u201d because I believe that to be literally true; as I think what he is saying is demonstrably false.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So, back to today\u2019s complainer. I have explained myself thoroughly. Now, knowing what I have just written and documented, look how this guy describes me:<\/span><\/p>\n . . .\u00a0\u00a0reading a rather asinine post from some guy named Dave Armstrong. . . .\u00a0It really burns me that people like this#%$@head can get away with that kind of thing; they have totalitarian control over their little chunk of the internet, and they can just ban people and delete their comments. . . .\u00a0I guess I just need to stop getting into arguments with Christians when they\u2019re also the mods (this isn\u2019t the first time one has pulled this kind of thing on me), but I guess maybe next time I\u2019ll just have to start screencapping the discussion so I can still have a copy of it when these douchebags pull their scorched-earth bit.<\/span><\/p>\n And of course this atheist forum (like all forums) has a<\/span> discussion policy<\/a> that it apparently (as usual, online) does not<\/em> enforce, since it states:<\/span><\/p>\n No trolling, keep things civil. Avoid fighting words and personal attacks. This includes the repeated use of slurs to incite or instigate (i.e. trolling) and applies to all forms of user content, including the user\u2019s name.<\/span><\/p>\n Harassment and bigotry are strictly prohibited, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Enforcement of ostensible discussion policy is so ultra-rare anymore, that everyone is flabbergasted to see someone (me) actually do it. But it\u2019s the only way to have good discussion. Believe me, I know. I\u2019ve been online for 19 years and have been in innumerable discussions.<\/span><\/p>\n One fair-minded guy even in this<\/em>\u00a0mostly cheerleading group-cry-in-the-beer discussion made a great point that I think is exactly right:<\/span><\/p>\n If you want a website to run by your rules, you need to get your own website. And if you allow anyone else to post there, and you ever delete a post, then I guarantee someone will claim that you treated them unfairly and you are an #%$@&+%. And if you never delete anything, your website will turn to &$@#.<\/span><\/p>\n Dead-on. This is precisely why I strictly moderate; I don\u2019t want my blog to turn to\u00a0&$@#. It ain\u2019t a power-trip; it\u2019s love of dialogue. Now, if some don\u2019t like that and think that I am an\u00a0#%$@&+% because of it, they can lump it and go jump in the lake (to put it very<\/em> mildly). No one can please everybody<\/em> (least of all, us lowly, despised apologists).<\/span><\/p>\n Regarding deleted posts: yes, absolutely: if someone comes here and violates my rules, I may remove a lot of their junk comments after<\/em> they are banned, since I don\u2019t want \u2019em polluting my page and giving others the impression that that<\/em> is what typically takes place here. This is the whole point of a strict policy. People come to read<\/em>. I want them to read good<\/em> stuff, so they\u2019ll hang out and discuss issues; not garbage, causing them, more than likely, to\u00a0go away, \u00a0muttering dejectedly, \u201cthe same old crap again . . .\u201d No one has a supposed absolute \u201cright\u201d to contaminate my blog with insults and epithets and [what I believe to be] falsehoods (as the case may be). <\/span><\/p>\n If a person abides by the rules<\/em>, I can put up with tons of stuff, but if they clearly violate<\/em>\u00a0the rules, I\u2019m not obligated to keep up an exhaustive record of their bloviations under the guise of some\u00a0ridiculous notion of what \u201cfree speech\u201d entails. They can moan and groan and agonize all they like over that. I don\u2019t care. It\u2019s my<\/em> venue. They come here as my guest. I\u2019m a gracious host. I\u2019m a nice guy (even though I debate ideas<\/em> in a very aggressive and \u201chard-hitting\u201d way). But if someone\u00a0comes\u00a0into my \u201chouse\u201d\u00a0and insults me or my other guests, they\u2019re out the door.<\/span><\/p>\n