This morning i received an infraction for posting this picture in the rpf OT thread inspiring photo's.
No text just the photo.



For those unsure this is a photo of Eugenie Scott a leading physical anthropologist with a series of hominid skulls.

For posting this photo i was given an infraction and had the photo removed for trolling, that's right science is trolling somehow.
I'm not allowed to be inspired by science and evolution.

Now i'm not stupid i know this infraction was given because somebody complained because evolution is an affront to their religious beliefs, so now the rpf who say religious content has no place on their forum are actively fighting for a religious belief over science.

Science is not a religion and i am offended at people who treat it as such.

I don't go getting up in arms when somebody posts threads asking people to pray for their family member who is seriously ill or something, which happens fairly regularly, it's supposedly against the rules but it would be petty for anyone to do such a thing as to complain about it.
I will usually post my well wishes for a speedy recovery or my hopes they do they do not suffer too much in their final days.

I don't feel angry or feel it's an attack on science to suggest the power of prayer will do anything at all.
I simply leave a message which may in some small way show support to the person whose relative is in danger without expressing a religious viewpoint.

I don't demand that they're trolling and baiting because atheists are offended.

On a side note this is the second infraction occured since the infamous say what you like thread where we were given platitude of of expressing views which may not agree with the views of the administration.

Prior to that no infractions for 2 years.
Post that thread 2 in 2 months.

If my inspiration of science treads on someone religious beliefs i'm sorry that's the case, but science isn't a religion and it should not be censured from the rpf as if it is.

Personally as a pacifist i found it sad that many of the photos people posted as what inspired them related to war i also didn't request they be removed.

I also didn't impose the no religious or political content rule preventing people who are inspired with those things from sharing their inspirational images, so i don't see why inspiration of science should be blamed when it's not i that is stopping them sharing their inspirational views.

Sigh, I honestly fail to see how it is of any concern to this forum how another forum is run or how they choose to go about administering it. Making the post here certainly won't make them feel it was in error of censoring you or the reason given for its removal.

The Den has no issues with The RPF, even though some self-serving people outside the forum want to construe that to be the case.

Regardless of whether I think the removal or infraction was fair or not really doesn't matter. RPF business should stay RPF business.

Sorry if this offends, but I'm rather tired of whenever someone has a problem with the RPF, the staff there or a member there, they come here and mouth off against whoever and whatever, saying how great this place is, and a few months later couldn't really care two bits about this place, when the issue has faded or was resolved. Not speaking about this instance or you in particular, but it's a common trend and its getting annoying and people who buy into the BS about The Den being anti RPF or whatever will see it validated in posts such as these and stay away.

Firstly i didn't say it's any business of this forum Carsten.

I have been discriminated against because i don't share a religious belief on a forum where religion is supposedly not allowed.

It seems quite wrong to me therefore that a forum should give an infraction based upon religious grounds.

Had i posted a picture along anti religious comments i would gladly accept the punishment as fair as that would be a breach of the rules but posting a picture conveying the evolution of man is not a religious statement, it's a statement of my personal inspiration i feel in a particular branch of science.

Science is not religion.

Are the things that inspire me less valid than other peoples inspirations ?

How is it possible that members can't express religious views yet the staff pander and take the side of religious view against science.


And this isn't anything to do with the propden either i never said it was, clearly i cannot discuss this subject on the rpf because i'll be banned faster than you can blink.

I've tried complaining to the staff, the staff member who issued it failed to reply at all, i tried therefore to complain to the owner, whose response was i'm not discussing it.

Like it or not a many members here are rpf members too and i felt i should share the message that it's not going to be only be anti religious views that will get you an infraction on the rpf which i absolutely agree with by the way, i'm against discrimination.

But you can officially now be disciplined by posting a photograph of one of the worlds leading scientists because certain religious groups don't agree with science.

And the fact this has happened is discrimination in favour of religion over science in my mind, when therpf is suposed to a religion free zone.

I happen to be an anti war pacifist too but i don't complain about all the pictures in the same thread that depict soldiers and war, it's not my place to do so, because that's my own personal belief i'm not going to censor those people expressing their inspiration and i'm sure i wouldn't receive a warning either if i had for instance posted a photo of a meeting where a treaty reducing the number of biological and nuclear warheads was held.

While i agree it's of no concern to this forum it may be of concern to members of this forum who use that forum too.

If you can't post it at The RPF, why post it here? By your own words, you think you'd risk being banned if bringing up the topic over there. What makes you think that it would make the RPF staff less willing to ban you by you posting over here instead? It will be a clear sign to them that you are wanting to start trouble against them. I know that was probably not your intention by starting this thread, but it can definitely be seen that way.

This is in no way a comment on what happened or whether I think it is fair or not. Honestly, I have no opinion on the whats and the hows the staff of another forum decides to handle things. Fair or unfair... it's still between you and The RPF.

This is spoken as a private individual and not as a staff member.

Love you Gary but you need to be on a debating forum mate.

JoeR

Hey look i got pissed off at being censored because of someones personal religious belief on a forum that says they don't allow religious stuff to be posted that's my only agenda here is to tell to people i'm pissed off about it.
This is an off topic area of a forum is it not ?

There's no rule over saying nobody can post about things they're personally pissed off about ?

Just because i'm pissed off about a decision another forum takes is that taboo here too ?

Discussions that occur at other forums have some of amnesty ?

Maybe i'm imagining all the back and forth this happened on the rpf and this happened on the rpf stuff like the whole C-scar and eFX helmet stuff for example.

Love you too Joe but you need to be sending me my money you've owed for over 18 months now.

Pfff!!!! This is a crack up!!!! I once got in trouble for making Jesus's c**k bigger in a picture of the crucifixion. Just thought it would be right if he were a seriously horse-packin' Godman.

Oh well...

So, when you get pissed off you go into someone else's house than the one that pissed you off to mouth off with something unrelated to them?

Can't believe you are trying to equate the C-scar debate, which IS related to this forum - hey, VADER - to you being kicked in the teeth for posting a picture of a woman having a passions for skulls - an event that is completely unrelated to this forum.

Carsten it's an OT forum everything in it is unrelated and has nothing to do with propden that's the nature of OFF TOPIC, it's not a difficult concept to grasp is it ?

It may however relate to some people who will read it and even if it didn't the topic is still valid due to what i've said above it's an OT subject it's not required to have anything to do with propden.

I would find that amusing myself, but i can understand why it would not be allowed on the rpf because it's a religious subject which is something they clearly forbid in their rules.

Evolutionary science is not a religious subject though it's science and to remove it on religious grounds is hypocritical.

I am simultaneously surprised, and then not surprised, at this, although I haven't looked at the post and its context. It could have been that it wasn't the photo itself, or the fact that it represents a person of science showing artifacts that contribute to the support of evolution as a process, but rather it could have been that you posted the photo and it was construed as being baiting if it did get a reaction from someone. Unfortunately it is often how the mods will interpret the intent. But rather than simply handing out an infraction, one would think they would at least give a warning? It seems rather heavy-handed to me, but then again I've experienced the same sort of attitude there.

About posting it here, I agree that on the one hand it could be construed as dragging the bad baggage over here to complain, but on the other hand, Gary is among friends here and he has a valid point of discussion. Off topic by its nature is open to anything within reason. Although clearly this is not the forum to regularly discuss what goes on on the RPF and certainly discussion of mod's decisions isn't looked highly upon, but I think we all have had times when we wanted to bounce something off the group here that we thought was surprising or a problem of some sort.

I think part of the concern as well is that those on the RPF might use this kind of thread as an example to complain about TPD being a place where such things are routinely discussed, and that is simply not the case.

I would think all one can do is just shrug one's shoulders at this one....

The post was simply the photo.
The context was it was posted in a thread named photos that inspire you.
Nobody even mentioned the photo in the thread let alone complained about it.

This is absolutely a religious based decision, prior to that photo i posted a picture of Darwin with no objection or warning and that picture wasn't removed, why would i assume i would get a warning for posting an image showing a leading anthropologist with hominid skulls when Darwin's photo is fine ?

This is some creationist person who has got all pissy and the staff rather than having the balls to say hey this isn't the forum for religion we don't punish science because it doesn't suit your faith they cow tow to the religion over the science.

The mod even had the weak ass excuse to say in the infraction PM that i had made my point with the Darwin photo.

Oh we give out quotas on how many photo's people can post now do we ? clearly the quota is one because i only posted two in total.
Nearly everyone in the thread posted more than one picture though so the one picture rule only applies to me.

Maybe it's the point which he arbitrarily made up in his mind that was the problem, these mods have an uncanny ability to read peoples minds and intent from the smallest of information, i wish i could do that.
Well folks i'll tell you my point and my intent because the thought and intent only exist in my mind no matter what the mods think.

My thought was oh look a thread where people can post photos they find inspirational, not photos to inspire others necessarily, as i mentioned before i'm not particular inspired by images of war and men with guns.

So my intent was to post photo's of people and things i am inspired by like Darwin and his work and Eugenie and her work in their chosen fields, what a terrible crime i committed.

Not that terrible though because remember committing it once was fine, Darwin is fine, as long as i stop admiring science as it was back in the Victorian era there's no issue.

And before people start calling me anti religion i have a fair number of PM's from several RPF members who have taken great disdain at me publicly calling out people when they discriminate against people of religion.
Of course the bogeyman religion of today is Islam therefore every Muslim is evil and certain people take every opportunity to put it down.

Nobody would compare all Christians for example to the fanatical Westboro Baptist Church who picket funerals of dead soldiers.

Nobody would compare all Catholics to the fanatical terrorist groups in Northern Ireland like The Real IRA.

Why therefore should anyone compare all Muslims to those fanatical groups like Al Queda ?

And if someone did i would call them out on it too.

It seems the rpf staff are anti Islam though, they have no issue with people like Outlander making derogatory comments about Muslims in his posts like the classic "Me, I'm going to go eat a plate of nice crispy bacon; and then go treat some women like they are people".

Then when i called him out for being back onto Muslim hating the dumbass nitwit changed tack and said he was talking about Jews actually, like it's somehow okay to be derogatory to Jews.

Another of his crazy compositions.

"One of the few things I do know about you other than the fact that you are on the government cheese in the UK is the fact that you are Muslim. The fact that you tried to conceal this for years after joining the board while posing as an "objective" commentator on many ME/West situations offends me. I enjoy reminding you of this"

I've no idea how he knows for a fact i'm a Muslim, i've never stated to anyone in my life i'm a Muslim and i'm not ever likely to what with being an atheist and all.

I bought these posts to the attention of the same mod who gave me an infraction because science upset a creationist and not one of those posts has been removed.

Furthermore had the staff simply asked me to remove the photo i would have done so, i wouldn't be happy but i would have removed it.
But that's not their style they like to shoot first and think later, without the thinking later part.

Indeed. I'm mod on one of the biggest music forums online and also on a couple SW forums and have to say I never gave an infraction yet. I banned a couple spammers (porn spammers), but with regular members I always go with warning and with a PM telling them what it wrong and deleting/editing their post if necessary. And there are thousands of members there.

See, now you are going into a full-on rant about the RPF and members there. Who gives a shit how they handle things over there? That's not for people here on this forum to argue over. And if this continues we are going to start locking those threads before they go any further. It was enough with the Phil versus Gino thing... and when that was all solved... where is Phil now? No, no more!

Do you see anyone complaining Carsten ?

I don't other than you, who gives a shit about "Sexy Grooming" ? nobody it seems because nobody replied to that thread in the OT here i don't see it with a big lock symbol on it.

Whereas i've had several replies to this thread which tends to indicate to me that at least someone gives a shit even if they agree or not with the content they give a shit about it including you.

The difference is you PERSONALLY don't agree with the content and so you will censor it from those who do.

I'm a member of this forum and have been for 6 years the same amount of time as you, i've been a member here longer than i have at the rpf, i wasn't aware there was some set quota of posts i should make to qualify as a member of this forum.

I have a legitimate complaint about the way i've been treated the fact it's the rpf should make absolutely no difference.

If i came here saying i was thrown out of a supermarket because i informed a staff member that there were products still on the shelves which had gone past their expiration date you wouldn't blink an eye.

You are only making this threat to close threads because it's the rpf.

The RPF is not some universally protected entity, there is no ancient law written down that the rpf shall forever and without exception be free from criticism.

I stand by my convictions no matter the threat my purpose in life isn't to be liked or be one one of the crowd my purpose is to say the truth as i see it from the evidence available.

If it helps though i shall make this disclaimer.

My statements are not the official stance of the propden staff or it's members and as such any disagreement should be made toward myself and no others.