Is it racist to post about race here?

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AgnosticBoy
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Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #1

Post by AgnosticBoy »

A moderator told me to not bring up race. In another post he insinuated that it is racism to bring up race. Why was I warned about this?

Is that the policy of this forum?
Zzyzx wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:08 am
AgnosticBoy wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2020 11:39 pmSure, how about no kids outside of wedlock? I think that is very good advice given our pandemic of children being raised with little to no real family support, especially in African-American communities.
We can do without racial comments.
Zzyzx wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 2:36 am
AgnosticBoy wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:24 am Hopefully you're not trying to censor that fact.
If racism gets out of hand it will be handled. The Admin / Moderator Team is aware.
Zzyzx wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 2:36 am Of course, when trying to make a failed point in debate, why not fan the flames of racism.

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Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #11

Post by AgnosticBoy »

Tcg wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 12:28 am
AgnosticBoy wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 12:03 am
I'm a proud co-owner of a forum (still under development).
Isn't that exciting! What is your post count at this point?


Tcg
No real posts yet. It's just me and a developer. I will post the link when we're nearly done, which is hopefully in a month's time. But I will say that I didn't create it to take anything away from this site.

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Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #12

Post by otseng »

[Replying to koko in post #8]

I would say most of the time is wasted on the tit-for-tat on who proves and does not prove their point. In the future, everyone please just argue your point and if you feel someone has not justified their point, leave it to the reader to decide rather than for you to convince everyone else that their support is lacking.

koko

Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #13

Post by koko »

otseng wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 10:24 am [Replying to koko in post #8]

I would say most of the time is wasted on the tit-for-tat on who proves and does not prove their point. In the future, everyone please just argue your point and if you feel someone has not justified their point, leave it to the reader to decide rather than for you to convince everyone else that their support is lacking.


@otseng


I had already unsubscribed to this thread for part of the reason you posted. However, please be advised that the Bible forbids bearing false witness.

The rules which you have previously posted are largely based upon biblical law. If people must adhere to its moral teaching in order to remain on this forum, it stands to reason that unproven comments, especially those which have been repeatedly debunked, constitute failure to comply with forum rules. This is just logical. Now I cannot tell you how to run your forum but some day you (like me) will have to stand in judgment for your actions and any possible failures to adhere to biblical laws. Thus, the better course is for all of us to practice faithful adherence. If, however, you feel that such adherence has not been jeopardized as I suggested, then so be it. Again, I unsubscribed in an effort to try to keep the peace. I leave oversight of the forum's daily exchanges to you.

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Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #14

Post by AgnosticBoy »

[Replying to koko in post #13]

Perhaps when you become a small business owner, like otseng and I (we both own a forum), then you'll be able to relate to what he's saying. It is hard work and can get costly once you're having to upgrade to a better server, buying plugins, troubleshooting, managing forum operations, perhaps even paying for a developer, etc.

From my own experience with my site, I can say otseng is not out of line to ask for donations even if it's $1.00 from every one of his thousands of members.

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Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #15

Post by DavidLeon »

AgnosticBoy wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 1:04 pm [Replying to koko in post #13]

Perhaps when you become a small business owner, like otseng and I (we both own a forum), then you'll be able to relate to what he's saying. It is hard work and can get costly once you're having to upgrade to a better server, buying plugins, troubleshooting, managing forum operations, perhaps even paying for a developer, etc.

From my own experience with my site, I can say otseng is not out of line to ask for donations even if it's $1.00 from every one of his thousands of members.
I don't get this. I can make a forum exactly like this one without advertising, without donations and it wouldn't cost me a cent. I've had huge websites which have done exactly that while, mind you, I was working six days a week, over 40 hours and with limited available time on a computer.

If you subscribe to the scandalous concept that a domain name is needed that will cost you under $20 a year. What a rip off that is. Where does that money go.
I no longer post here

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Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #16

Post by AgnosticBoy »

[Replying to DavidLeon in post #15]

The forum here uses Phpbb web application , which is free. But without a hosting account, where would you store the site?

Is your forum still running? I'd like an example.

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Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #17

Post by DavidLeon »

AgnosticBoy wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2020 12:50 pm [Replying to DavidLeon in post #15]

The forum here uses Phpbb web application , which is free. But without a hosting account, where would you store the site?

Is your forum still running? I'd like an example.
I don't want this to be considered spam, so I will leave only one link to a free host that I have nothing to do with except for that I've used them as free and paid hosting. I've used probably a dozen of them over the years.

Though I don't have any forums up and running, I've run Phpbb applications exactly like this, as well as Simple Machine and others absolutely free. You store the site, with or without a forum, on a free host like the last one I used - Byet Host, which provides free hosting with no advertisement or banner, unlimited disc space and bandwidth, use your own domain if I'm not mistaken, you might want to check that, etc.

I've found the free hosting to be all I needed but if you want more goodies you can use their paid services. Certainly under $100 a year. The very basic, all one should ever need unless you have a mega site probably around $50 a year.

ETA: Just for fun and old times sake I will post links to the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive) of some of my old websites. The first one is old. Though the captures I'm linking to are from 2011 the website goes back much farther than that. It was a simple HTML site. Nothing fancy but I think beautiful. Not very practical. Like an old antique piece of furniture. The Pathway Machine Wayback doesn't preserve all of the site so huge portions of it are missing. That host required a small banner at the bottom of each page but if I'm not mistaken it wouldn't appear unless you went for one month without editing any pages. I don't think that host any longer offers free service and I wouldn't recommend it if it did because there are so many others that offer more with no banner.

For some reason the menus on these pages isn't working on my end. I've noticed if I close all other tabs and refresh the page the menus appear as they should.

A somewhat more polished version is here.

I usually prefer the simple design, but I've had free sites that were as complex as you can go. Bootstrap, full page video or image headers, mega menus, etc. Well, my last template can be found here.

My favorite is this version which is very practical but looks a great deal less dated than the others. I think the host on this one was ipage, which was a good host but with limited free goodies. Mysql etc. Again, the images and huge parts of the site are missing but you get the general idea. Wayback only preserves textual content they can't find elsewhere, although you can find much of what they preserved on forums all over the Internet. I've found stuff I've written posted in it's entirety by people I've never heard of, which I encourage. No permission, credit or copyright needed. I've never charged or accepted donations and have only ever had advertising back in the day when you had to on things like free forums, chat rooms, guestbooks. All that stuff you get free with an account like the one linked above.
Last edited by DavidLeon on Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:30 pm, edited 4 times in total.
I no longer post here

koko

Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #18

Post by koko »

AgnosticBoy wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 1:04 pm [Replying to koko in post #13]

Perhaps when you become a small business owner, like otseng and I (we both own a forum), then you'll be able to relate to what he's saying. It is hard work and can get costly once you're having to upgrade to a better server, buying plugins, troubleshooting, managing forum operations, perhaps even paying for a developer, etc.

From my own experience with my site, I can say otseng is not out of line to ask for donations even if it's $1.00 from every one of his thousands of members.



At no point in my post did I raise any objection to his solicitation for donations. Frankly, I wasn't even aware he had made such requests.

Trust me when I tell you that as a retiree after having starting to work at age 10, I know what hard work is all about.

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Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #19

Post by DavidLeon »

koko wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2020 1:57 pmAt no point in my post did I raise any objection to his solicitation for donations. Frankly, I wasn't even aware he had made such requests.
That's actually a very good point. I was wondering how one would donate or become a site supporter and where are these tokens of which I've heard mentioned.

Certainly nothing wrong with accepting donations. Jesus and his apostles did so.
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Re: Is it racist to post about race here?

Post #20

Post by AgnosticBoy »

[Replying to DavidLeon in post #17]

Thanks for that Byet reference. Byet's free hosting is limited in disk space and does not mention the bandwidth. Although I'm just starting but I want a site that can handle a good amount of traffic from the start. Here's a little more background on my case:

I have very basic knowledge of HTML and FTP although I bought books to learn more. I want a site that can handle a good amount of traffic from the start. I want features similar to that of religiousforums.com. I also need server and forum site support.

You will not get that for free.
- For starters a good server with unlimited bandwidth/disk space will cost you, and that's annually.
- A domain name with privacy feature (I don't want everyone knowing my name/contact info.) will cost you.
- Plug ins will cost you, and that assumes that it even has support for it
- currently I'm using a web developer for troubleshooting, routine maintenance, and hopefully some custom features so that will cost me.

But this is just the financial costs. How about quality:

- Time spent moderating conversations
- time spent participating
- time spent troubleshooting
- time spent attracting people to your site
- time spent making a site someone wants to be a part of.

I can assure you, just spending 5 mins. a day on a site won't cut it, esp. when you start getting a lot of members.

In fact, I think the time spent in creating and sustaining a good environment for members is the hardest work. You are essentially a manager since you're managing a site. With that alone I would say otseng deserves donations. And I'm saying this all while I've had some disagreement with him, esp. when it comes to rule #5.

If anyone says that it is easy and cheap, I think it's best to show that by showing us how your forum operates, assuming it has lots of members to begin with.

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