C.A.F Members not open to discord?

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superblue

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Has anyone else noticed that any kind of discord isn’t really welcome here, that there is this sense of entitlement of members who have been here for way too long that have this need to fight any kind of discord be it an opinion or flat out a different point of view. I could understand if someone comes on and is like I disagree with this, this is why , why am I wrong can someone help me. That isn’t what I am talking about. I am talking about just being a normal person who views things differently on here that a lot of members just don’t accept and try their hardest to run people off.

I find it very intriguing that people feel the need to fight others with any sense of discord, and take that discord to be some kind of I dunno, blasphemy, heresy or something and try to label or reduce a person to their assumption.

I hope not too many people are running into this but I bet I am not alone. An I think there is some kind of misunderstanding to this forum that this isn’t a private forum only for Catholics and " apologetics ", as far as I can tell this is an open forum and free of charge, which means anyone of any demonination , pro catholic or not should be welcome here. I am not offended when people disagree with me, mainly because I dont waste my time reading responses nor get my feathers ruffled at people who try so hard to attack me but others here might not have thick skin, and then when they run into these arm chair theologians, apologetics and " church militants " , they are left with a feeling that this is what the Church is made up of and it leaves them scratching their heads. Which is scary, I wouldn’t want a new person running into these types of members.

But I can see the need for people online to have this notion of needing to protect something that they feel vested in because they have been on a specific website or forum for far too long. An maybe it is nothing more than just that.

So if you happen to read this and have noticed that your differing view points get attacked as well, just know you are not alone, and don’t let it bother you, and don’t bite into thinking that you are some evil person for thinking different, or that beliefs are wrong. The only time correction is really needed is when one comes in looking for an answer. There are those who have a need to put others down as best as possible. Don’t fall for the trap.
 
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We are meant to be charitable. Give others a great big Word hug.

This forum belongs to Catholic Apologetics Apostolate. We are their guests . They pay for it and maintain it.

They can boot us all off and shut down the forum
 
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Hi superblue,

you may find it helpful to read the Forum Guidelines.
I’ve selected some relevant points from the Forum Guidelines, that have been in place in this Catholic Forum since 2004 .
https://forums.catholic-questions.org/faq#agreeable
It includes
CONDUCT RULES
Code: 
Messages posted to this board must be polite and free of personal attacks, threats, and incendiary, divisive, crude or sexually-explicit language.
Messages should be short. Do not post lengthy replies (including replies that consist largely of quotes from an earlier message).
Do not view the discussion area as a vehicle for single-mindedly promoting an agenda.
Non-Catholics are welcome to participate but must be respectful of the faith of the Catholics participating on the board.
Catholics must be charitable in their discussions about non-Catholic belief and practice."
Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree…

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:
Code: 
Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.
Also from the Forum Guidelines:

“Consider these forums rated “PG” and any content going beyond a “PG” rating, as solely deemed so by the moderators, will be removed and any member posting such content may have privileges taken away or be banned/suspended.Inappropriate, offensive, blasphemous posts, user names, profile entries, pictures, linked content, etc. are not permitted.
Links are only permitted as references for the topic of discussion. Links for promotional purposes or to anti-Christian websites are not permitted. Exceptions may be made for Catholic related resources.”

In understanding the Forum aims, you will perhaps understand why the Forum functions as it does.
 
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I thought you meant discord the chat server. Because that could actually be kinda cool.
 
At first I thought you meant quarreling, and as I am open-minded toward new and unexpected suggestions, I was trying to think of how it might be desirable to be open to quarreling.

Then I figured you probably meant discord as in dissent, or different positions. Okay!

It certainly apppears that dissent in these forums too often leads to quarreling. I am thinking of a recent thread which was spoiled by an intolerant member (not to name names) who rather harshly criticized fellow Catholics who put forth a comparatively strict view on the question of whether a cavalier, unrepentant attitude toward small sins could lead to damnation. It’s a good question which we should consider from time to time, and where better than Catholic Answers Forums?
 
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I agree with the original poster. There is certainly an unofficial majority point of view on display in every thread, a point of view I heartily disagree with. But of course there are other Catholic forums with completely different points of view.

I participate only because I occasionally come across a topic that interests me, and it gives me an excuse to research it in more depth. However, I have no illusions that anything I post will change anyone’s mind. And it does amuse me that if I post an opinion and quote Vatican II documents, encyclicals, and the Catechism to support my opinion that I will be called an atheist! Once I was told “no one believes that” and was able to show I was in good company: Augustine and Aquinas. But we live in a post-factual world of alternative reality. Facts no longer matter.
 
I don’t know. I’ve been here a long time. I’ve seen many posters come and go. I’ve seen people with all sorts of different view points. I’ve certainly seen my share of hostile or uncharitable posts, but I can’t say I’ve been on the receiving (and hopefully not the giving) end of such things. I make it a point not to get sucked into other people’s drama. And I try to my best to be charitable and not allow disagreements to be personal.

I don’t think it’s unique to CAF to find people that are very defensive of their ideas who tend to lash out at perceived threats. That is, sadly, the nature of much present day social media. But there are a lot of good posters here, too. I spend more time focusing on those posters and those conversations than I do on the people who are not interested in learning anything from others but only in furthering their own talking points. Thus, my time at CAF is generally pretty pleasant from my perspective. 😃
 
I’ve been to other forums and compared to them, this one is actually pretty good. Now, no forum is perfect and this one isn’t. However, if you go to other religious forums you will probably get the same if not worse amount of dissent and name-calling than this forum. And it’s not as if this forum is like, say fisheaters, which hosts a small part of Catholicism. This is Catholic.com here. This pops up pretty quick when you search for “catholic”. You kinda have to expect a little bit of tension here and there because of that. There is a bit more traffic here. Bottom line is, as Joe_5859 said, this forum is not unique in this area.
 
I’ve been on different forums for years. Inevitably there’s conflict. Such is life! Especially when it’s as diverse of a group as this. I took a few years off to enjoy my successful life 😉 Upon my triumphant return here I have noticed a sharp decline in topics/conversations. Obviously less users. I wouldn’t say the level of discord is much more different than real life. How people deal with it is vastly different! Most controversial subjects form a circular argument where they return with no winners or changes in ideas. Some people get quit flabbergasted and become apoplectic. Me, I inject sarcasm and humor into the conversation then take a swig of cognac. (Cognac makes everything better)😉
 
OP, I don’t know if you are referring to posters who state something contrary to Church teaching and someone gives the correct teaching or a disagreement about the nuances of Catholic living. There are things in Catholicism that are not up for debate and other things about the Catholic journey that are between God and that soul, or souls if it’s a married couple.

You use the word “discord” and sometimes I think it’s the correct word to use but other times I think you might mean dissension. If Catholics have an opinion that dissents from Catholic teaching they should expect that fellow Catholics are going to correct them. If non-Catholics come on the forum and insult Catholic teaching they can expect us to defend our mother; you don’t get to “yo mama” us without some pushback. We shouldn’t have to every time because sometimes Truth just needs to be discovered but there is an instinct to defend.

If the topic is politics or religion opinions tend to be strong. One board I was on didn’t even have a religion sub-forum because of how divisive the subject can be. Curiously the large majority of regular posters identified as atheist or pagan and were ex-Catholics,then secular Jews, and then ex-“other” (Mormon, Methodist, etc.) There were only a couple of members who were still active religiously. IMO we could have discussed religion without too much trouble but I don’t think a fundie hit and run would have brought out the best in any of us. OTOH Politics/Current Events was a very active forum and the majority of suspensions and bans happened here. so there you go.
 
Bruised_Reed said:
There are things in Catholicism that are not up for debate
Click to expand...
It’s also notable that, while there are things that are clearly in this category, there are also things that some people think are in this category and some don’t.
 
DarkLight said:
t’s also notable that, while there are things that are clearly in this category, there are also things that some people think are in this category and some don’t.
Click to expand...
That’s probably the foundation of most of the disagreements here and others just sprout out from that.
 
I’m not sure this is what you mean but I noticed it in the old forum where those with high post counts seemed to take it upon themselves to be ‘moderators’ and try and shut down discussions they had a bias against.
 
Persons with high post counts got there by being cordial, fair, knowledgeable and able to speak authoritatively on the faith. Education counts.
At least it used to.

Now, it’s just who can shout louder or longer.

I concur with Bruised Reed.

Discord is sometimes quite different form disagreement.
For ex:
strife, conflict, friction, hostility, antagonism, antipathy, enmity, bad feeling, ill feeling, bad blood, argument, quarreling, squabbling, wrangling, feuding, contention, dissension, disunity, division, opposition; infighting
I find that some members really love discord. Which is disheartening.
Another “D” word.
 
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well facts here matter as long as they are the facts that people want to agree with, and mind you if you dont have this sun shine gee whilikers persona, people here will also and love to, throw labels and names all while quoting what ever rules and regulations they find and call it some kind of code of conduct that one is not abiding by while they have the time to point out how they dont like what you say and call you names. it becomes an irony. But thankfully I dont let it bother me. I don’t have the time to play games with such people anymore.
 
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