What_Exit: perhaps you should put this on the mod mailing list to see what the consensus of mods is.
After mod discussion, thread is reopened against my better judgement. Rambling and Witnessing apparently is indistinguishable.
With all due respect you appear to be accusing a member of lying about their sexual orientation (and/or other parts of his personal identity), in ATMB. While you certainly have the right to do so, I don’t think it is appropriate to make such an accusation unless you are throwing official weight behind it, given the fact that you just banned a longtime member (with no prior warnings AFAIK) for trolling based on gross misrepresentation.
~Max
WE and others are pointing out that his posts are inconsistent from day to day. That is a fact easily demonstrated by just reading his posts. No one has made a direct accusation of lying; that’s on you.
Between the words “he was […] saying he is gay” and “he may not be gay”, it is implied that he may be lying.
~Max
The veracity of character is in question. Not specific to whether he is gay or not. I’m on record stating I believe he is a troll in fact.
The substance of my objection, is that I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to say such in ATMB unless you are doing so in an official capacity. Furthermore because trolling is a warnable and potentially insta-ban offense, I would expect any official accusation to be accompanied by at least a warning or other direct sanction.
(You are under no obligation to share my views, however.)
~Max
I do not share your view.
And if the majority of mods agreed he has been trolling the board, he would be gone. But that doesn’t change my view.
Well, FWIW, I think you were right to close it down. Mind you, I’ve also long held the belief that the “witnessing” loophole was often used as a flimsy excuse to permit all manner of nonsense, much of which ultimately did get closed down because it was essentially gibberish. I have yet to see a thread categorized as “witnessing” that served any useful purpose whatsoever.
Some of Liberal’s “modal ontological proof of God” threads were quite interesting dives into philosophy topics.
I actually said just this in my post. Glad the thread was reopened, even tho I have no desire to read it.
No kidding? But they don’t, so I don’t understand why you even bring it up.
I also don’t think you should be questioning whether he is gay or not. If he says he’s gay, he’s gay as far as this board is concerned. Believe it or not, all gay people aren’t a monolithic block. There are plenty of gay people that never come out, for reasons of their own.
I always thought they were boring. Seen one, seen them all. Diffetrent strokes, I guess.
I don’t believe I’ve seen those threads, but we’ve had a number of decent threads here about the existence of God that I would consider perfectly reasonable philosophical discussions that don’t fall under what seems to be meant here by “witnessing”. In fact there’s one going on in IMHO right now, "What’s the minimum-level miracle it would take you to convince you God exists?. Since “witnessing” is supposed to belong in GD, I assume this is not being regarded as such.
OTOH, here’s a good example of what I mean. This thread was started in GD a couple of years ago:
Infant genetal [sic] mutilation is a blood sacrifice to the demon Yahwe.
The OP of that thread is just the kind of incoherent rant that one might expect from such a title.
So what happens?
Within literally 50 minutes, a mod shows up, not to shut it down, but to defend it with this comment:
Guys, this is the very definition of witnessing. Hence it belongs here in Great Debates.
i.e.- “Stop flagging this OP – it’s allowed by the rules.”
To be fair, the mod was probably just doing his job enforcing the rules brought down by TPTB, but it’s always struck me as a peculiarity of this place that while we try to enforce reasonable standards of discourse, especially in GD, any kind of blithering nonsense is given a pass as long as it touches in some way on religion. No doubt there is some history here that I’m not aware of, but it seems like a real anomaly.
And of course, that particular thread eventually did get shut down – as virtually all “witnessing” threads eventually do – after painfully struggling on and being a blight on the board for two weeks.
The MOP parts were often repetitive, but they touched on such things as modal logics, theodicy, and other interesting things.
My initial instinct is that witnessing should be in IMHO or MPSIMS, really.
Same with me.
I’m a Christian so I think I’m more open to this than an atheist or someone who has no connection to or interest in religion (or despises it). But I don’t feel it belongs on the SDMB. Every time I see the bit in GD that says “(if you feel you must) witnessing”, I wonder, “Why?!” Implied in the rules is the idea that people don’t want this sort of thing, but they have to allow it for some unexplained reason.
The Straight Dope: Fighting ignorance, but you can babble any kind of nonsense you want if you wrap it in religion, because… 
I know a woman who is a vegetarian. She occasionally has a nice, juicy, hamburger.
That’s the conclusion I’m coming to. I suspect the lines between the forums were slightly different when it was decided that witnessing belongs in GD. I feel like it’s a better fit for IMHO.
I would prefer to move it from GD to IMHO or better yet MPSIMS. The rambling nature wouldn’t bother me as much. Especially in MPSIMS.
If it is a thread religious in nature, but actually a well constructed Debate, it would be suitable for GD.
If it is just some rambling blog like post it should either not be allowed or be in MPSIMS.
I can see some in between threads that might be more suitable for IMHO. I think we have one or two currently. They’re borderline witnessing but mostly just sharing opinions on religion.
In my mind, “witnessing” includes an element of trying to persuade others that you have found the way. And I think that belongs in IMHO. If, instead, you want to talk about how joining the Order of the Purple Saints has affected you, for good or for ill, but due to things specific to your life and circumstances, that seems like it should belong in MPSIMS.
That sounds good, mostly I would like to do away with the specific and special verbiage about witnessing. Religion is a subject that can be a Great Debate or IMHO fodder or an MPSIMS conversation.
I still don’t like the thread that started this as a GD thread. I think it violated the new rules of GD. I also think it violates the line the SDMB is not your blog. But I guess, Tradition! has it as GD material no matter how much it is not a GD OP by current standards.