atheistofftopic's Journal

To contact a moderator, please message dave_littler or message frickinmuck.

There are a number of communities on livejournal (most prominently atheism and atheist) which pertain specifically to discussions of atheist-specific concerns and matters.

This community is not one of them.

Rather, this community serves as something of an online social club, where people who may have nothing more in common than a disdain for or skepticism of all forms of religion and theology can gather and chat about whatever happens to be on their mind. Politics, film, books, history, economics, culture, philosophy... there is nothing which is off-topic here per se.

While this is an off-topic community, it is also still an atheist community. Posts should be of some relevance or interest to atheists. General socializing posts ("What is your favorite movie?", "If you could win $1,000,000, what would you do with it?") are fine, but posts of a personal nature (i.e. advice posts) should be restricted to those larger, life-altering issues wherein atheism/worldview is relevant (i.e. coming out to your parents, dealing with a death in the family, moving to a red state). Personal problems of a lesser nature, gossip, etc. are not appropriate here.

Why should or need such a community exist? It exists because all too often posts in the more formal communities are criticized for being off-topic, having little or nothing to do with atheism, but are still received as entertaining by the membership of the community. This community serves as an outlet for the posts which would otherwise be off-topic.

This having been said, there is something of a code of conduct, loose though it may be, which exists in order to keep things civil:

1) No theistic proselytizing.
I would like to live in a world where there's no need to spell out such a rule, but I am not so blind to my circumstances as to believe I live in such a world. Nevertheless, this is a simple one: If you're a member of any religion or worshiper of any god or gods, and for whatever reason you feel the need to post in this community, please keep it in your pants. We are not here to be preached to. There are other forums for that, and if you try that business here, you will find yourself very quickly banned.

2) Keep it civil, within reason.
While I expect and indeed even hope that spirited exchanges of ideas will take place here, do keep in mind that we're all here to relax and enjoy the virtual company of our peers, not to tear one anothers' throats out. While "adult" language is perfectly permissible, personal attacks and defamation is the realm of our intellectual lessers. Let's try not to fall to their vices. Serial offenders will be warned no more than three times before a ban is put in place.

3) Please use an lj-cut when making lengthy or image-heavy posts.
If you are unsure how to use an lj-cut, read the instructions here. Any images that aren't worksafe must be under an lj-cut and labeled NSFW.

4) Intro posts are not encouraged here.
If you feel the need to introduce yourself, do so at the beginning or end of a post which is otherwise something of general interest to the group.

5) Please, no obnoxious formatting
(For example, all caps, huge bold text, garish colors), and no 1337speak or txt talk.

6) Do not delete other people's comments.
If you feel someone has said something against the rules, please contact a moderator rather than trying to take matters into your own hands.

More guidelines to come as their necessity reveals itself...