Re: [nukkad] Nukkad law

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  Counting in binary is just like counting in decimal,
     if you are all thumbs.
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'Shal was just wondering whether he has ever stopped any discussion on
religion.

I request the members to give honest feedback, Can this message of 'Shal
be considered as :-

1. a hard kick in the butts of those who participate in religious mails.

2. demeaning the religious discussions.

3. asking to refrain from religious discussion.

4. showing the way out to somewhere else for religious discussion or
altogether.

The problem is 'Shal might not see this even now, and next time when the
point is raised again, he will again write that he has not done any of
the above. 'Shal is not forcibly killing any topic. He is demotivating
people from participating in some topics.

As it was already said previously by MCG and some others, we are not
staging a comedy show to enthrall the spectators. We are discussing
things which are close to our life and heart. Those who are not finding
this as interesting as a striptease or a circus will leave the list and
join some other place where they find such entertainment.

Whenever any new member has joined and has become active, the list has
fully supported him/ her by responding to his threads. See how Anna has
carved a niche for herself in such a short time without ever
participating in any religious discussion. similarly there are some
other new ids also showing up often.

But what to do with lurkers, they won't write what they feel like
discussing. Then they leave the list if what other's discuss is not upto
their liking. It is a catch 22 situation.

How do we know that people are leaving list because of religious
discussions? Are they providing feedback? Did they also write what they
would have liked? Did they write why they did not start those topics
themselves.

Some indulgent person might say, that only 10 persons are active and
others are lurking. But those lurkers are sticking only because of
religious discussion which is also close to their heart, and they see
their views getting expressed by others without they coming to fore.

Your opinions will always get high consideration. Afterall, we are
discussing our heart's content to your pocket's contents.

-Rawat
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Harshal Chhaya wrote:

VSRawat wrote:
> 'Shal and other neutral, non-participating members, you are seeing only
> arguments and the above things because you are not participating.

I won't speak for others but you have it backwards. I don't participate
because I see only arguments and name-calling.

> Religious discussions are again blooming on nukkad. What harm these are 
> doing?

Let me list the ways:
* Such discussions quickly degenerate into name-calling and personal
insults.
* The same people are involved in suchh debates. For whatever
reasons, others do not want to participate. (Hence my refutation
that these discussions "prove" the religious nature of the majority
of the public.)
* These discussions change the tone of the list from a co-operative
group to an argumentative us-versus-them mentality.
* Such discussions also tend to generate a lot of emails and many
people really don't like to see dozens of emails from 2-3 people
on a topic that does not interest them.
* All of this results in people leaving the list because they don't
want to read email after email filled with the same tired re-hashed
opinions. 

The result is that all chances for constructive discussion is lost.
And the potential audience that could have benefited from any
real, open debate is reduced. 

 
> I did not like that thread about wine/ whisky. I deleted those mails.

Fair enough. But did you see angry outbursts in any of those messages?
Did the scotch lovers brand the beer drinkers as inferior? And does
anyone from that discussion try to veer completely unrelated messages
towards a discussion on alcohol? The answer to all these questions
is 'No'. 

Whereas if you ask the same questions for the debates on religion,
the answer is 'Yes'. 

I am flattered when I read that you view my opinion as one that
is prohibiting debate in general. I certainly dislike the nature 
of the religious discussions that occur on 'nukkad'. But you are 
giving me and 'nukkad' too much importance if you think that my 
opinion means that you can't ever discuss religion. There are
thousands of mailing lists where such discussions are welcome.
Please join one of those and discuss away. 

Yahoo! Groups has 1332 lists on Hindusim at:
http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Religion___Beliefs/Hinduism
and 8450 on Islam at:
http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Religion___Beliefs/Islam

And if none of them are suitable, you can always create a new 
mailing list, invite others and discuss religion to your heart's
content. 

- 'shal



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