What are you doing here?

SGI or No SGI? [/Howie]

When this new BuddhaJones started, talk of SGI was off-limits. Even called it the bowling club. People couldn't resist talking about it, so that opened the floodgates to people like mroaks, and all he does is trash SGI. I say we go back to the original policy. I'm sorry if my post upset people. I just thought it was amusing and wasn't looking for a reaction other than "hmmm, small group dynamics just like in SGI." If "moderating myself" is censoring my own speech, well, no thanks.

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by: Cultmember @ Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 06:27:48 AM UTC

No vote

I don't care for any of your options, so I won't vote. But, I'll share some thoughts with you.

You have a nice collection of links on the right hand side, including my own humble blog, thank you, and I use Buddha Jones kind of as a hub to go to some of the sites I like.

I just get very irritated with the abundance of crass, smart alec remarks and insults on the other side, and as a Buddhist, I object to that sort of behavior because it is completely against the spirit of Buddhist dialogue. I know this is not unique to the Nichiren online community, but it seems to be the salient characteristic.

What I liked about the old Buddha Jones was the irreverent humor. I'm tempted to suggest you bring back more of the humor, the name Buddha Jones sort of leans in that direction anyway, but online humor is a tricky thing. I found out the hard way when I was bumped from a forum when my idea of dry humor offended the owner of the site.

No one's perfect, least of all me. Anyone can go too far on occasion. However, mature adults should know when to quit and when it's way too far.

So I like one half of Buddha Jones and not so crazy about the other half. I don't know what you should with but I suppose you should do something because it doesn't seem to be working out too well.

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by: David @ Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 08:47:20 AM UTC

For good or ill

This website is a reflection of the online Nichiren community. For good or ill. There is no editorial board to pick and choose what items are posted.

No one has ever been blocked from posting items that laud or promote SGI. I grant you, if anyone did, he or she would be exposing his or her views to public criticism. Nonetheless, SGI members now and always have as much latitude to post here as any other person.

The underlying spirit of this board is to expose our thoughts, beliefs and opinions to public comment and even criticism. Without this spirit, there would be no need for this website's existence.

I agree that mroaks tends to harp on SGI. However, he usually (perhaps always?) does it in the context of citing facts such as news reports. Why, then, do the would-be defenders of SGI respond by sniping at the messenger, as it were? Why don't they make a counter-argument, or correct mroaks if his facts are wrong?

Mroaks is exposing his views to public scrutiny, whether you agree with him or not. You have the opportunity to state why you agree with him or not, yet the standard procedure seems to be to insult him. If you knew him, you would know that there's no point in insulting him. He has a thick skin. Perhaps instead you should try to advance an argument to refute him.

I favor an environment of no editorial moderation. Unless comments are far, far over the line of decency, I believe that they should be allowed to stand, and others should be allowed to respond to them. Readers should be allowed to see the ugliness of the Nichiren community, for there is deep ugliness within it. We should not try to hide it or pretend that it does not exist. We must deal with it. We can't work constructively with what we refuse to see.

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by: auntie @ Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 20:19:12 PM UTC

No refudiation

I have no interest in refuting mroaks. I wonder at his obssessiveness and living in the past. If he can't see how incredibly boring it all is, that's his problem.

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by: Cultmember @ Wed Jul 21, 2010 at 21:26:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

there's no room for arguments, there's no argument at all

I don't understand how free inquiry and debate are not buddhist principles. Have you ever considered that if you can't stand to see people argue the problem might be with you?

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by: clown hidden @ Thu Jul 22, 2010 at 14:28:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well said, clown

A pathological avoidance of anything negative reminds me of a certain bowling club...  

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by: Cultmember @ Thu Jul 22, 2010 at 17:30:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Moderation

Meh. I'm not voting either. If you want moderation, you need to find someone who wants to babysit this site. I can't think of anyone who has time to do it.

Should the site stay the way it is? I hope not. I don't think it's so bad...but we Nichiren Buddhists have set the website-quality bar very low.

I'd like to see more voices and more points of view represented here. I imagine that when "the regulars" get into arcane or petty back-and-forth disputes it might have a chilling effect on new participants.

Still, I wouldn't say that the arguments need to be moderated. The way the comments are structured with indentation, you can scroll down through a diary and see if two people are going at it. I usually just skim or skip those comments. I imagine that other readers do the same.

IMHO, the most effective commenters are the ones who make their points and then step aside. It's wearying when the comments devolve into defensive bickering.

Sometimes participants here can be blunt. I prefer when they're thoughtful and blunt, but blunt works for me. I think it takes a certain amount of courage to duck into some of these discussions and post a comment. So I think everyone here should get a little gold star just for showing up.

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by: deardenver @ Thu Jul 22, 2010 at 20:23:31 PM UTC