Is there anything we can do to make this forum more secure or nice?

[Wonky Badger]

If you have any ideas, let me know. Please feel free to open your own topics in the suggestion box.

[humanitas]

How do we prevent hackers from happening here?

[dharmagoat]

Simple really... kind, fair, and open moderation. This is quite possible to achieve, but requires moderators that value these qualities above all else.

It is also important that moderators don't cross the line to become "Dharma police", enforcing a too-narrow interpretation of what constitutes "authentic Buddhism".  

[Wonky Badger]

We'll have to learn to live with the troublemakers. If they play by the rules, they can stay. Otherwise they're out. I haven't really checked what restrictions you can set for an individual user, except for deletion, but I will check it out.

I agree that moderation should be kind, fair and open. We need moderators that can moderate according to the rules we all agree on, without mixing personal opinions and beliefs into their moderations. And above all; openess! No secrecy and "white lies" like at e-sangha.

[humanitas]

Moderation, I agree, needs to be first and foremost right speech which means lots and lots of patience and tolerance especially towards views that are different.  I would incorporate the 8-fold path into the posting rules

Moderators who value the discussion and its participants would seem to me the most appropriate.  You don't have to have a degree to know how to be polite!

Maybe this is the wrong setting to ask this question, and if it is I apologize for it.  Are we regulating posting from members of known sects/cults, do we care or have any idea of how this moderation interacts with those groups that are known to be "seeking recruits?"  It's a bit of a hairy topic for sure, but one that needs to be addressed as to whether this board will regulate or not. By regulation I do NOT mean censorship.  Just something for a new board (with people not looking for trouble) to think about. 

[dharmagoat]

Are we regulating posting from members of known sects/cults, do we care or have any idea of how this moderation interacts with those groups that are known to be "seeking recruits?"  

Ogyen, I received a similar inquiry from another member earlier today.

How these groups are treated here is ultimately the decision of the administration (i.e. Wonky), but in the interim I am allowing open discussion of all controversial groups, teachers and teachings, provided that a reasonable degree of harmony is maintained among members. However, I expect that any kind of overt recruitment by any group will not be permitted, as this would be a misuse of this forum.

[Wonky Badger]

My hope is that all buddhists could unite here, showing mutual respect. This dream might be naive. I don't know.

Deciding on the forum rules should be a priority. The eightfold path would be a very good base for this. I guess we'd have to set up a rule against overt recruiting, since minors are allowed here and vulnerable persons might come here to seek refuge.

There is always the problem of where to draw the line. If a Theravada person tells a Mahayana person why he chose Theravada over Mahayana, that would probably be seen as OK, but if a person from one of these sects or cults would do the same, it would probably be seen as recruiting.

Would it be an idea to set up a board for "controversial" groups so that people are aware of their status, or would that be seen as offending? Or should we set up a subforum with information on why certain groups are viewed as sects/cults. I guess we'll have to try to find the middle way here.

[humanitas]

My hope is that all buddhists could unite here, showing mutual respect. This dream might be naive. I don't know.

Deciding on the forum rules should be a priority. The eightfold path would be a very good base for this. I guess we'd have to set up a rule against overt recruiting, since minors are allowed here and vulnerable persons might come here to seek refuge.

There is always the problem of where to draw the line. If a Theravada person tells a Mahayana person why he chose Theravada over Mahayana, that would probably be seen as OK, but if a person from one of these sects or cults would do the same, it would probably be seen as recruiting.

Would it be an idea to set up a board for "controversial" groups so that people are aware of their status, or would that be seen as offending? Or should we set up a subforum with information on why certain groups are viewed as sects/cults. I guess we'll have to try to find the middle way here.

Wonky, I don't think it's a naive dream, I think it's simply a great ideal.  The reality is we are going to meet some difficult situations where we have to practice the best and most skillful judgment we have about how to handle particular scenarios.  

The idea of setting up a controversial board may not be a bad idea as it will openly allow controversial subjects to be discussed so that they don't bleed over into other forums.  At least if we as moderators can move posts to a subforum that is known to all to cover difficult and controversial matters, it's an "enter at your own risk" kind of scenario.  I'm an activist for speaking against cult-influence as I'm a cult-survivor myself, but regardless, I don't feel that people who are in cults need to be penalized for it.  If anything, a space where controversy is ok might deflect unnecessary conflict on other boards instead of outright banning someone because they expressed a controversial opinion...

The one thing I don't agree with is shutting people out because they might belong to a group that is harmful to its members.  People are just people, no matter what group they belong to, they are also suffering just like everyone else.  I motion for a space where everyone knows "Enter at your own risk" and is a safe space for these kinds of topics to be discussed.  I suspect we'd have lots of flames and quite often, but in a way, if it's contained, people who want to participate in difficult topics can as well.  It's not our place to police what people want to talk about, simply ensure that no harm is coming to our members because of our board and that if difficult topics emerge, we can put them in this "Enter at your own risk" controversial subforum.    Then again, I'm very liberal and don't particularly feel good about limiting members simply because they belong to a group that is a cult.  Even those members have good intentions, the problem is that their groups' policies are often aggressive.  In this sense, if we did something like this, we'd have a much more of a "wild west" compared to esangha that allows for these kinds of discussions, and those who don't want to participate, just don't go to that forum...?  I'd be willing to also help moderate a forum like that having extensive experience with cult-mentality.

We could even give it a name like "Danger Zone -Topics that normally get you banned"  and describe in detail, this is a place where controversy is allowed, members of known cults might post here, then make a sticky post where we have guidelines for the posting and that the topics covered would not be allowed most places, etc etc, we take no responsibility for views expressed here...  the only way someone can get banned is by openly breaking forum rules (spam, personal attacks, etc).  But in this forum as long as discussions are kept civil, any view can be discussed.  People can choose to read or not, enter at your own discretion and be at least 13?  

Dunno, just brainstorming...What do you all think?  

[WonderlandAlli]

In trying to write about things involving Sanskrit or Tibetan (or Chinese rarely) I find it awkward to not be able to represent the graphic characters used in the languages and their representations.

 :-[

oh...wait... I was going to say it would be good to be able to insert graphics with the words in script but I just found an icon for "insert a picture".
I will try that to see if it works.
Sorry.
(I'll come back if it doesn't work.)

******************************
I tried insert of a GIF image of the Sanskrit Alphabet, and it didn't work.

Not sure which characters you need but consult http://charlie.balch.org/asp/ascii.asp it may help, you would hold down alt and type the code on the number pad (not the number bar).

[Wonky Badger]

今日はみんなさん！

At least Japanese seems to be working, so Chinese should also work. I'm not familiar with how Tibetan and Sanskrit is displayed, but I will look into it.

EDIT:

I installed Tibetan script on my laptop just by adding it in the language bar (Vista). It seems to be working:

བ་སགལད་བདགལབ་སགལབ་ཆིོེ་བལདགབ་ལགདཀ་སད་ཀབགལསའཀ་ཆེིཀ་ོཆིེཀ་ (I just hammered on the keys as I wouldn't have the slightest idea about how to actually write something comprehensible in Tibetan).

I think Sanskrit is working as well:
तेकिरतोेसमतैािरैारिगदरिहीिरदकतिप्लेकत्सेकतिलस्ु्कत

Kalachakra, was there some specific solution you would need?

[humanitas]

the img link  in the post-reply view is in fact for JPGs already hosted online.  For example if you had all those pics hosted at photobucket.com, you could simply insert the img url and that's how that works as you've already figured out.

[Wonky Badger]

Also, if you click "Additional Options..." there is a possibility to attach pictures uploaded from your computer, but there are some limitations by default. If there is a need, I can change the attachment settings a bit, but I can't change them too much as large/many attachments might affect loading time.

[David]

Is it possible to have an "ignore" function, where if I find someone offensive, rather than create a fuss over it, I just hit "ignore" and no longer see anything they post?

[humanitas]

Now THAT would be a good feature... but I don't know of one in this system.  Wonky?

[thornbush]

To the ever kind and patient Admin/Mod,

May I suggest something?

I noticed there's a 'Library Forum' somewhere near the bottom under 'Academy' with its various subs like :  "Beginner's Buddhism Library, General Buddhism Library, Mahayana Buddhism Library, Theravada Buddhism Library, Tibetan Buddhism Library"

Is it possible that all of the above be merged with their respective Forums and made into a permanent/sticky link where it is accessible and visible to all the moment they enter that Forum for resources and reference?
E.g In the Mahayana Buddhism Forum, the moment one goes in, one can see 'Mahayana Buddhism Library' immediately as a sticky/permanent immovable topic/thread for instant viewing and accessibility instead of having to enter another Forum just to get links on the same concern?

If not, then I will move my 'Links/Resources' threads in Theravada/Mahayana to the Library Forum then?

Am I making sense?  Thank you for reading  8)