Among Friends

[Marp]

The following is posted on the Welcome Get Started forum:

Controversial Topic Guideline Change

‎09-22-2016 11:12 AM

Controversial Topic Guideline Change

To keep an atmosphere in the community of fairness, discussion of religion will be prohibited as a controversial topic. Wishing or asking someone for “prayers” will be allowed as this is an expression of comfort. Religious or controversial signature lines will be deleted.

Thank you for your understanding. 

QVC Community Team

[Marp]

Controversial Topic Guideline Change

To keep an atmosphere in the community of fairness, discussion of religion will be prohibited as a controversial topic. Wishing or asking someone for “prayers” will be allowed as this is an expression of comfort. Religious or controversial signature lines will be deleted.

Thank you for your understanding. 

QVC Community Team

[Kachina624]

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@HeresLucy wrote:

Ok. Going with your argument that religion has no place on a shopping forum. How about these forums, that in my opinion, also have no place. 

Sports

TV and Movies

Book Club

Gamers

Pet Lovers

Mom to Mom

I'd be willing to bet there are 1000's of websites and 100's of facebook forums and pages where these folks can go and discuss their interests. 

I call it like I see it. Ridiculous, huh? 

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@HeresLucy  Are you unable to discern the difference between religion, which is very personal and involves a belief system, and the topics you listed?

[Juniebugz]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@SharkE wrote:

I wish they would put all these type of threads over here in Among Friends lump them all in together. We got them scattered thru all the forums.

Religious, personal day to day business, pictures of animals, etc.

They need to really enforce the title of the thread to just that and not allow

off topic stuff to take over.

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And therein lies one of the issues - religious discussion, cutting and pasting of religious messages and Bible verses, proselytizing, witnessing, whatever - injected into threads that had nothing to do with religion, and starting such threads in forums anywhere in the forums.

The actions of a relative few and the sense of entitlement of some, took things to the point where QVC made a decision. Did everyone who enjoyed the threads do this? No. But enough did that QVC apparently agreed/decided on this action. There more than likely would not have been as many complaints if any accommodation had been made by a few posters. But there are always a few for whom proving a point or being at the front of the confrontational  march is most important.

I don't feel QVC made this decision quickly or lightly. It took them months to a year to come to this action. 

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Good points @Moonchilde. Reading these protests I looked back over the older daily threads. Interesting observation:  appears most of the posters protesting the loudest never posted or even hearted on the daily threads. Hence it wasn't clear the threads garnered much support. Now after the fact they speak out. Too little too late imo.

[wildcat fan]

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@Juniebugz wrote:

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@SharkE wrote:

I wish they would put all these type of threads over here in Among Friends lump them all in together. We got them scattered thru all the forums.

Religious, personal day to day business, pictures of animals, etc.

They need to really enforce the title of the thread to just that and not allow

off topic stuff to take over.

---

And therein lies one of the issues - religious discussion, cutting and pasting of religious messages and Bible verses, proselytizing, witnessing, whatever - injected into threads that had nothing to do with religion, and starting such threads in forums anywhere in the forums.

The actions of a relative few and the sense of entitlement of some, took things to the point where QVC made a decision. Did everyone who enjoyed the threads do this? No. But enough did that QVC apparently agreed/decided on this action. There more than likely would not have been as many complaints if any accommodation had been made by a few posters. But there are always a few for whom proving a point or being at the front of the confrontational  march is most important.

I don't feel QVC made this decision quickly or lightly. It took them months to a year to come to this action. 

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Good points @Moonchilde. Reading these protests I looked back over the older daily threads. Interesting observation:  appears most of the posters protesting the loudest never posted or even hearted on the daily threads. Hence it wasn't clear the threads garnered much support. Now after the fact they speak out. Too little too late imo.

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@Juniebugz I've read every daily positive thread consistently for the past 7 months.  Just because I didn't post or heart each day doesn't mean I didn't read, pray for others, or find some comfort in what was posted there.  I did post and heart a few times in the past.  Perhaps if people had known the thread was in jeopardy, they would have posted or hearted more if that's what it takes to show people it was appreciated.

On another thread, someone mentioned that the issue is with reposting copyrighted material (such as parts of Mother Theresa's book or Jesus Calling). If that's the case, seems like the daily OP could have been adjusted to meet standards rather than just being told to stop altogether.  Again, I don't think they realized how many people just stopped by to read, but I guess they feel it won't affect their sales.

[Juniebugz]

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@wildcat fan wrote:

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@Juniebugz wrote:

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@SharkE wrote:

I wish they would put all these type of threads over here in Among Friends lump them all in together. We got them scattered thru all the forums.

Religious, personal day to day business, pictures of animals, etc.

They need to really enforce the title of the thread to just that and not allow

off topic stuff to take over.

---

And therein lies one of the issues - religious discussion, cutting and pasting of religious messages and Bible verses, proselytizing, witnessing, whatever - injected into threads that had nothing to do with religion, and starting such threads in forums anywhere in the forums.

The actions of a relative few and the sense of entitlement of some, took things to the point where QVC made a decision. Did everyone who enjoyed the threads do this? No. But enough did that QVC apparently agreed/decided on this action. There more than likely would not have been as many complaints if any accommodation had been made by a few posters. But there are always a few for whom proving a point or being at the front of the confrontational  march is most important.

I don't feel QVC made this decision quickly or lightly. It took them months to a year to come to this action. 

---

Good points @Moonchilde. Reading these protests I looked back over the older daily threads. Interesting observation:  appears most of the posters protesting the loudest never posted or even hearted on the daily threads. Hence it wasn't clear the threads garnered much support. Now after the fact they speak out. Too little too late imo.

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@Juniebugz I've read every daily positive thread consistently for the past 7 months.  Just because I didn't post or heart each day doesn't mean I didn't read, pray for others, or find some comfort in what was posted there.  I did post and heart a few times in the past.  Perhaps if people had known the thread was in jeopardy, they would have posted or hearted more if that's what it takes to show people it was appreciated.

On another thread, someone mentioned that the issue is with reposting copyrighted material (such as parts of Mother Theresa's book or Jesus Calling). If that's the case, seems like the daily OP could have been adjusted to meet standards rather than just being told to stop altogether.  Again, I don't think they realized how many people just stopped by to read, but I guess they feel it won't affect their sales.

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@wildcat fan Also good points and I understand. Just pointing out the support wasn't evident until after the fact and it could have been a factor in the final decision. I think posters did say the thread had been criticized prior so at least some felt it in jeopardy. Maybe the copyright violations pushed it over the edge? No idea what really happened, just posting a few thoughts. I'm not on either 'side' of the issue.

[chrystaltree]

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@makeup addict wrote:

ive read Gloriajean's thread was closed since its religious. As many others have said, there is nothing  in the standards that says we can't post about faith.

since you are removing threads that are deemed religious, you need to remove Kristne's blogs about the blessing of her adopted son, Dan Wheelers'  blogs about his late wife Cakes and their strong faith, especially the emotional entry about her going Home to God; Jennifer Coffeys Mantras, Samdra Bennet's blog about being Married by Dan Hughes (since he's dressed as a man of the cloth) and there are probably many more blogs if I wanted to keep digging. 

This is is not meant to be argumentative. I just want you to consider another perspective. I read those blogs and was especially moved by Dan Wheelers journey with his wife. I still read Lisa Mason's Facebook posts about their faith and how it's important to them.  It's also important to the people who post here as well. They were a nice safe place for people to post as are many threads on this forum. But people asking for prayers and sharing positive messages is needed. It is a part of us who want to be there for people and lift them up instead of tearing them down. 

You created a home for Gamers; maybe you can create a place for people of faith? 

Well, there isn't just one "faith'.  Is Qvc supposed to create multiple boards for the various "faiths"?  Should there also be a board for atheists?  I think Qvc was tolerant for a quite a while but as often happens in situations like this,  the sermonizing got out hand and led to complaints.  The web is big place, I'm sure there are many places where you can freely share you faith with others who are looking for something like that.  As for the blogs you mentioned, there's no comparison.  You know that.

[Noel7]

Part of the problem is that in the past QVC allowed some religious discussion on Among Friends.

I wouldn't blame the mods, we have very fair women moderators on the boards.

[HeresLucy]

[3suwm5]

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@Juniebugz wrote:

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@SharkE wrote:

I wish they would put all these type of threads over here in Among Friends lump them all in together. We got them scattered thru all the forums.

Religious, personal day to day business, pictures of animals, etc.

They need to really enforce the title of the thread to just that and not allow

off topic stuff to take over.

---

And therein lies one of the issues - religious discussion, cutting and pasting of religious messages and Bible verses, proselytizing, witnessing, whatever - injected into threads that had nothing to do with religion, and starting such threads in forums anywhere in the forums.

The actions of a relative few and the sense of entitlement of some, took things to the point where QVC made a decision. Did everyone who enjoyed the threads do this? No. But enough did that QVC apparently agreed/decided on this action. There more than likely would not have been as many complaints if any accommodation had been made by a few posters. But there are always a few for whom proving a point or being at the front of the confrontational  march is most important.

I don't feel QVC made this decision quickly or lightly. It took them months to a year to come to this action. 

---

Good points @Moonchilde. Reading these protests I looked back over the older daily threads. Interesting observation:  appears most of the posters protesting the loudest never posted or even hearted on the daily threads. Hence it wasn't clear the threads garnered much support. Now after the fact they speak out. Too little too late imo.

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Actually that post was on here something like 9 years and there were many that said they read it everyday, even if they didn't post on it.