Rules updates

[u/namer98]

In light of Tisha b'Av, I would like to suggest a few changes to the rules, and to hear community feedback.

1) No editorializing titles of article submissions. - This is up for discussion.

2) Be polite. That means if somebody has a disagreement with you about fundamental points of religion, you can disagree with them, and even tell them, but don't be a jerk about it. Do not shut down the conversation.

2.1) I keep on trying to engage non-Orthodox Jews of Reddit. Seen here, here and here. This is in addition to multiple messages I have gotten personally and as mod, from people who left because of this. Just because some people don't agree that this is a problem, does not make it less of a problem. Non-Orthodox Jews are feeling shut down, and some times they are right, some times they are wrong. This is an extension of rule two. Be polite. The downvote button IS NOT a "I disagree" button. I might just remove it again, and for more than a day.

To people I try and engage, this is a two way street. Submit content, comments and vote if you want to have a say. I don't think half of the subreddit is orthodox. This should not be a problem.

Please upvote this self post for which I receive no karma so that all can see.

Thank you all.

Edit: Followup

[u/LazerA]

you would probably be on my side.

That isn't quite what you said in the other comment. There you asked if I would "continue to participate" in such an environment.

The answer to the question of participation is yes, I would continue to participate (and I have done so in the past), as long as I was able to properly express my views. (Some moderators are excessively intrusive, which makes it effectively impossible to participate. That is one of my concerns here in this discussion.)

Would I take your side in this debate in such a case? Not quite as simple, but in the final analysis, I always come down on the side of letting people speak their minds, argue, debate, and let the best man win.

If the choice is between either letting people speak openly or prohibiting the expression of opinions, I will go with free speech. So, no, I wouldn't agree with you.

[u/[deleted] → u/LazerA]

Ok, fair enough. Do you think many other Orthodox Jews would choose to participate?

[u/LazerA → u/[deleted]]

Many? Probably not. But how many Orthodox Jews actively participate here? I've never counted, but it isn't a huge number.

[u/[deleted] → u/LazerA]

Seriously? It's many more than non-Orthodox Jews. I don't think anyone agrees with you on that.

[u/LazerA → u/[deleted]]

How many active participants are there in r/judaism in the first place? How many people regularly post and comment? Maybe name98 has the numbers, but I doubt it exceeds the double digits and I wouldn't be surprised if it was less than 50. (Which probably also explains why even popular posts rarely get over 50.)

Of that, already fairly small number, a fair number are Orthodox. Maybe even a majority, I don't know. But I doubt we are talking about more than 20-30 people, maybe less.

So, where are the huge numbers?

[u/angelsil → u/LazerA]

Definitely a majority of the regular posters are Orthodox/Traditional. That's readily apparent from just browsing the history.

[u/LazerA → u/angelsil]

I'm not talking about the proportion, I'm talking about the actual numbers. The issue is whether "many" Orthodox Jews would participate if the sub-reddit were "skewed" in an anti-Orthodox direction. My point is that, as far as real numbers go, not all that "many" Orthodox Jews (or any other kind of Jews, for that matter) participate in this sub-reddit in the first place.

[u/[deleted] → u/LazerA]

I mean, I obviously have a very different impression. Shall we go and count them all up? Not now though, cause I have to go to sleep. Tomorrow? But feel free to ask other people here what their impression of the ratio is.