Have you tired reversing the polarity of the neutron flow?

Not crap. Just beta software ridden with privacy problems. But reading about Microsoft's backing of CISA that gets much much clearer.

Oh, nvm. Go on... *the sound of opening the popcorn bag*

I think in absence of moderation that's completely inevitable. I've seen fora where they remained of high quality for many years, and I've only seen that in terms of places where the owners actually moderate the place.

I probably wouldn't be as bothered by this if the other sites I used to like to post on hadn't also changed drastically. Watching as Mr. Gog pissed away the community here has been rather depressing.
Not really, I'd personally consider it rather heartwarming, personally.

I don't think we need this level of civility and discourse all the time, but it's nice to see that it still exists, even if it is technically OT.
Frequency is velocity divided by wave length. Or 1 divided by the period if it's easier. :-P

EDIT: Wow, look how many rep points people took while I was gone. I don't care about rep points, but it does kind of reinforce my whole point that there's some extremely immature people on the forum.

First, religious discrimination is illegal in the US, so firing someone for being a Muslim or a free thinker is illegal.

Second, an adult person who identifies as a she is a woman, period. She is not a man.

Finally, can you identify a case (and post a link to a news article) where a woman was raped by a man who was pretending to be gay?

So I can out myself as a Vorlon without being locked away as a mental case now? Great!
Where can I change my papers accordingly? Some bureaucrat declared me as human and I'm deeply insulted by this.

That's true, but you get people complaining about being fired for refusing to do their jobs. I'm OK with that to an extent, religiously motivated action should only be protected in so far as it doesn't harm others.

We're not quite there yet. Trans-men and trans-women are in a similar position to where bisexuals were a while back. I think we'll get to the point where we go by a person's self identity, but there's still a lot of institutions and things like restrooms where it doesn't yet work.

Personally, I'd like to see more unisex restrooms anyways as it's a good compromise for folks that aren't really comfortable with people that are apparently of a different sex in their restroom. It's also a useful solution to dealing with potty parity issues.

I'm curious about that as well. I've heard of cases of gay men being raped for pretending they were straight; Or just being gay, but I've never heard of a straight man pretending to be gay in order to rape a woman.

It wouldn't surprise me if it has happened, virtually everything does happen eventually, but I've never heard of that myself.
Considering that I have to file paperwork to change my name, I doubt that society will ever let people self-identify without having to file forms in triplicate and updating the records.

But, I do think it's inevitable that we'll let people file the papers based upon their assertion about what their gender is eventually.
It's not what I need, it's what the forum needs. Personally, I'll just go elsewhere if it keeps deteriorating. But, having dropped several other fora recently because of similar issues, I'd rather not give up on this one as well.

I see people saying that we don't need moderation, but the failure of so many people in this forum to adhere to even the extremely lax rules suggests that we do need some moderation. Once a forum gets a reputation for letting bullies roam free and for the rules to be unenforced, it's very difficult to keep people respecting each other.

What we need is not moderation, but an Ignore function, so if you don't like what someone posts, just ignore her.

The problem is that this doesn't work in the case where some of the user's posts are useful and informative (and hence posts you want to read), but other posts by the same user at best don't contribute and are at worst offensive.

In my experience if you start with a little forum moderation, you end up with a lot of forum moderation. I know, I've been one before. That ban hammer power is a mighty thing.

While this forum is a little bit like a college dorm room occasionally, I'd still pick barely contained anarchy to fascist precision and order. I've seen a few forums that eliminated politics and religion and other controversial topics from discussion. Some of them don't exist any more from lack of participation, and I know of another that still functions, but with threadbare interest and the posters don't mingle much with each other at all - topics are very formal and humorless.

If the choice has to boil down to Bartertown chaos or machine-like control, I'll go with Bartertown every time. And who run Bartertown?

It is easy to Google it, but here you go
https://www.google.com/search?q=man+pretend+gay+rape&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

It is one thing for a person to identify with whatever the person want. It is another to ask others to think like him / her.

Look I can identify as GOD. You puny humans are just my creation and should obey my every whim.
If I keep to myself and don't bother other people, others won't bother me because it is my freedom to think whatever I want.

If I keep preaching endlessly to other people and keep stalking them to worship me, they will call the police for harassment.

It is people freedom to do whatever they want, as long as their freedom does not interfere with others freedom, that is where the line is drawn.

Master-Blaster.

Break a deal, face the wheel.

Gulag!

The question is: Would you be distracted from street straffic by public nudity? Pragmatic reasons come into play here too although those don't seem to matter as much as purely emotional ones and current agendas that are based on more or less religious ideologies.

Dissatisfaction with such things may be a good sign because it does mean that bigger problems have been reduced at least a bit when there's time for it, well but it's also a common way to distract from the real (often connected) problems by now.
The main problem are people trying to force their views onto others though, as has been mentioned in this thread already. It should be ok for me to see myself as a Vorlon, but I shouldn't be able to force everyone else to accept my Vorlonity as a fact by thought police and manipulated papers regarding my currently inferior and unfitting biology. I know that when it comes to the crunch, some human medic has to handle this body the correct way as it is and I probably should avoid confusion when it comes to the mating season and reproductive activities.

Oh yes, I'm always pissed (pun not intended) for not having as many cabins as the girls do. I really don't want to stand beside strangers exposed penises, thank you!

Here is something of note:

There is no scientific evidence that transracial or transspecies identities have any biological basis. (This includes, for example, identifying as a deity.)

There is, however, evidence that transgender identities have a biological basis. In particular, evidence shows that the brains of transgender people resemble those of their identified gender in certain respects.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20032-transsexual-differences-caught-on-brain-scan/

I should also point out that the suicide rate is really high (41% is a figure I have seen) in transgender people who don't transition. See, for example, the case of Leelah Alcorn:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_of_Leelah_Alcorn&oldid=682605910

Also, there is evidence of cisgender people experiencing gender dysphoria when presenting as the opposite gender for too long. Norah Vincent (a cisgender woman who presented as male for an extended period of time to get material for a book) had to stop presenting male because of such issues. David Reimer, who was forced to present female at the advice of the doctor who botched his circumcism, ended up identifying as male and ended up committing suicide.