xkcd

by **EvanED** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:25 am UTC

[This post is basically written in my mod voice, but I think it will be less annoying if I don't make it all red.]

Okay, so what should be the scope of this forum?

Originally I think it was intended for just computer related stuff -- editors, IDEs, the like. Later some people posted some other traditional holy wars, like Star Trek vs Star Wars. From there it sort of expanded more and more... Zerg vs Borg, video game villains, etc. Now we've got Hawking vs Higgs.

So where should the line be drawn for this forum? Should I be really strict and move non-computer stuff out? Should I do it retroactively, even for older threads, or just for new ones? (E.g. Star Wars vs Star Trek could go to TV/movies, Zerg vs Borg could go to gaming, Hawking vs Higgs could go to science.) Should I be pretty lenient and let anything nerdy survive in here? Somewhere in between?

by **JayDee** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:43 am UTC

If you are going to expand it beyond just the comp/sci stuff, I think the important thing to keep is that is was intended for those things that come up over and over and over again. That was the idea, wasn't it? To have a forum to put those arguments so they don't keep taking over other threads?

by **OOPMan** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:51 am UTC

Maybe keep the current Computer related Religious Wars and lazily push more general topics to a new General Religious Wars sub-forum...

by **codyhotel** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:07 pm UTC

Computers and Nerd stuff alike. Because we are nerds, and nerdy things are our religion

by **Dingbats** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:56 pm UTC

All nerdy things, definitely.

by **Amnesiasoft** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:06 pm UTC

I'd say more broad is okay. It'll leave us with a lot more things to ~~flame each other about~~ discuss than we would otherwise.

by **Yuffie** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 1:23 am UTC

Everything that ever existed, as long as it's a religious war.

by **Masuri** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 1:40 am UTC

Please keep this confined only to topics that inspire nerd-rage.

by **Berengal** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 4:12 am UTC

Masuri wrote:Please keep this confined only to topics that inspire nerd-rage.

Seconded.

by **Kirby54925** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 2:13 pm UTC

Nah, keep it computer-related. That way, I won't have to sift through useless posts to find posts that do matter to me. If people want to debate about Star Wars, Star Trek, or Hawking vs. Higgs, they can do that in their respective forums (Movies and TV Shows and Science).

by **ash.gti** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 5:55 am UTC

Kirby54925 wrote:Nah, keep it computer-related. That way, I won't have to sift through useless posts to find posts that do matter to me. If people want to debate about Star Wars, Star Trek, or Hawking vs. Higgs, they can do that in their respective forums (Movies and TV Shows and Science).

Second.

Star Wars vs Star Trek IMO is a movie debate and this forum is in the Analytical Engines category. If this forum was in General I'd still argue that stuff like Star Wars vs Star Trek be moved to the TV Shows/Movies category because that what it is. The point of the Religious Wars, as stated, was to have a place to put the nerd debates because they pop up so often (Emacs vs Vi), so I see no reason why it should contain stuff thats completely unrelated to the purpose of the forum (Hawking vs Higgs) when there already exists a forum that is dedicated to the topic.

by **enk** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:32 am UTC

ash.gti wrote:
Kirby54925 wrote:Nah, keep it computer-related. That way, I won't have to sift through useless posts to find posts that do matter to me. If people want to debate about Star Wars, Star Trek, or Hawking vs. Higgs, they can do that in their respective forums (Movies and TV Shows and Science).

Second.

Third.

Even this debate shouldn't be held here! [/joke]

by **Berengal** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:08 pm UTC

Jargon file
Seeing as that mentions Heinlein, which is sci-fi, I find grounds for admitting Star Wars vs Star Trek in this forum.
To generalize somewhat: I envision this forum to be about issues "hacker" type nerds feel strongly about. Somewhat off-topic compared to the other fora in the "Analytical engines" section, it's a place where opinions are allowed to a much greater degree than the other fora. In my opinion, the other fora in this section have much less room for personal opinions that the fora in the other sections (as seen by the not-too-infrequent requests to move discussions here), which is why this forum is needed.
As for which non-computer related topics should be allowed, I'm not quite sure where to draw the line. SW vs ST, definitely. Hawking vs Higgs, maybe. Warhol vs Pollock (if there is such a discussion), definitely not. Anyway, I think part of the issue is that frequenters of this section might not also frequent the other fora where certain discussions might be more appropriate. I know I would miss the SW vs ST discussion if it was in TV Shows and Movies, and besides, the discussion there would probably be more about which is the best fiction/best entertainment, not which has the biggest guns, strongest shields and fastest warp drives, which would be a completely different discussion from what we've had here. (I'd say the discussion here belongs equally much in the Science forum as it does in TV Shows and Movies).

by **Random832** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:21 pm UTC

ash.gti wrote:
Kirby54925 wrote:Nah, keep it computer-related. That way, I won't have to sift through useless posts to find posts that do matter to me. If people want to debate about Star Wars, Star Trek, or Hawking vs. Higgs, they can do that in their respective forums (Movies and TV Shows and Science).

Second.

Star Wars vs Star Trek IMO is a movie debate and this forum is in the Analytical Engines category. If this forum was in General I'd still argue that stuff like Star Wars vs Star Trek be moved to the TV Shows/Movies category because that what it is. The point of the Religious Wars, as stated, was to have a place to put the nerd debates because they pop up so often (Emacs vs Vi),

How is SWvST not equally a "pop up so often" nerd debate?

by **Endless Mike** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:54 pm UTC

Open it up or make a general religious wars forum. I don't see any reason why vi vs. emacs is going to pop up any less than Superman vs. Batman (Superman). The mods just merge any duplicate topics, anyway, so in theory, we'll eventually run out of computer topics.

by **ash.gti** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 6:14 pm UTC

Random832 wrote:How is SWvST not equally a "pop up so often" nerd debate?

Um... I guess that depends on the person really... I know I have language wars, text editor/IDE wars, vi vs emacs wars, etc. with all my programmer friends in real life on a regular basis, but we haven't ever (that I can recollect) argued about SWvST.

So... maybe I am not the one to ask where that belongs (partly because I don't even know what the debates revolve around, yes, i am a horrible nerd I know but I just never really got into either one of them enough to care about arguing)

Endless Mike wrote:Open it up or make a general religious wars forum. I don't see any reason why vi vs. emacs is going to pop up any less than Superman vs. Batman (Superman). The mods just merge any duplicate topics, anyway, so in theory, we'll eventually run out of computer topics.

If this was in the general area I wouldn't object at all to any topic going in here, but since it is in the Analytical Engine section I just feel we should stay on topic. Although, I guess it would be silly to put a Religious Wars in every category for those highly debatable topics that pop up in any category.

by **Random832** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 6:29 pm UTC

ash.gti wrote:
Random832 wrote:How is SWvST not equally a "pop up so often" nerd debate?

Um... I guess that depends on the person really... I know I have language wars, text editor/IDE wars, vi vs emacs wars, etc. with all my programmer friends in real life on a regular basis, but we haven't ever (that I can recollect) argued about SWvST.

So... maybe I am not the one to ask where that belongs (partly because I don't even know what the debates revolve around, yes, i am a horrible nerd I know but I just never really got into either one of them enough to care about arguing)

Well, a common variation in my experience is not abstract "which of SW or ST is better" but "who would win, star destroyer/death star/etc or enterprise/borg cube/etc"

by **ash.gti** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 6:39 pm UTC

Random832 wrote:Well, a common variation in my experience is not abstract "which of SW or ST is better" but "who would win, star destroyer/death star/etc or enterprise/borg cube/etc"

/off topic
For me, its more Iron Kingdoms Vs D&D or would a Warhammer 40k Space Marine squad win vs a Warmachine Bane Knight squad (okay, well those are pretty drastically different, but I think the topics we run into the most are still pretty nerdy) But I'd still put those under gaming

/shrug I think this is a pretty opinionated so... I am all for whatever the mod's decide :-P

by **TheMagicalTurtle** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:30 am UTC

Everything.

Look at the page. How many of the threads are related soley to computers? Do you want this subforum to be barren just for the sake of arbitrary organization?

by **Kirby54925** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:13 pm UTC

I dunno about you, but I see a whole BUNCH of topics that are computer-related. Looks to be in the majority too, and I wouldn't call a majority "barren."

by **enk** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:44 am UTC

Couldn't it at least be a requirement that nerdy rel wars not concerning analytical engines could be tagged (e.g. a prefix to the subject string) so I could easily skip them. Or put them in a subforum?

by **godrik** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:51 pm UTC

When i first saw "Religious Wars", i had read it like "Where to post your troll and flame in order not to post it elsewhere".
So i guess everything trolly enough should be accepted here.

by **Kirby54925** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 4:40 pm UTC

A subforum sounds good, enk. That way, I don't have to see the pointless posts about non-computer stuff. I mean seriously, this is the Analytical Engines section. Let's keep it on-topic.

by **JayDee** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 11:20 am UTC

Having a look at what threads are being started, there are plenty of plain x vs y threads along the lines of 'which is better' or 'who would win in a fight'. Most of them, I would have never thought to set the two 'gainst each other, and from the look of the threads plenty of the posters hadn't either. I still think Religious Wars should be for those arguments that have been going on for ever and ever (relatively. 'For ever' isn't all that long when we are talking about computer science after all.)

I noticed the 'Serenity crew vs Bebop crew' thread got moved out to the movies forum, but there have been a bunch more since.

by **EvanED** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:24 pm UTC

See here.

by **Jos** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:57 pm UTC

I'm in support of a new forum, with respective sub-forums! It seems better to collect all the crap threads (because it isn't really, REALLY trolling per sé)

by **Turtle_** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:50 am UTC

I like the idea of a subforum for other religious wars.

by **almightyze** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:59 am UTC

I'd like an expansion on this. Maybe go into philosophies. For example, Modernist v. Post-Modernist. That'd be fun.

by **thanksbastards** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:47 pm UTC

I simply think the religious wars is in the wrong catagory. I would like to see it a dumping ground for any and all arguments that are made from the heart, not the head (character vs character. show vs show) etc. Batman vs superman. The stuff that can't be resolved short of the the death of the opponent. I mean, hopefully the arguments will stay civil, but its not like they can be won.

did i make my point?

by **Paperchaser** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:55 am UTC

I simply think the religious wars is in the wrong catagory. I would like to see it a dumping ground for any and all arguments that are made from the heart, not the head (character vs character. show vs show) etc. Batman vs superman. The stuff that can't be resolved short of the the death of the opponent. I mean, hopefully the arguments will stay civil, but its not like they can be won.

did i make my point?

Batman.

And I agree.

by **Voice of reason** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:34 pm UTC

i completely missed the point of "Religious Wars" i took it literaly and got my topic blocked i wish this would have been here before i put my topic out. i think this should be its own category there are many ways to take the phrase "religious wars"

by **phlip** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:52 am UTC

Voice of reason wrote:i wish this would have been here before

This sticky has been here for about a year and a half. Is that not long enough for you?

Voice of reason wrote:i think this should be its own category

It's inside the Computers section... is it too hard to guess that it would be related to computers?

by **Voice of reason** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:41 pm UTC

i just made an account i am new to this thank you for being considerate... sarcasm

by **headprogrammingczar** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 9:46 pm UTC

And thanks for reading the rules before making threads.

by **Jhackulon** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 9:12 am UTC

Actually i think it should be broad. I need someone to argue over coilguns/railguns with (I'm a coilgun supporter)

by **Fosimu** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 7:14 pm UTC

The fun part about religious wars is the emotional attachment held to divergent views based on faith. Anything that shows this should be part of the scope.

by **CinnamonOne** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 12:40 am UTC

Well, the original relig. war was OS a vs OS b. But a classic was SW vs ST. Considering the huge difference of the two, it should be acceptable to fill in the gaps. Any clear comparison, that isn't stupid (ie. a v b, where b is F), should be allow, within reasonalbe limits. Moderator discretion is advised.

by **dontthrowpooh** » Sat May 14, 2011 4:30 am UTC

Just have to say a vote in cyber-space means more than a vote at a US election.

What should be the scope of religious wars? (Read post first)

Who is online