I agree that censorship must be limited. However there is a general idea on what is "on point" for HSE. You may post your Qs on atheism, agnosticism. If there is an answer from Hinduism POV, expect to see it sooner or later. If the Q is merely meant to inflame , then yeah, expect it to be shut down. You are free to hold your opinion on "the lotus feet of the lord" just as those who believe in it are. Derision is not allowed.

"Derision is not allowed." – @moonstar2001 once you start censoring ill-defined thing like derision then the forum becomes subject to the whims and fancies of those with power.

1. Every user here has some power. 2. Derision is not ill-defined. Even if it were, the HSE community has a general accepted definition. We need to abide by the generally accepted rules and maintain some level of decorum. HSE is not a platform for prejudice promotion.

"HSE is not a platform for prejudice promotion."@moonstar2001 Prejudice is usually hard to prove. But one case - Keshav Srinivasan's anti-Shaiva prejudice is well-documented - but it doesn't look like anything will be done about it. Apart from cuss words and personal threats, it is hard to say what should be censored.

"Apart from cuss words and personal threats, it is hard to say what should be censored." I am generally of this opinion too .Though difficult there are ways to prove prejudice. Regardless, it is not difficult to spot an agenda in a post. So if the intention is to deride, it will be evident and will be shut down.

See, it seems communication gap with you. You can talk to us for more discussion on this topic. There are 3 active rooms of Hinduism SE. And also you can personally mail me, I have put my mail id on my profile.

"You can talk to us"@Rohit. Who is "us"?

but ALL politely worded questions/comments should be allowed---- all such posts are indeed allowed AFAIK.

us here are HSE users. There are 3 rooms - 1. Vedanta & Philosophy, 2- Agama & Tantra, 3- Hinduism.

@Rohit - I am also a user. I don't believe in groups/subgroups/cliques. As far as I am concerned, you only represent yourself.

I was just inviting you to talk to HSE users as it seems you have many issues. And these chat rooms are not groups, just rooms - nothing else.

@Rohit - I have no problems chatting - just that whatever "issues" you see are mutual. They are not caused by me.

pure atheism is common to all religions.. it's not like Hindu-atheist, or Muslim-atheist.. as long as you post similarly worded questions on christianity stackexchange or islam stackexchange, i think we'll all be satisfied that you have a scholarly bent towards atheism, and not just a anti-Hindu stance. I personally find the talk of 'people finding the talk of lotus feet of lord to be off-putting' to be off-putting, but i don't want/need to grin and bear it.

You might be interested in this post. Mods and several high rep users here seem to want to "guide" the rest of users in the direction of their personal tastes/philosophies. If you don't agree with orthodoxy, they tend to label it "derision", "offensive", "prejudice", "anti-Hindu" etc. to incriminate the OP. One particular mod in his answer has even threatened with action/suspension etc. Mods here seem to forget that it's the users that elect mods on the SE sites.

And most users here don't even understand the Be Nice policy. Instead of teaching other users to be more tolerant of genuine criticism I have seen mods apply the Be Nice policy with a bias against atheists and freethinkers. You can see this happening mostly in the comments section. They tend to think this is a Hindu website run by Hindu priests, acharyas or the Indian government etc and it's their right to defend Hindu ideas, Hindu scriptures etc and shun all criticism.

Also, check out Is name-calling and bigotry allowed on this site? which is another example of mods applying Be Nice policy to let other users deride scholars. This is the bias I'm talking about.

@sv - thats why I say that it should be a free for all - except for personal threats. If those in power think they can discern things like "derision" and take countermeasures like editing/deleting posts against it, then everything would come under some clique taking power and bullying everybody else. Even in a free for all, white males, or American white males usually form an unspoken alliance and take charge on the internet.

@SK "it should be a free for all - except for personal threats" - totally agree. But that doesn't work on this site. The mods and most users here don't owe their allegiance to the SE rules/platform. Hinduism comes first! Name-calling and alienating critics/scholars is allowed/promoted but you cannot speak low of Vishnu and Shiva ("because that's rude/offensive"). You might be interested in this excellent answer posted by Cody Gray on Meta.SE which is now deleted for obvious reasons. I doubt if the mods on this site have learnt any lessons from that!

@sv.1. The mods and most users here don't owe their allegiance to the SE rules/platform-- That can't be the case, otherwise one can easily go to main meta and complain like u did, but what was the outcome? Nobody agreed with u right?

@sv.2. Hinduism comes first!--- Now that should be more than obvious, coz even the name of the site is HSE and not SEH, so Hinduism is already coming first :). Most users of this site are primarily interested in Hinduism and not about SE. IMagine how some of the users mite have found out the existence of this site. Obviously they must have googled some Hindu terms and not some SE terms right?

@sv.3. You might be interested in this excellent answer posted by Cody Gray on Meta.SE which is now deleted for obvious reasons. I doubt if the mods on this site have learnt any lessons from that!--- You are just telling SK the half part of the story. If u are genuine, you should also tell him, that it was deleted by community Mods of Meta, who have nothing to do with Hindu sentiments. So, our site's Mods action w.r.t ur complaints are more than justified Isn't it? You should also tell him, even the Community Mods did not find ur grievances as genuine,

** and that's why they eventually deleted ur thread itself :)

It is generally a free for all. However, if you are fighting for the right to be derisive ,with the exception of specialty sites,show me any mainstream site that takes such a stance. Don't forget that there are children and minors who participate actively on HSE. Even if there weren't an expectation of decorum is not unreasonable. If you can question or challenge only in inflammatory terms, you cannot expect to be not called out.

@moonstar2001 - "inflammatory" is subjective. I find Keshav Srrinivasan's statements denigrating Shaiva puranas inflammatory but nothing seems to be getting done about it.

And that is why the community is revolting against his posts. Your point?

"community is revolting against his posts. Your point?" – @moonstar2001 My point is that the way the rules are set up cliques can form that can take control (like permanent members of the UNSC). Keshav Srinivasan belongs to a clique that seems to be powerful and very little can be done to penalize him.

Homo Sapiens are essentially tribal in nature. Forming cliques is inevitable. That said, we are more enlightened that "lesser" animals. So sooner or later, corrections will happen. The protests that are happening on meta I believe will result in a fairer set of rules and more objective moderation. I hope they do. Meanwhile, I encourage you to keep calling out bias if you see it. As long as it is found to have some validity, the community will react positively.

@Rickross "one can easily go to main meta and complain like u did, but what was the outcome? Nobody agreed with u right?" - Did you even read the link to deleted answer/post I linked? The MSE mod Cody Gray said the HSE mod was wrong in not taking any action on my flag. Another MSE mod, was in a really bad mood, apparently preparing dinner on a Friday night and reacted to a flag to take down my entire post on MSE. In a fit of rage, he even deleted my post on HSE too and then undeleted it covering his tracks. Talk about moderator abuse of power at the highest level!

@Rickross "Most users of this site are primarily interested in Hinduism and not about SE" - I have given link to this Christianity.SE meta post to you multiple times. You neither have the time nor patience to understand the underlying message of that post ("Brothers, we are not Hindus‼").

@Rickross "So, our site's Mods action w.r.t ur complaints are more than justified Isn't it?" - No it isn't justified. After I brought attention to the HSE post on MSE, the HSE mod changed his comment on the original post. The modified comment actually doesn't make any sense now. The HSE mods showed up on MSE and started defending their actions which of course did not work so they backed down. If you are REALLY interested in learning the truth we can discuss more in chat.

@sv So according to you everyone is abusing Mod's powers. I have read Shog's answer and the comments that were posted under it. There's no way u can prove that what you call as name-calling is really that. You will not get much support and eventually you did not get any either. Now, it's not easy that some one will be rude and abusive and still no actions will not be taken on him. Likewise, it can't be that too, that a Mod is abusing is powers and other users will sit back and take all those silently. Just see the kind of protests now flooding the Meta. :)

@sv Before u post ur next comment. Let me clarify my position with regards to ur initial thread on main and the subsequent complaint on metas. 1. I felt ur Q is genuine (on main). But some users may feel that you are trying to prove something with that and u have hidden motives. I think Ram thought like that. 2. destroyer's comment is harmless IMO. He is simply offering u suggestion. He also believed (as per me) that ur Q is a genuine one and he is offering u a genuine suggestion. He could not have thought that you will drag him to court for posting that :)

3. Ram's comment as per me is kind of redundant. It is also unnecessarily delving into someone's personal lives. But u should understand that some people here are extra-protective about their favorite Gods, their religion. And that is only but natural to expect. @sv

* overprotective or extra-sensitive.

@Rickross My MSE post did receive a lot of support, only until the HSE mods stepped in, and someone flagged to take down my post. The MSE mod deleted all comments under the post and only kept a couple that supports his line of thinking. Such selective deletion of comments happens here on HSE too if you are an observant user. Re: Ram's comment, mentioning that a scholar's wife is a British woman is offensive to all Britishers and all women. It has nothing to do with the scholarship of the scholar. Only a disturbed mind spews out insults like that to defame a person.

@Rickross "He could not have thought that you will drag him to court for posting that" - Every country has a Supreme Court for a reason. My MSE post was more of a clarification of the Be Nice policy itself. What's allowed and what's not allowed. You need to remember that HSE is still in beta, and participation on meta is not great. It's only a handful of users posting/voting all the time. It's easy to vote and pass a policy which goes against standard SE rules.

@sv the reason your meta post got any traction is because the good folks on meta misunderstood thedestroyer's unfortunate phrasing of BORI. He used "the bori people" ( a common /collective noun) instead of BORI (a proper noun referring to the research institute in question). Coincidentally there is a tribe called bori and Meta took the phrasing as a common noun used to refer to this tribe of people and perceived whatever insult you were claiming as an insult to this tribe. The tribe had NOTHING to do with either your question or your contention or anyone's inputs on it. 1/2

@sv A few answers though supported the views expressed on HSE meta - these being that it is not wrong to identify an ideology and that cultural biases do exist in people which shape their views on matters. You have not preserved screenshots of these answers. You are misrepresenting the whole thing for your own advantage. Not cool. 2/2

@moonstar "the good folks on meta misunderstood..." - that's just your assumption. A handful of users in a hurry misinterpreting someone's words doesn't equate to everyone falling into the same trap. Do you remember the response you got from Cody Gray: "Singling out a group and dismissing them as a whole by saying that they don't matter is rude. There are no ideological disagreements in that comment; just an insult. I can't make it any clearer than I already did." The HSE mod has modified his comment since my MSE post. Why didn't he change it as a result of my post on HSE?

@sv 1) "that's just your assumption." No its not. I myself gave clarification on the difference between the two. 2) Ideological differences between the two philosophies were mentioned. And I did not get a satisfactory answer from Cody Gray.

@moonstar 'A few answers though supported the views expressed on HSE meta' - Yes, there were. But they didn't receive many upvotes. Here's the link to the complete post. 'You are misrepresenting the whole thing for your own advantage' - No, I am not. I actually wanted to have an open discussion. Had the post been up for everyone to see with none of the comments deleted, it would have saved me a lot of time explaining. But now that's impossible. The mod didn't just close the post, he nuked it. He wanted to show who's the boss.

@moonstar "And I did not get a satisfactory answer from Cody Gray..." - there's a saying ... "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still." :P

@sv Whatever pleases you man.

@sv. and participation on meta is not great. It's only a handful of users posting/voting all the time. It's easy to vote and pass a policy which goes against standard SE rules. ---- Yes, that's true. But think to ponder for u is what happens when more and more people come on meta and participate. In that scenario who will be gaining more support - u or ur opponents? I think the majority of users who browse this site will always be against ur proposals? :D

sorry *thing not think :banghead:

@sv Regarding selective deletion of comments- You can always complain. I always do. Now, there are 3 Mods who are equally active. So, it's not like the earlier days when only one Mod was taking all the decisions. So, chances of a Mod abusing his powers now are less.

@sv BTW i agree with moonstar that the initial upvotes ur post on MSE received was due to some misunderstanding :D