An unfriendly welcome

[Ayesha]

I have been shadowing this forums for a few months now, and have finally decided to post today ( which is my birthday! ).
As a muslim woman, I am amazed at the insensitivity displayed by members of this forum. I am equally amazed at the slow and slacking steps that the mods have take to correct them. I see that you have finally seen fit to delete the posts made by one of your members who goes by the name of Muhammad. As a Turkish, Muslim, woman I am used to the three-tiered abuse and predjudice, but did not look for it on a online gaming community. I am really quite shocked. This is not what I hoped for on my birthday, but this does look like a big place with lots of friendly people and I'd like to be able to talk with you without the predujice that I have seen so far. I look forward and suprmely hope that that is posible.

Ayesha, your supreme darling ;)

[Caius]

wElcome to the org!

Happy bday BTW

[GeneralHankerchief]

Welcome to the .Org, Ayesha!

Rest assured, that individual is an anomaly in this community and has been dealt with. I think you'll find the rest of us more accomodating.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

warm welcomes Ayesha!

Welcome to the .Org, Ayesha!

Rest assured, that individual is an anomaly in this community and has been dealt with. I think you'll find the rest of us more accomodating.

oh yes, the ORG is a really friendly community compared to other forums.

[Ayesha]

I hope so :)
I like friendly people :)

Ayesha, your supreme darling ;)

[Caius]

You have came to the right place.
Again, be welcome, if u need to ask something, go ahead.We can help you

[Boyar Son]

Happy Birthday!

And welcome! here people will only flame once in a while( when debating that
Miami is gonna go all the way in 08 season! woo!)

Whos this Muhammed guy? sound interesting...

[Caius]

Whos this Muhammed guy? sound interesting...

*cough*was

[Boyar Son]

*cough*was

Was what? really?

[Xehh II]

That Mohammed guy was weird, said he learnt english as a third language, so obvious it was fake.

[bamff]

Welcome to the org, Ayesha, and best wishes for a great birthday!

As the others have said, please don't judge us all on the basis of one. I have always found this place to be full of people who are very friendly and very helpful.

Enjoy your stay here, stroll the forums, post away. It's heaps more fun when you join in!

[pevergreen]

Just dont let Vuk see you...

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org, Ayesha! While we're certainly not perfect, we do take a very dim view towards anyone who insults the religion of another member, and the staff does its level best to respond to any such incidents as swiftly as possible. Were you to speak with any of our other Muslim members (of whom we have a pretty good number, including Turks), I believe they would tell you the same. The Org has a reputation for being friendly & courteous towards all who visit here, and we like to keep it that way.

Oh, and Happy Birthday, btw!

Was what? really?

"Mohammed" was an alias being (ab)used by another member -- one who'd been misbehaving as of late. Rest assured he's been dealt with.

[Doug-Thompson]

As the others have said, please don't judge us all on the basis of one. I have always found this place to be full of people who are very friendly and very helpful.

That's true, no group should be judged by one member, but that one character was also a worst case. There have been other slights. Some were unintentional. Some were not.

The bottom line, as bamff said, is that most of us are very friendly and very helpful.

However, part of that friendliness is not being quick to take offense.

Please consider the following few lines as an example only. I'm not offended. However, consider how I could have reacted:

As a muslim woman, I am amazed at the insensitivity displayed by members of this forum.

You didn't say "some members." You said "members."

I'm a member.

When did I show insensitivity? Or am I guilty of complying in bigotry because I am a member of a forum that was "slow and slacking" in deleting the offensive posts?

That's the end of the example.

You see? Insults, if easily taken, are easily given even by those with the most righteous of causes and the best of intentions.

On the other hand, an excess of tolerance leads to never standing up to the insults, which is unacceptable.

These are simple things, but the simplest things are difficult to do.

[Ayesha]

Thank you all. :)
I hope to enjoy my stay and contribute as much as possible to the forums. I am really not good in anything, so I may not be able to contribute as much as I'd like.
It was the number of muslim members on this forum that got me interested in the begining. (and the outrage I witnessed earlier that promted me to register and post).
Don't worry, I will judge no one here by anything but their own actions. I only hope that you do the same for me. :) And Doug, that is not how I meant my comment. When I said members I was refering to specific members, not all members. I realize that you were only showing it as an example, but just in case you miss judge me, I thought I should clarify that.
You have all been very nice to me, and I'm sorry that I have not had a chance to post more today. Hopefully I will tomorow. :) I look forward to getting to know all of you.

Ayesha, your supreme darling ;)

P.S. What is a vuk? :P I'm afraid I didn't get that.

[Shahed]

Dogum gunun kutlu olsun!

[Ayesha]

Sorry, I understand.
I didn't realize that vuk was a username. What is bad about vuk? I searched in the member list and couldn't find anyone named vuk.
Thank you again for being so friendly all of you. I think I will change the name of the thread after how nice you have all been.
I have a question if it is ok. My signature wasn't showing before, so I typed it in by hand thinking it didn't work. But it works now. Did someone fix it? Thank you!

[Ayesha]

Dogum gunun kutlu olsun!

I'm sorry, I only speak English. What language is that? Is that Arabic? I do not speak Arabic, but I think that I could like to. :)

[Shahed]

It's HAPPY BIRTHDAY! in Turkish.

[Ayesha]

OH! Thank you!
I wish that my parents taught me both English and Turkish sometimes. It is so nice to know two lanuages. The way I see it is if you know twice the number of languages, your capacity to spread joy is increased two-fold!

[bamff]

It's HAPPY BIRTHDAY! in Turkish.

Very cool Sinan! I love learning useful phrases in other languages!

[Warmaster Horus]

I didn't realize that vuk was a username. What is bad about vuk? I searched in the member list and couldn't find anyone named vuk.

The fact that he isn't in the list anymore says it all.
Violate the ToS and you're done for, I should say...


On a lighter note, welcome and happy birthday!

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Welcome Ayesha!

And Happy Belated Birthday.

[Warluster]

Well Vuk is still here, you probably spelt it with a lower case v, not a V!
See;See?

And Happy Birthday!

I hope you enjoy the .Org!

[Warmaster Horus]

Ah, yes, I see.

You should then note the "Demoted" status qualification...

[Subedei]

Happy Birthday and have a nice stay here ....Don´t mind some unfriendly people, they tend to be everywhere, little buggers...but by far most of us are your regular guys & gals who are interested in history & gaming...amongst other things of course....so have fun....

[Andres]

Welcome Ayesha

And a belated happy birthday !

Enjoy your stay at the .Org

[Yun Dog]

Welcome Ayesha

Hope you enjoy your time here

As with all online communitys there are trolls here who hang around just to antagonise people because theyve nothing better to do

there is a ignore function in your user area where you can list peoples names that you dont want to ever read from again

certainly Vuk and some other notorious individual have been on mine for some time
check it out... its a useful tool for filtering out abusers and idiots, which are as common online as mosquitos in the tropics

As far as gaming community from what Ive seen at the other gaming forums I attend - this one is one of the best communities of good people and while, the moderators have more patients and tolerance than myself, sometimes people take advantage of this.

that said the timing of this turn of events arouses my scepticism.

Happy Birthday mine is recently gone on the 4th

[naut]

Welcome Ayesha! I'm sorry that you saw the acts of a rather immature individual and were offended by it.

A very Happy Birthday to you!

I hope you enjoy the .Org. For me this place is like a second family full of diversity and topics on almost anything.

And...

The way I see it is if you know twice the number of languages, your capacity to spread joy is increased two-fold!

Great way of putting it.

[Mithrandir]

Welcome "Ayesha". Seeing as this thread is drifting more and more off topic towards past events, it's closed.