Neopets Religious I think NOT!

Amethyst · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 5:09 pm

If you get into the technicalities, Neo discussing Christmas (having christmas items, etc.) isn't really discussing religion. Sure, the holiday is recognised as the birth of Jesus Christ, but Neo tends to celebrate the comercial/family togetherness aspect of it rather than the religious. Easter is the same way. It's all about candy and (cy)bunnies, not the religion.

coming2atvnearu · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 5:20 pm

My problem is it being perfectly acceptable for some to say "I'm Wiccan!", "Wicca Chat Only" "I'm 3/4 Wiccan. Phear Me!" and so on. I think if they accept that, what is wrong with other religions? All or nothing, right?

TNT: We Freeze Everybody Equally!

I tried to make a similar topic with a different religion. Here is a magical excerpt from <a href="http://www.pinkpt.com/index.php?page=neopiathedarkerside">my article</a>

Quote:

I started a chat in EMS by the title of "Roman Catholic Chat! Only Catholics Allowed" Although I'm not Catholic, I'm sure they wouldn't mind me borrowing their faith for just a little while as I was not going to respond to anything that was said or do anything inflammatory. There it was. My own little rebellion against the Neopian establishment nuzzled right up against the chats "r there any vamps out there?" and "if you're a demon come here." I've never been so proud. . . .
Within 33 minutes, the location of the board was replaced by a message from The Neopets Team, or NeoBig Brother, as Neopia seemed to become increasingly Orwellian,

"Oops! This topic does not exist! Bummer, eh?

"

Well of course it doesn't exist! It was deleted! That blinking sideways happy face was mocking me like my class in grade 3 when I was changing during a fire drill and ran into the gym wearing only my Batman underwear.

I decided to do some research. I looked in the recesses and bowels of the EMS board to see what I could find. There I found a number of strangely similar chats that had survived much longer than 33 minutes. One particularly fascinating topic was entitled "*sips a graile of blood*Mmmmm...want some?Oh,chat?Okay,VAMPS ONLY!" This chat had remained untouched by the Team for two hours and fifteen minutes after it had first been created by gcfan56. Perhaps it simply was smaller and attracted less attention so TNT ignored it? No, it had 47 messages compared to the measly 7 in mine. But this was nothing compared to the granddaddy post of the night. A completely vampire dominated discussion called "r there any vamps out there?" by queen_egyptian_cobra. The chat had been present on the Neopets system for over 13 hours! It had over 220 posts and was still going strong. Besides starting out by identifying and inviting a single religious sect, it also contained some wonderfully uplifting banter such as:

queen_egyptian_cobra: i feel like killing someone. ---live evil
captin_squirrle: we all feel like killing someone ha ha ha ---The world of good SHALL FALL BEFOR EVIL !!!

Xil · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 5:26 pm

coming2atvnearu wrote:

My problem is it being perfectly acceptable for some to say "I'm Wiccan!", "Wicca Chat Only" "I'm 3/4 Wiccan. Phear Me!" and so on. I think if they accept that, what is wrong with other religions? All or nothing, right?

A few months ago, several large wicca guilds were shut down. I'm pretty sure they've evened out in that manner.

All that seem to be left of any religious form of guild are the small ones which aren't going anywhere pretty fast.

hyperflutterby · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 5:29 pm

I really take issue with those wiccan and vamp chats. I feel discriminated against when they aren't equally deleted. They can be very offensive, talking about gory things and lashing out against those that aren't wiccan or vamp. To me that is the most prevelant religious issue on Neopets right now. How hard can it be to delete those as quickly as the mock Catholic chat that was created? (I know they are more numerous, but if you consistantly delete them on a regular basis, they won't be created as much, especially if the "religious content warning" is sent out when it is deleted.)

skizzy the wonder lizard · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 5:43 pm

hyperflutterby wrote:

But we still need to recognize that Neopets is still growing and in reality, no one is forced to play. It is a free game and if a person has such gross problems with the religion issue going down to the point where they don't like the crosses even though they are an international symbol of medical aid (I have traveled a bit in Europe, Asia, and North America and in all those places, regardless of if I knew the language or not I knew that if I saw a cross (which as a side note is a symbol that predates Christianity by far) with equal sides (as the ones on Neopets are) I knew that that was a hospital, not a place of worship).

oh, i didn't really mean the medical crosses. those are international symbols. i meant the crosses i always come across in people's shops. if i put up a devil in my shop with "this is your LORD" underneath it, it wouldn't stay up for a day. but people do that all the time with the crosses.

and yes, neopets is free. but just because they're free doesn't mean they should be allowed to be hypocritical and discriminatory. it's the hypocrisy that really gets to me.

hyperflutterby · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 5:51 pm

skizzy the wonder lizard wrote:

oh, i didn't really mean the medical crosses. those are international symbols. i meant the crosses i always come across in people's shops. if i put up a devil in my shop with "this is your LORD" underneath it, it wouldn't stay up for a day. but people do that all the time with the crosses.

and yes, neopets is free. but just because they're free doesn't mean they should be allowed to be hypocritical and discriminatory. it's the hypocrisy that really gets to me.

Ok I understand what you're talking about now. I totally agree with you there. If I remember correctly, with the new shop coding you can't put in those images anymore (it involves off site linking most of the time) so at least more of those aren't being created. So it is older accounts that have those. They could go through deleting those, but that would take an incredible amount of man power to check and then manually delete those offending shops. I don't know of a reasonable solution to that, but I agree with you that those are probably a mild violation of the terms of service based on the religious issue.

Johnnydontgo · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 5:54 pm

*Walks back in*

Moogum wrote:

Pertaining to the Chistmas Paintbrush and Easter Neggs, if we want to argue about anything, it is how society has commercialized these two religious holidays to the extent that they can be celebrated by everyone, but then complains that they are discriminatory.

Exactly. Thank you.
*Walks back out*

everconfused · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 11:38 pm

Xil wrote:

coming2atvnearu wrote:

My problem is it being perfectly acceptable for some to say "I'm Wiccan!", "Wicca Chat Only" "I'm 3/4 Wiccan. Phear Me!" and so on. I think if they accept that, what is wrong with other religions? All or nothing, right?

A few months ago, several large wicca guilds were shut down. I'm pretty sure they've evened out in that manner.

All that seem to be left of any religious form of guild are the small ones which aren't going anywhere pretty fast.

Xil, yes, there have been a number of religious guilds shut down, regardless of the religion. I guess the ones left just haven't been seen -- yet.

I don't condone anyone posting a topic about any one belief, faith, religion (or any subject), if those topics/people posting are misleading, harassing, threatening, being abusive or inappropriate.

So I agree that if one type of belief is not allowed and those posts are deleted/warnings/freezings occur, then that should go for all such posts.

As far as the crosses in shops, I'm always surprised when I see one these days. I know there was a "purge" of clearing shops that had anything religious or political (like the 9/11 graphics) in them. I guess people are trying to sneak them back in and the places they're getting the graphics from either took out the linkback or are allowing people to remove it.

And I still don't think this person was warned and frozen for saying Happy whatever.

hynfaeries0 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 11:45 pm

Xil wrote:

coming2atvnearu wrote:

My problem is it being perfectly acceptable for some to say "I'm Wiccan!", "Wicca Chat Only" "I'm 3/4 Wiccan. Phear Me!" and so on. I think if they accept that, what is wrong with other religions? All or nothing, right?

A few months ago, several large wicca guilds were shut down. I'm pretty sure they've evened out in that manner.

All that seem to be left of any religious form of guild are the small ones which aren't going anywhere pretty fast.

there was a wiccan guild two years ago, it was huge! the biggest one.at that time I was just searching for a guild. that wiccan guild was giving "spells" and "charms" to people. when I revisited 1 year ago, they stopped completely. with the spells and charms.
Also, I've bet many of u have heard of the Angels and Avengers guild. it was the biggest guild with 55,000 people. that guild's creator was frozen for "cheating"

jxpop · **Posts:** 289 **Joined:** Sun Jul 25, 2004 7:09 pm

On a comment earlier about Christmas, as much as I hate to admit it (no religious denomination here), it has become rather commercialized... and though all other religions have days of celebration that are just as legitimate, Christmas was most likely the most recognizable due to such factors as Santa Clause and all the hype and propoganda associated with it (or rather, what the media and idiot businessmen in corner offices think it should be so as to make profit).

I'm sure the ban on the girl was merely cause she was caught... nothing really against Jewish people. Every now and then a NT member is liable to go on the boards and do their job (though granted the condition of those boards... they don't do it often). More than likely the wrong place at the wrong time.

Then again, it is kinda screwed up that all she did was say happy holiday, and she got frozen.

(Btw, if this was all cleared up in prev. replies, sorry... I read the first page and the last page... ^_^())

Maryann · **Posted:** Wed Jul 28, 2004 12:53 am

Heh... As a Jew, I'd just like to point out that Yom Kippur is not a day on which you wish people a happy holiday; rather, it is a sad day on which all Jews fast.

That aside, I agree with everyone else that I'd need both sides of the story to come up with an unbiased opinion.

TheClone · **Posts:** 250 **Joined:** Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:55 pm

Quote:

it is a sad day on which all Jews fast.

So, it would be offensive if someone said "Happy Yom Kippur"? Ding ding ding, that could be why she got the warning.

Edit: After doing some quick reading on it, it doesn't sound like it would be "offensive", just... kind of dumb to say it.

Morningstar · **Posted:** Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:29 pm

Johnnydontgo wrote:

*Walks back in*

Moogum wrote:

Pertaining to the Chistmas Paintbrush and Easter Neggs, if we want to argue about anything, it is how society has commercialized these two religious holidays to the extent that they can be celebrated by everyone, but then complains that they are discriminatory.

Exactly. Thank you.
*Walks back out*

But they aren't celebrated by everyone. None of my Jewish friends celebrate them--they don't have Christmas trees and Easter baskets. In fact, they feel that Christmas and Easter are crammed down their throats enough during those holidays--so why should they have to tolerate it on a site that is worldwide. Just because these relgious holidays have been commercialized, doesn't mean that they should be allowed to remain on the site while other religions are banned. In my opinion, to be fair, you either have to let everybody's religion in or no one's religion in.

Instead of things being Christmas and Easter, why not change it so that it is seasonal?

And, coming2atvnearyou, your Catholic topic was probably reported, which is why it was deleted while the wiccan topics weren't. I have an email from a staff member in which he says that there is simply not enough staff to monitor the millions of posts and, therefore, they have to rely on users to enforce the rules. So, my guess is that someone who wasn't Catholic didn't like what they saw and reported you. I bet most people don't even read the wiccan topics (and therefore, don't see what is being posted there) because they don't know what wiccan is.

hynfaeries0 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 29, 2004 12:00 am

Neopets has many European religions, but no eastern ones. Budhism, Hinduism?!? So I don't get what all the athist, christian, jews, and wiccans are complaining about. Neopets at least has some part of those religions. So don't complain. Jeezes

Azzie · **Posts:** 677 **Joined:** Thu Jun 03, 2004 9:38 am

well, if we get rid of the pbs, would we have to get rid of the 4 leaf clovers and good luck ankh ??

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