Prologue:

For the longest time, Christian IRC channels and networks have been targets for individuals looking to become power-hungry by getting onto staff, for dirty old men to pick up gullible teenage (or even pre-teen) girls (or boys) for a dirty evening of dirtiness, for annoying losers with too much time looking for an argument, or merely looking to annoy as many people as possible. They have been sought by people legitimately looking for help, for spiritual guidance, for a replacement to a real church with physical fellow-shipping, whether that be for lack of acceptance in their church, lack of ability to go to a church (e.g. physical and/or mental disabilities), or laziness.

Personally, I don’t feel the Christian IRC community (or the church as a whole) takes all of these seriously enough, nor does it allow for open discussion of certain topics deemed inappropriate for whatever reason. I believe the Christian Internet Community as a whole needs to work together more to promote our God in a positive manner, without the unnecessary bad-press created by negligence, by arrogance, by meanness, by downright idiocy and stupidity.

Not that I like telling the world how to change, in this post I will outline how and why I feel the Christian Community on the Internet needs to change, with a strong focus towards the IRC community. To the owners, to the operators, to the users, and to the attackers and disrupters, this is my letter to you all.

Dear Christian Internet Chat and Discussion Group Users,

I am writing this letter to address some concerns I have about the way many of us act in our chatrooms, and on our forums. I focus in this writing on IRC chat rooms in particular, but much of what I say will apply comfortably to other mediums also. There are things throughout for everyone, but I’ll head up sections where you need to focus.

Users (Part one)

Firstly, to the users of these services. When someone enters the room, and says something you disagree with, they are quite likely trying to cause an argument. This is amplified if the subject being raised is related to homosexuality, abortion, sex-outside-of-marriage, politics, or another similarly controversial topic. When this happens, your best defense is to either move the discussion to an appropriate location, or simply ignore it. In a lot of cases, these people are possibly better versed in the bible than yourselves, so arguing is not a good plan. It’s also generally against the rules in welcome-type channels where these tend to begin.

Remember, users, rules exist for a reason. Whether you understand them or not, they are there for the protection of all concerned. Before you use a service, read the rules. Make sure you understand what you can and can’t do, and don’t complain when you break the rules and get punished for it. Don’t argue with an ops decision – it will likely get you banned. If you have a problem with the network, use the proper channels. Many networks now have feedback forms. I suggest you be constructive rather than blatantly critical. Think “I didn’t appreciate the way [suchandsuchaperson] acted today, I believe it could have been handled better. If it were me, I would suggest …” – and not “YOUR NETWORK SUCKS.”

Operators/Moderators

Secondly, to the operators and moderators of the chat networks: Be fair. Don’t let people get away with things merely because they are regulars, if you would punish new people for it. At the same time, don’t akill/g-line users for a month for an accidental rule-break. If you receive negative feedback, take it into consideration. There is often more to the story than either side are telling you, and it is your job to ensure justice is being done on your networks. Yes, you have power, you’re also a target for your users attention when it comes to being a good Christian leader. If you can’t be fair with your power, and act justly over your users, you need to stand back and let someone else do it.

Also, for the ops and mods, take notice of the people joining to cause problems. They often show a remarkable pattern that you can use to identify them immediately. This isn’t to say they should be banned for exhibiting evidence of loser-ness, but be on the lookout so as you can pounce and remove them as soon as they do.

Network owners (Part one)

Thirdly, to the owners of the networks. Many of you have promises and claims of being family friendly, or well-moderated, and other such things. Many of you fail to uphold this constantly. With regard to this, my request is simple. Either ensure your promises are kept, or stop making them. I understand both of these are difficult to do – being staffed by volunteers makes it difficult to provide 24/7 coverage, and for the most part your philosophies and userbases are quite popular with the idea of being family-friendly, that no predators are likely to attack them or the things they stand for ever, and so removing the promise of that happening will also likely disturb the warm-safe-happy feeling that your users get. Ultimately, however, something needs to be done. Banning someone for breaking a rule half an hour after they did it (and have behaved well since) is not fair.

Also, networks, please advertise all your rules that will be enforced. I know not everything can be covered easily, which is why you all have “It is a priveledge not a right” and “Your connection may be terminated” type disclaimers around on connect, but if it is against the rules for a user under the age of 13 to connect, say so. If it is against the rules to say more than 6 lines in a minute, say so. If there are any other law-based rules in place, say so. It is not just for your protection from the government, but it does wonders for your public relations when you aren’t banning people for crimes they didn’t realise they were committing. Make the rules easy to find – hiding them on an “About” page is not a good plan. Actually, putting them in your Message Of The Day is a good plan, as well as /rules, and on the java chat pages, whether it is below the chat window, or an agreement that must be clicked through before the java even loads.

Argumentative and disruptive users – also considered trouble-makers

Lastly, to the losers who log in to our networks to antagonise and cause trouble. You know who you are. I have a few things to say. Most of the time, I agree – you make us look stupid in front of you and ourselves. But I have some advice for you too. Be original. That is, if it’s been done before, you should probably be finding something else to do. Attacking thoughts on homosexuality and abortion is pretty old. Coming in to the channels with the “Hail Satan” gig is old too. Quoting scripture with words like “shit” and “ass” is old. If it’s in a bash.org quote, it’s old. Let me show you some of the more common ones:

Genesis 22:3
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

Genesis 22:5
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

Genesis 30:43
And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.

Genesis 42:26
And they laded their asses with the corn, and departed thence.

Genesis 44:13
Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city.

Isaiah 41:19
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:

I can’t think of anything at this second that isn’t old and over-used, actually. Calling people closed minded and starting arguments is mostly a dumb idea. Most of us aren’t so much closed minded, as filter-minded, in that we believe you’re wrong, and you won’t sway us, open minded or not. This goes for the bible-bashing Christians who try to convert these users, most of the time you won’t get anywhere. We have a solid belief that we’re right, and you have a solid belief that we’re wrong. Unless you’re prepared to change your views, you’re better off protesting Christianity on the street. You’ll get about the same conversion rate.

Back to the regular users. (Part two)

It’s hard to describe how annoying it is as an intelligent person to sit on the sideline and watch the Christians in these rooms get walked all over by these people. They really are better at arguing than most of us. They know the bible better than us. They type faster than us. Every time they are around, they win the argument, even if it is by talking about censorship and then being banned. Just leave them alone. Use /ignore, raise the ops attention, and if there is noone around while the network is claiming censorship and clean environments, contact them to complain. Many of you should look over your logs when you’ve been arguing, and not just read what you’ve said and think “I’m a good ambassador for Christ, aren’t I?” but read the entire conversation as if it were someone else – I suspect you’ll be as ashamed of yourselves as I often am watching it. You may well ask “If you’re so much better, why don’t you argue for us?” Well, there are two reasons for this. Firstly, when I try, there are so many differing responses going in, that mine would just be another missing view, and secondly, I know I would get walked over most of the time too. As an experienced user, the best solution is to ignore them and they’ll go away eventually.

Please, I am pleading with you, find some common sense, and use it. Not everyone using Christian chat mediums are using them for good purposes, some of them want to hurt you, some of them want to cause you to doubt your beliefs. Just because someone says they are something, doesn’t mean you should take their word for it immediately. Before you speak, think. Before you think, listen. Before you listen, read what you’re replying to. Really read it, and understand it. Then listen, then think, then speak.

Working together – Network owners (Part two)

Now, network owners, I know you don’t like changing things much, and I know you don’t like the idea of giving up power, but the Internet Church would be much greater if it stopped squabbling about little things, and worked together as a whole to win humanity for Christ. Several attempts have been made over the years to unite the church on the Internet, and most of these have fallen flat because the owners weren’t prepared to lose power, or work together. Many of these political differences are the cause of our disunity. Now, I’m not proposing we all link networks and type ‘kumbaya’, but the least we could do is openly communicate with each other. Communication between each other has been particularly useful in the past when one network has just been trolled, and banned users, and they show up on the next network. The operators of one network have been able to get the attention of the other network, and quickly removed the trolls. I’d propose a mailing list, or a forum, or even a channel where we can openly communicate and be aware of each others networks, so we can support each other in prayer and other more technical ways, such as quickly eradicating problem users.

I know we’ll never work together perfectly, and someone will always answer the trollers arguments, we’ll always be banning people for answering back, but perhaps we can work on reducing all these things – but only if we work together, changing the culture of our networks as necessary.

Yours, In Christ,

Zeke.