Atheism United Facebook Group F.A.Q.

This is the FAQ for the ATHEISM UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP.

Scroll down for group tenets and first post submission guidelines

Q. Why don’t you let every starter post through?

A. First posts are sent to the feeds of thousands of atheists and we want to ensure that the space is used wisely. We want those posts to be an opportunity for you to engage on a meaningful question or thought. We don’t want the space being used to further disinformation. We’ve also found that without post approval, groups on FB are horrible. Some of the posts that we have to decline are simply religious proselytizing (in which case the poster is quickly removed).

Q. My post wasn’t approved but I think it met all of the submission guidelines:

A. We might already have one or more similar threads recently. We might feel that it isn't a strong way to make the point or something about it just isn't quite right. We're drawing on lots of experience and often reject posts that will needlessly start fights, we work hard to keep the peace. The three biggest reasons a meme is rejected are: it’s been posted before, it wasn’t a strong meme, or we have too many memes on that day.

Q. But what I have to say is important, I really want to post it!

A. We want to hear it, but the comment section of another established post is a better place for you to weigh in with that particular comment.

Q. Why do your guidelines say to talk about things other than religion but then every post is about religion?

A. We work on this every day and we need your help. Please read our submission guidelines and use them as a tool to create great posts that don’t have anything to do with religion. No matter how much we try, we continuously get more posts about religion than anything else. We believe that personal stories about religion and its impact on our own lives are important. It’s ok that our group is used to make arguments against religion, but there aren’t any theists here to respond, so we tend to only approve arguments against religion in meme form. We'd like to see more memes about what we do believe in, rather than memes about what we don't believe in.

This post about the reasons behind this group will answer more questions (including why it’s an atheist only group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/atheismunited/permalink/5727221330690419

Q. Why does nobody ever tells me why my post was declined?

A. We usually do! We send feedback via the post approval feedback tool. We’re hearing users say that they don’t always get these. Unfortunately we don’t have the time to explain the minutiae of each decision, and we are sorry about that. We’re a group of a few moderators with full-time jobs and other responsibilities handling thousands of comments, posts, and people per day. We provide this forum to help atheists around the world; please be respectful of our time. We wish we could do more and explain everything to everyone, but the group has gotten very large, and we have to focus on the bigger picture.

Q. Why was commenting turned off? A. We often have an explanation in the thread itself, but if you don’t see one, it might be because: - we view the question or issue as resolved/answered. - we value your time and don’t want you wasting it if it’s resolved. - we don’t want it to become a viral post and be forced to FB home screens, but we also don’t want to completely remove it, for the benefit of readers or commenters involved.

Q. What sorts of things get people blocked from this group?

A. - Making arguments in defense of theism, or other theistic tip-offs. - Asking to be banned or saying that “I’m leaving this group because of X.” - Breaking our group tenets on civility. - Being a troll. - You blocked a mod or admin. - Extreme disrespect of the people that volunteer their time to moderate this group, and provide this powerful resource to the atheist community.

- Having been suspended from the group 3 times.

- We remove a few people per week for lack of civility/trolling and have found that it dramatically increased the quality of the overall group. If at any point, you’re one of the top trolls, fight instigators, or most intellectually dishonest people in the group, you're on borrowed time.

Q. Did you ban someone for disagreeing with you?

A. That is firmly against our mod team instruction. Bans only happen for the reasons listed above. Nobody is allowed to be a mod in our group unless they understand the value of disagreement. If you’re engaged in a conversation with a mod about any topic, please just follow the rules on civility, and you will be here for however long you choose. On a typical day our moderators read 100 comments per day or more that we disagree with, we believe that difference of opinion in our group is the strength of the group.

Q. Isn’t this an echo chamber?

A. Read 5 threads here with over 100 comments and read all of the comments on those threads. It’s far from an echo chamber. I’m writing this sentence after just reading comments from a few atheists that criticized someone for the way that they ridiculed the bible.

Q. Why was my comment removed?

A. You could’ve been rude, uncivil, trollish, attacked someone personally, or said something that would draw the attention of facebook’s poorly-trained AI censor bot. Behind the scenes, FB pushes admins and mods to be more proactive and they threaten group removal if a group comment/post breaks their rules. If FB is aware that we were given an opportunity to remove a comment/post that their poorly trained bot would remove, but we fail to do so, it can put the group at risk of removal. This means that sometimes we have to remove a comment that FB might incorrectly censor just to ensure that the group has no violations. It stinks, we're sorry, please don't take it out on us.

Q. Why don't you make the group private?

A. The main reasons for this group being public are that it helps growth, makes it more accessible, allows us to share our views with a wider audience, and that it helps normalize atheism. There are private groups for atheism if you need that.

Q. Someone broke the group rules, what can I do?

A. Please use the “report comment to admin” feature, and don’t stoop to a lower level.

How to report comment to admin: https://www.facebook.com/help/436113899837980

Q. Why didn’t you remove this theist?

A. Please remember to report any comment to admins that you think are from a theist. We work hard to ensure that this is an atheist only group, but we're also aware that there are some atheists that make arguments in line with something you would expect a theist to say. In some cases, we’re just not sure yet, watching, and waiting…

Q. Do you have any final tips on this group?

A. Please remember that the only thing that we know that all atheists have in common is a lack of belief in a god. This group was created to help bridge divides in the atheist community, but also to help us all learn from each other. Our foundational purpose was simply to promote the most conclusive list of atheist sites on the internet.

It’s been an awesome journey, and there's so much to learn about the lives of other atheists. Please enjoy the group, focus on your exchanges with other atheists, learn from them, teach them, admit when you were wrong, let your guard down a little. Please don’t troll or attack the group, its purpose, or moderation decisions. If you don’t like it, please find a different group. If you have constructive thoughts, or a further question, please feel free to add it below as a comment.

GROUP TENETS AND RULES ON CIVILITY:

Let's talk about our existence without the veil of religion over our eyes. Be kind, polite, and as civil as you can be to your fellow atheists here!

Be nice. Don’t correct grammar. Don’t attack people personally, instead express your difference of opinion, or explain why you think theirs is wrong, do so with kindness.

Trollish behavior and intellectual dishonesty is unwelcome. If you feel attacked, report comment to admin, don’t stoop to the level of the personal attacker, or attack the person for being a troll/theist, or you risk getting caught in moderation crossfire. Always “report comment to admin” when you see someone expressing a theistic position, this group is only for atheists.

Rudeness, hostility, trolling, and personal attacks aren’t acceptable when aimed at anyone in the group, but when aimed at any of our moderators, a quick ban from the group is the likely result.

Please don't imitate a position that you don't actually hold for the sake of humor, trolling, silliness, or any other reason. Don't say something a theist would say or something you don't actually believe to be true. While your intent may be humor, it's unlikely that everyone will know.

We’re committed to providing an open and welcoming community that respects every member’s personal integrity and reasonable participation. Discussion and disagreement are encouraged as part of free inquiry, but must not take the form of personal attacks.

When possible, members should give each other the benefit of explaining behavior found offensive or unwelcome, but explanations don't redeem violations, and those asked to stop any prohibited conduct — are expected to comply immediately.

Prohibited conduct may include but is not limited to: harassment related to gender, gender identity, sexual identity, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, ancestry, nationality, familial status, marital status, military status, pregnancy, intelligence, or socioeconomic status; threats, abuse, or deliberate intimidation; stalking or harassing.

We know through mitochondrial DNA and our own evolution that every single one of us is related. We kindly ask for our members to keep this at the forefront of our minds when discussing issues that we disagree about. Let's be respectful of each other and discuss why we disagree with someone, rather than attacking them for it.

— Q. What sorts of things get people blocked from this group?

A.
- Making arguments in defense of theism, or other theistic tip-offs.
- Asking to be banned or saying that “I’m leaving this group because of X.”
- Breaking our group tenets on civility.
- Being a troll.
- You blocked a mod or admin.
- Blatant disrespect of the people that volunteer their time to moderate this group, and provide this powerful resource to the atheist community.
- Having been suspended from the group 3 times.
- We remove a few people per week for lack of civility/trolling and have found that it dramatically increased the quality of the overall group. If at any point, you are one of the top trolls, fight instigators, or most intellectually dishonest people in the group, you're on borrowed time.

FIRST POST SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

-Explain your perspective or view on whatever issue you’re bringing up, or ask the group a question about the issue.

- The first post in a FB group has a bully pulpit. Ensure that your post is fact based. Matters of opinion should be prefaced as your opinion.

- Always give the group a chance to engage, typically by asking a question.

- Use English, with the best grammar that you can muster.

- Submit the post straight to the group instead of sharing from elsewhere.

- Posts about religion should be something personal to you in some way, something that impacted you, or something you need help with. They shouldn’t be arguments against religion.

- Don't just post a link to an article or video. Give a summary of your view, and/or ask the audience a specific question. Videos that autoplay from facebook are given priority over outbound youtube videos in our selection process.

- We only approve a portion of the posts that are submitted and make sure to balance news, memes, and personal stories. We have to decline at least 10 posts per day that have something to do with religion, we get too many submissions in that category.

- We know through group polling that religion is involved in less than 10% of the lives, of 92% of the atheists, in this group. But for some reason, some days go by in which 100% of the submissions talk about religion, many of which are suitable for a debate group, or worse, an actual religious group. Please help us by talking about your life, following the other rules outlined above.

- We can't respond with suggestions on post improvement all the time, but we might decline your post and make suggestions, please look for that, make alterations, and resubmit. Users are reporting that they’re not seeing our feedback, this is a facebook issue, we normally do send feedback. Please just read the posting rules carefully.

- Post about things that you’re curious about, your personal life, your take on the news, your views on anything, anything at all, just remember to ask the audience a question or do something to get them involved. For example, if you post a picture of your pet, ask for the audience to post pictures of their pets. Simply talking about yourself is well suited for your personal wall. Asking the largest atheist group in the world to respond is well suited for our group.

- Introduction posts are only approved if they tell your story and give the audience a specific question or thought to comment on.

- Post submissions that don’t meet our guidelines, might be reposted from the Atheism United account with the proper formatting. You will be credited.

- If you follow the format concepts, you're likely to get approved.