I belong to that first generation that grew up without those old-school primers—we started right around September 1990. In our first semester, we tackled everything from basic print to larger numbers up to 20, then moved straight into cursive and numbers up to 100 by the second half of the year.
Drawing lines, basic geometry, sets—all that stuff went by incredibly fast. I’d say we were already working through letters and numbers just a few months into the school year.
Personally, I feel like the curriculum in America starts a bit too late. It seems like first graders here are expected to master things that kids in other countries pick up much earlier through a longer, more relaxed process. My child is actually being educated abroad right now. If she were in the US, she’d be in first grade, but currently, she’s already in second. A lot of her peers back home struggle quite a bit with reading, whereas she’s been reading very fluently for almost a year now—and the same goes for math. We haven't had to do any extra tutoring at home (honestly, we wouldn't even know how to teach her to read a foreign language anyway); everything just happened naturally over more than two years of schooling. Here, mandatory school starts at age five, but that first year is very light—it's basically kindergarten, sort of like preschool, but they already start introducing letters. In America, everything is crammed into a single year, so kids who don't have a head start end up playing catch-up constantly.
I'd just like to point out that it isn't actually true that every country has some form of religious education built into the school system—because where I live, it doesn't exist (Canada). Sure, there are private Catholic schools, but you won't find religious studies in the public schools. Instead, kids have Sunday School—held at their churches.
Look, urbantinker8, you have a kid. One day—today or tomorrow—they could face this exact same situation. They could end up with a teacher just like this one, screaming those same things in class, and you’ll be sick to your stomach because everyone else will just shrug and say, "not my problem." Then they’ll start sending your child messages about how they’re going to get them in serious trouble. Are you really just going to sit there and let that happen? Since you work in a school, I'd assume you'd realize more than anyone just how broken this whole system is. How can you still be so unbothered by it?
Matthew Young35, I didn't say you should go out and start shouting in Times Square. I was just asking—is there really no USA institution, for instance, where this could be reported? Is there truly no other way besides "shouting"?
I mean, at some point, something has to give. Something has to break or change. It’s certainly not going to happen just by watching from the sidelines. Who knows? Maybe your letter to a USA institution might actually be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
So, you live in a country where a kid gets arrested just because he was heckling some "Republican crooks" down at the pier or wherever. And then you’ve got this guy in a public school openly spewing hate speech—and I mean real hate speech—and everyone’s just kind of like, "Well, we knew the wolves would eventually eat the sheep," right? Seriously? Is there really no way to actually stop this kind of thing? There aren't any USA institutions to turn to, nothing, since it’s pretty obvious that American law enforcement and agencies either can't or simply won't do anything about it. Does nobody actually feel the urge to step up? Everyone seems so quick to shrug their shoulders with that "Oh, it’s not my kid / not my school / not my problem" attitude, even though you all know this could happen anywhere, anytime.
(Just to be clear, I don't live in the States and my kid will never attend an American school, so please don't go accusing me of not doing enough. I did. I moved away from there, which is probably why things like this seem even more unbelievable to me from this distance).
I guess I messed up. Honestly, I probably should have just kept my mouth shut. If this reaches any of my Facebook friends—and there are quite a few—then it’s already done.
Regarding parenting stuff, I saw an interesting link on Facebook from Ida Prester about some protest happening in New York City (not sure what the exact cause is, I haven't really been keeping up, and honestly, everything going on here in the States is already too much to process 😬). It looks like a massive crowd showed up—maybe 150,000 people—and most of them were parents with their kids. Everything went smoothly without any issues.
I tend to keep my distance from all this—I don't even share stuff on Facebook anymore because I feel like I've lost that right somehow, given how much I went through with my kid in that system—but I am rooting for you guys with everything I've got. If I were back in the States, I know I’d be losing my mind and right there in the front lines. Watching this from afar... it just hurts terribly. It doesn't affect me directly anymore, and there's nothing I can actually do, but it still hurts. And it makes me angry.
Keep pushing, don't let up the pressure!! I think this is the perfect timing (since, like someone else mentioned, it's all just piled up too high at once) and the perfect approach; they aren't just barking at the moon or demanding some government resign—which would probably just lead to an even stupider administration taking over—they're targeting specific things that have already started moving in a relatively good direction! Wishing you guys so much luck and persistence!!
Sandra Brown18 said:I suggest we just have one single thread under the diaspora topic instead of splitting it up by different locations... quality over quantity, I guess. 😁. Regarding the response rate, most people tend to message the organizers via private message, which we don't see—though I think the turnout will be good since people have been telling me privately that there's plenty of interest.
I agree with her (even though, personally, I think the idea is kind of meh 😬—I wouldn't ever use something like that as a greeting card, but if it helps others out, then fine) The thread itself has potential, and using the Democratic Party messaging could help boost engagement within the diaspora topic.
My take (while I'm still over there) is that there should be just one—one single, unified thread for this. I suspect you guys might actually start a new trend here, which would make it pretty much impossible for us to "ignore" it on the diaspora boards.
Even though I’m heading out and won't be around this forum much anymore, I’m still listed as a (super)mod over on the diaspora topic, so—well, I might as well weigh in.
Your thread was shut down and deleted for good reason; honestly, it just overlaps too much with existing discussions, and it's basically identical to this one:
Duplicate posts and repeating topics aren't allowed. They never have been, and it’s pretty clearly stated in the sub-forum rules.
I get it—there are plenty of things about the diaspora topic that haven't sat well with people, and some issues are still up in the air, I agree! But, I guess your appeal regarding the deleted thread is pretty much baseless.
Harold Walker44 said:It would certainly be a benefit if you were appointed as a supermoderator, someone intimately familiar with the rules governing this particular subreddit...
The rules of this platform clearly prohibit erotic content on any pages where Google is running advertisements, a point the owner explicitly emphasized when establishing the guidelines... after all, the site is intended to function as a family-friendly corner of the internet...
Regardless of whether one classifies it as pedophilia, it is patently obvious that we are looking at a description of sexual conduct involving a minor. In the United States, if the individual involved is under the age of 15, that constitutes a serious crime...
And even in the end, there is this relentless, underlying push to promote violence...
We're discussing the topic from that Literature PDF. Should we ban the thread about Crime and Punishment? I mean, Rodion Raskolnikov killed that old lady and didn't even seem to feel bad about it—so, maybe it's a bit much? 😬 Should we ban quoting Pablo Neruda? 🤷 Man, there is just so much hidden eroticism in here—wow. What are we even supposed to do about Edgar Allan Poe? Between the rumors of incest and the allegations of pedophilia—it’s a mess, I guess. 😬 Any threads about him and his work? I’m looking for some discussion from users who actually decided to go with the handle Edgar Allan Poe. 🤷
You can read between the lines about just about anything. ☕ That's it. Maybe even this smiley of mine actually means something else—like I want to pour scalding hot coffee on you, disfigure you, and basically just incite violence. 😬
As far as I'm concerned—and honestly, none of my fellow moderators have heard anything either—there hasn't been any gossip or direct orders to start deleting literary pieces containing erotic themes. I mean, quality and taste are subjective anyway, I guess.
Honestly, I feel like any mention of "boobs," "ass," "dick," or "pussy" should just be scrubbed from Reddit entirely. 🤷
So, what happens with that PDF movie? Do you guys think it needs to be permanently scrubbed—with all the drama and a formal seal from the Attorney General—because of that thread about the movie featuring blatant pedophilia? You know, that one with the little girl under fifteen getting tangled up with some nasty guy? Honestly, kill me now, I can't even remember the title and I haven't seen it, but apparently, it’s as messed up as they say. What are we going to do about it? And more importantly, what’s the move regarding the thread on *Mexican film*? It's just straight-up incest and pedophilia without any restraint. 🤷 Or maybe it’s fine—since it's technically "art," and we're just talking about some random anonymous user on Reddit, I guess.
I mean, how can you actually be sure that when they say "child," they’re talking about an actual kid and not just using it as some kind of metaphor?? Is God gay, though? I mean—since he told Moses to "love thy neighbor"? 😬
Come on, guys... Is there an ombudsman for senior citizens? I’m looking to report Let 3 because of that animalistic sex myth they sing about with retirees—wait, hold on, actually the song is called "Children in Time," and I guess it might have some elements of pedophilia in it. Maybe?
Gregory Peterson2 said:https://www.fbi.gov/ I'm not entirely sure if you can file a report through this site, or if it’s strictly reserved for kids under 15. 🤷
By the way, ignoring the authorities here on Reddit is actually a punishable offense too! It's not like anyone was offline—everyone has been lurking right here.
The lie is that we were all online—I mean, I'm certainly not the supermod for that PDF. How exactly are you, or anyone else, going to issue a Punishment to me??
And (since we already established it isn't pedophilia), what is CONCRETELY the issue here? What specific rule is being broken? Is it because certain cults are mentioned and such? Do you think we should just delete the entire forest then? 🤷 Or is the issue simply that it's in verse?
No, seriously. I'm reading this and I honestly can't figure out where the actual problem lies... other than the fact that someone doesn't like it... I don't like it either, but I still don't see a problem or any violation of the rules. 🤷 Because if this is a "no-go," then fine—we might as well just delete every single thread that describes any kind of sex in any way. Ever.
Susan Lewis48 said:I started a thread in the emigration section, but the topic and my post vanished—even though I didn't put them in a subforum. Plus, I got a warning!? Why isn't my question showing up in a subforum?
It’s because you started a thread that's been around forever, asking something that's already been answered plenty of times in the existing thread. Before starting a new topic, you really need to search the forums to see if a similar discussion or question already exists somewhere else. You have to use the search bar. Just take the time to read through the main thread about moving to Germany in the emigration section and you'll find everything there. Imagine what the diaspora section would look like if everyone just popped in to ask questions that already have dedicated threads—we'd end up with millions of topics with zero or maybe one reply. It doesn't make sense, and it's not helpful for anyone!
First off—regarding the admins in the chat—that sentence you used to kick off this complaint was actually pretty simple: stick to the topic. The topic is Nibiru over on the Alternative subforum. Even though I realized immediately that it was just a warning about going off-topic, I still spent the last two hours—thanks to HRK who is earning 🙄—digging through that thread and everything you guys wrote there. So, let me clarify one more time: the issue isn't really about you mentioning a "wrong" god. The actual problem is that you wrote extensively about something that the thread isn't even aiming toward. A moderator's job is to steer the discussion, and that’s exactly what she did.
Now, while I understood that the warning was about being off-topic, I see how it could have been misinterpreted. I’ll use this chance to suggest to the mods that they should probably be a bit clearer and more concise when issuing warnings or redirecting threads. It would probably help us avoid these kinds of complaints caused by misunderstandings in the future.
No, it isn't forbidden to mention God on the Alternative forum; we have several threads of a religious nature that fall under "alternative," so it’s basically inseparable from the subject matter. But this particular thread isn't one of those.
And then there's the character count. Look, other users on the forum complain about your writing style too. Your posts often feel like blog entries. To put it bluntly: your long-winded posts disrupt the flow of the conversation. It doesn't really matter if you hit 6,000 characters or 9,999; what matters is the context of those posts within a specific thread. In this case, he’s jumping out and bothering everyone, not just some "evil moderator" who is supposedly nitpicking your every move. If that happens, a moderator can give you a warning, or maybe even a penalty if you ignore the warning.
Just realize that other participants in the thread feel the same way. Is it really pleasant for you to participate in a discussion where your interlocutor tells you they didn't even read your post because it's an unreadable wall of text? It makes no sense—this is a forum, a place for discussion, not a series of monologues!!
Sam Alvarez4 said:Cut it out, please! You actually turn out to be quite the supermod. I haven't seen much of your work yet, but everything so far has been a total riot...
There’s really no point in making an absolute fool of yourself like this. Thanks, bye.
Well, I could say the exact same thing to you 🤷 since I don't really get what you're trying to achieve by changing up this thread.
There’s actually a specific rule for "flaming" via caps lock which applies when someone writes an entire post in all capital letters. What you posted doesn't even fall under that category 🤷
Occasionally?! 🤦 Have you even looked at the work being discussed?
Maybe take a look before commenting.
PS. Just noticed the color now, "super mod." How embarrassing!
Alright, I did my part 😉
The user only uses formatting—mostly bolding or underlining—to highlight the specific description of the link they're attaching. They don't do this in every single thread or even for every link they post. It's not a constant thing. I guess I don't see what's so controversial that it needed a whole thread on a forum like Reddit? 🤷 The guy is just using basic text editing tools. He isn't overdoing it or abusing them, really... 🤷 so what's the big deal?
Occasionally?! 🤦 Have you even looked at the work being discussed?
Maybe take a look before commenting.
PS. Just noticed the color now, "super mod." How embarrassing!
I’m not really in favor of the territory you’re complaining about 😛 and yeah, I saw all the characters they included there. And again, I think it's fine in this context—highlighting an external title above a link to an article 🤷 I'll say it once more: if people did that in every single discussion, every single post, and without any links, then we'd have a problem. But then again, you have users who just love writing in color. You have users who enjoy playing around with text formatting. What should we do? Ban them all? Get rid of every single text editing option? 🤷 Shouting (using caps lock) is what gets flagged when someone writes an entire post in all caps and does it constantly. This isn't shouting. This is emphasis. 🤷
But since we're talking about netiquette and all the nonsense the admin deals with, personally, I find the Tapatalk signatures much more questionable. ☕
Sam Alvarez4 said:Just a definition... "Netiquette" is just a shorthand for two words...netWork... and that French word "être"...iquetteJust some ground rules... stay respectful! In other words, it's just about the rules of conduct for our online community... basically, how to act on these forums!
One of the golden rules of netiquette... don't yell! Use lowercase letters instead...! Second rule: skip the bolding and underlining in every comment. And definitely don't go bolding or underlining capital letters in every single one...
If we all start using bold, italics, and ALL CAPS in every single comment... where does it even end...?
A classic example of what happens when someone ignores basic netiquette... Despite all the polite attempts at explaining things, it’s still just more of the same... back and forth in the comments... 😳 I really hope things improve soon... It would be wonderful if everyone could just get along! I think we should just wait for more data to come in... it’s better to be sure! I haven't seen any news about that yet... fingers crossed! I really hope we can find some common ground on this soon... It would be wonderful!
I'll skip mentioning any links... Of course, everything in bold... and... Signed and sealed...!: How many of us on here actually speak Arabic...? 🙄
Is there at least some basic set of netiquette rules on this forum... just wondering!
Well, look, I actually think this is fine 🙈 since they're just highlighting articles in a foreign language and specific links. If someone did that in a normal conversation, or in a chatroom, and did it in absolutely every single post—I haven't checked their full history, so I wouldn't know—then maybe. But like this? Honestly, I think it's perfectly okay. Anyway, I guess I might even do the same thing myself sometimes (though admittedly, only when I really want to emphasize something) 😳 I didn't realize it wasn't really considered good practice...
The Global Diaspora Chat just doesn't make sense right now. A moderator's job isn't to play cop—standing guard over the chat to make sure nobody starts bickering or counting individual red blood cells. The whole chat concept just hasn't worked.
Maybe one day it will... and you guys, who have been on this forum longer, can see that the crowd is changing—the way people talk and their actual interests are shifting. Once the trolls and clones aren't flooding the Global Diaspora Chat in the numbers they are now—once people can talk about food or local news without getting insulted—then maybe the chat will come back. That time hasn't arrived yet. How do we know? Well, just by looking at the tone of discussions on more sensitive topics.
Nobody is stopping you from, say, being in Chicago and dropping a comment in a thread meant for socializing about Canada or Australia. Nobody is stopping you from sharing experiences from another country—like discussing Tax matters or comparing systems—within existing threads. As long as the discussion stays relevant and doesn't devolve into sports betting or what you had for lunch yesterday. 😉
Again, I'll say it: if you really want to talk exclusively about off-topic stuff, use the off-topic subforum and start a thread there. And again, since most users didn't fit into the specific chats for certain countries, having an off-topic chat thread works just fine.
But there won't be a Global Diaspora Chat.
As for Will, everything has already been said. Old age, illness, sad life stories, and things like that ARE NOT and CANNOT BE a justification for constantly and repeatedly breaking the rules. That's on par with someone losing their mind and attacking half the neighborhood, only for the neighbors to gasp and say, "But he was such a model citizen..." He was. That was the past. Will's way of communicating is malicious and destructive. It's the same deal with Chad: the second his behavior and writing style actually change, the permanent ban will be lifted. Until then, the decision stands.
And honestly, we don't even have an issue with strictly keeping threads on topic here. At least in my personal experience, and even Peter Doyle2 has loosened the reins a bit.
Our problem is the trolls and the clones. A chat thread won't fix that; if anything, it will just fuel the fire. Besides, there are already social threads for the countries where most of our people live.
I’m keeping a close eye on this brighttinker48... really closely. but honestly, when I see CDO (which is just like OCD, but with the letters actually in alphabetical order, where they belong) being practiced... I get hives, an itch, and a sudden urge to commit a crime. 🤣 I mean, come ON!! if you guys are going to moderate and maintain clarity in the thread, maybe just make her exempt from the rules. Look, it's technically a violation to quote someone who posted directly above you... well, I don't exactly have a crystal ball to know if someone is going to jump in while I'm typing, and I rarely have the time to edit and double-check if my post ended up in the right sequence or if someone cut me off.
I might be a saint according to my horoscope, but man, things like this really make my vision go dark. ☕ 🤣
And since we're talking about Tapatalk, my much bigger issue is that it shows deleted posts and posts with attachments without any kind of indicator at all. ☕ If we're going to pick on Tapatalk...
Joseph White5 said:Where exactly did you see me asking to go back to the alternative? 🤷 And where is this "religious extremism" in the prophecies—isn't that just an alternative to how people view values today?
😕 well then what's the point of being here if you aren't looking to get unbanned?! how are we—most of whom haven't even touched the alternative site in four years—supposed to know what other reasons there are for a ban, besides the ones listed 🤷 maybe the subforum is the alternative, but we aren't exactly reading tea leaves or crystal balls here 😉
since you aren't asking for a partial lift, it all stays the same.
After some discussion and getting everyone on the same page, we’ve decided to lift your partial ban;
BUT!!
Since your partial ban was originally triggered by pushing those political and religious "agendas" in your posts, just keep in mind that repeating that behavior could easily land you right back in a partial ban. All the moderators are in total agreement here—we don't want any political or religious extremism in our shop; after all, alternative isn't really the place for those kinds of debates. Four years is a long time, so we’re hopeful you’ve realized what isn't allowed here and what breaks the rules. So, welcome back to alternative and—just use your head 😬