Why is trolling allowed on the spirituality sub?

I actually noticed this a couple of years back—it seems like trolling is basically encouraged here, which attracts a huge crowd of trolls—and coming back now, I see absolutely nothing has changed.
Basically, from what I can gather, there's practically no moderation happening at all, or maybe the staff just gave up on the whole thing.

But if there truly isn't any active moderation, why does it say right here that two moderators are in charge of this PDF??

A few times, both a while ago and just recently, I've reported blatant trolling, yet there’s zero response. It gets under my skin, honestly, especially since most of this trolling is just completely mindless and lacks any shred of creativity. 🙄
If it were actually clever or even remotely creative, then maybe I'd have something to say...

That's really all. 🙄

PS: I hate to think that the moderators actually enjoy the trolling when it targets topics they don't like, just letting it slide because they find it entertaining.

Links?

Thanks for getting back to me.
I used the report function specifically designed for "off-topic posts"—I’m just not really one for dropping links everywhere. If that feature exists, it shouldn't just be for show, right?

PS: Honestly, I don't think it's that much trouble, Anna—it feels like trolling has become a regular occurrence in almost every other thread lately. It probably became the norm because it hasn't been flagged or dealt with for quite some time.

Taylor Campbell4 said:Thanks for getting back to me.
I used the report function specifically designed for "off-topic posts"—I’m just not really one for dropping links everywhere. If that feature exists, it shouldn't just be for show, right?

PS: Honestly, I don't think it's that much trouble, Anna—it feels like trolling has become a regular occurrence in almost every other thread lately. It probably became the norm because it hasn't been flagged or dealt with for quite some time.

Let’s not get carried away. You reported a single post in a thread you started yourself, and two posts were removed. That’s really all there is to it.

Regarding the whole "trolling" situation in the spirituality section: look, spirituality is meant to be... well, free-form. Being overly rigid or aggressively deleting posts would actually do more harm than good to the vibe of this subforum. That said (just as a heads-up), we still have to make sure threads don't veer completely off the rails, which is why some get locked—temporarily or permanently—and others get wiped entirely. So, it's definitely not a "free-for-all," despite what you might be suggesting.

Today, I’m more convinced than ever that there is virtually no moderation happening over there—at least nothing remotely substantial.

One should also note that there aren't many active threads (which is likely linked to what I mentioned above), so it doesn't take much time to quickly open a few of those active topics just to see if trolling or similar behavior is present.
Consequently, I’m inclined to believe that this "free-for-all" style and the freedom to troll results in a very small percentage of actual decent people on that forum—people from whom you could actually learn something useful or have a normal conversation—because they simply don't want to hang out in a community where such things are considered the norm.
I'm not trying to complain per se, I'm just making an observation 🙂
Like many others, I have no problem staying away from it entirely.

Overall regarding 'trolling' on spirituality:

"Trolling"??? In quotation marks??

Look, try stepping away from spirituality for a bit and spend some time on a more normal forum instead. If you come back to spirituality after a while, you'll see that it isn't just "trolling"—in quotes—but actual trolling by every definition, if you can't see that already.
And please, don't start an argument about this or offer any rebuttals; it feels quite pointless for me to have to explain or prove to you, acting as some sort of moderator, what trolling is when it's more than obvious. Assuming you understand my point.

I'm telling you, I'm not criticizing anyone—maybe you weren't even active today, maybe it was the other user who was active; people have jobs and lives, I get all that. I'm just saying that I see it, I'm not blind, that the spirituality forum is very poorly moderated. And no one can argue with me that allowing all these things is good if we are talking about a moderated forum. It truly seems senseless to debate this when we are discussing the obvious. And I hope you won't claim again that this might be "biological trolling," though I realize I'm going off-topic here: 🤣 😳 I mean, if I point out a mistake, you don't need to attack me immediately in a "the best defense is a good offense" kind of way.

Best,

My apologies, Brenda Cook4—I just realized I completely misread things and thought you were accusing me of going off-topic. Not sure where that got stuck in my head, maybe I just misread your post yesterday; looking back now, I see you didn't actually mention anything like that.

It’s pretty obvious at this point that trolling is allowed—it's really not even up for debate.
Could anyone recommend a PDF on spirituality for trolls I might run into on other forums? Not that I'm actually planning on hunting them down, but just in case.

I sent a private message about this yesterday, but I’m guessing it’ll just sit there unread.
It seems like trolling is still being given a free pass—it’s incredibly easy to find—even after reporting it twice.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm done with this discussion—unless, of course, someone decides to start spreading blatant lies, in which case I'll likely have to step back in to set the record straight.

PS: It isn't just about the trolling; it's the outright disrespect toward others—people making rude, baseless comments without any actual arguments, etc., etc. Honestly, it's the kind of behavior where moderators on most other US forums would at least issue a warning.
And just to be clear, I'm not some fringe nutcase obsessed with spirituality. I haven't posted here in a while, but before my hiatus, I was active on the Business, Hiking, Psychology, and IT boards. I have to say, I haven't encountered anything quite like what happens here in the spirituality section—the culture is so low, and the moderators seem to have an impossibly high threshold for things that clearly violate the rules.

So, if I’ve got this straight, we're focusing on the actual substance of the debate rather than the delivery style, and if someone finds the content disagreeable, they're free to troll—meaning tolerance for trolling is basically non-existent here (unless it's one of those truly bottom-of-the-barrel posts), right?
And your whole mantra seems to be, "it's not about your arguments, it's about how you present them" (though I suspect you're saying that more to others than to me)?

Anyway, no big deal—at least now I know where we stand.

I'm calling for us to just end this discussion already; let's stop making fools of ourselves—myself included—by continuing this back-and-forth.

Please, just stop embarrassing yourself.

Look, you've got a point there... if you were dealing with someone who shared your specific biases, you probably shouldn't have even sent it in the first place.

Seriously though, I don't have the bandwidth to spend three days bickering over such trivial, mundane details. It seems you're struggling to see that you're completely off base—I feel like I practically laid it out for you in plain English—so you'll just pass it off to someone else who will likely be just as confused. And what am I supposed to do? Waste my entire week playing referee with you guys? I'm not building a house here.

Thank God
God forbid you actually put in the work to build something, only to have some poor soul come along and wreck it all

What’s the point?
I honestly don't understand how this community can be any more dysfunctional than its moderation—where the rules seem to shift constantly; where I'm accused of breaking policies that aren't even being applied consistently; and where trolling is banned one minute but ignored the next just because someone finds a topic uncomfortable. Maybe you should take a moment to reflect on that yourself.
Besides, the lack of any moderator presence in the spirituality section speaks volumes.
Go ahead and lock the thread if you want; it's pretty much dead anyway.