Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4050367-20140130001358/@comment-3474542-20140201075943

Sci100 wrote: Hi Wikians, I'm making this thread because there's been a recent issue I've been noticing lately. On one of my wikis, one of the name of the pages has "Battle of Gods" in the name. Now one user in particular has a problem with people using "God" or "Gods" at all (due to their religious beliefs) and demand that we censor the word, or we don't use it at all (due to their religious beliefs). Now, I've usually ignored the situation and let other users discuss the issue so long as no fights go on (I'm an admin on said wiki).

Now, I don't think it makes a ton of sense to rename EVERY SINGLE PAGE with the word "God" or "Gods" in it to "Diety" or "Omnipotent Beings" just because of how long it'd take, but at the same time I feel like we should respect a user's religous beliefs.

In our polices, we have a policy about Religion/Politics. One statement says "So, you can discuss politics or religion as long as you don't outright insult the other person/group for their beliefs/ideas." Now, while the user IS a bit insulted that the term "God" or "Gods" is used in titles, I'm sure that the users who use the term "Gods" or "God" in the title of the page don't INTENTIONALLY mean to insult the user by naming their page a certain way. I don't want to say the wrong thing so... I'm conflicted as to what to do.

So, from one admin to others, whow do YOU think I should handle the situation? Is there a compromise? Do  I need to rename EVERY SINGLE PAGE? Do I say "While we understand you have your own personal beliefs about the word, we will not require a rename of the page because the author of the page has the right to name it that way"? Etc.?

---Sci100

Unfortunately, when religion is a topic, someone is bound to be offended (more likely lots of people will be offended). Depending on whether this is a wiki for the contents of a particular franchise, or whether the wiki is for fanfic/original works, depends on how you should probably handle it. No matter what type of wiki it is, you may need to remind some users of Wikia's policy of "assume good faith". It is an important policy shared by many wikis, and I think it is relevant to this subject in more ways than one.

Several religions (notably, certain monotheistic religions) feel that even the written (and spoken) name of their god is so holy that it is extremely disrespectful for a person to even write their own deity's name or depict their deity in art. Basically, followers are not supposed to profane (deface, destroy, or erase) the name of their god. By drawing (or writing) it, they risk blasphemy. So, to them, it is better to not depict the name of their god.

#1 - content wikis
If this wiki is about franchise content that has a product with the specific name "The New Gods", that is generally how I would advise you to refer to the title of the product, unless the title is so offensive that general consensus is that it should be redacted (ie - titles of some songs by musician David Allen Coe may be considered so offensive that you might want to double check with Wikia Staff before you put them on your wiki).

Within the article however, you should be sensitive to your multi-religious community. That means the monotheists, the polytheists, and the atheists (everybody!). This one is hard to do properly, so mediators may need to make sure everyone stays positive and productive. It doesn't mean to change the names of cannon characters, but it may mean you should use care when describe those characters.

#2 original works
If you are a wiki that creates original work, you will have much more difficulty determining how to deal with this problem. Some possibilities may be:
 * Ban all religions and discussion of religion
 * Create sections (portals) of the wiki for each particular religion or belief system that editors want to write for. For example, "Christianity", "Islam", "Judaism", "Neo-Paganism", "Atheism", "other miscellaneous", and "combined".
 * Develop a "contents and ratings" template for use at the top of pages that have content that may be offensive to followers of a particular religion or belief system. This would be similar to the parental guidance system that IMDb uses for itself. So, if (for example) an particular story has one character take first communion as a Catholic, two lesbian characters participate in a Wiccan handfasting, and five characters drink eggnog & decorate a Christmas tree... you would say something like:"''
 * ''"This story contains material of a (insert controversy type: religious, drugs, alcohol, sexual) nature. Reasons:
 * sexuality - homosexuality (lesbianism)
 * religious ritual/ceremonies - handfasting ritual (Wicca), first communion (Catholic)
 * drug/alcohol use - (brief summary of eggnog drinking situation)
 * other - decoration of Christmas tree
 * "If you are offended by material of this nature, we suggest you read one of our other stories )."