OpenGeofiction
Belphenia's state religion ideas
Posted by BelpheniaProject on 3 December 2015 in English. Last updated on 4 December 2015.I decided to withdraw my complaint anyway.
But I may likely need help with this one. Maybe if you mappers can help me out about Belphenia’s state religion since I know now, that the use of real world religions like Jehovah’s Witnesses or others here on OGF may be discouraged by others.
If you have any ideas like names and stuff, let me know.
Discussion
Comment from Demuth on 3 December 2015 at 21:55
There’s a lot in this post but I’ll try to keep my response short as I can.
My original Wikipedia posts about Belphenia were in reaction to things you wrote in your history including about sentencing a million people to death and imprisoning 3 million in your country of 10 million people, which I found extremely provocative and felt that my country would definitely react to - I was behaving as I thought a country would, with aid organizations, sanctions and enlisting other countries.
In retrospect, it would have been better to mail you privately about this rather than responding with Wikipedia posts. But, we ended up speaking in e-mails as well as talk sections of the Wikipedia posts and you changed your history, I changed my posts and my mapping. I missed places in a few posts and on my map that you pointed out to me later, which I changed as soon as you pointed out to me. And as I remember it, the OGF rules were clarified after this, declaring that members not write about other countries without their permission.
Two other things to set straight: I never suggested you change names of places, or that Belphenia should be a former colony of Wiwaxia.
Finally, as far as I can tell, your complaint is really that a Wikipedia article has not been removed. It seems to me that the removal of this article is an oversight of the administrators and not intentional. I’m sorry you are upset, Remi, and I suspect this will be quickly remedied.
Comment from Ūdilugbulgidħū on 3 December 2015 at 23:28
I don’t intend to refer back to the above, but I think there are two important points to be made here.
Firstly, it is clear that users should not write about other users’ countries without getting permission to do so. Without permission, it will lead to problems. I’m not sure whether that permission should be private or public, perhaps that is something for the admins to consider.
Secondly, the presence of real world religions in OGF - a world which is not the real world - is problematic. I suggest that, as with languages, city names and many other aspects of this world’s set-up, the names of real world religions should not be used. Religions arose and got their names they way they did in the real world - because it is the real world.
Comment from Sarepava on 3 December 2015 at 23:44
Can I gently suggest that you leave some distance between your real-world beliefs and what you create for an invented country if you don’t wish them to be criticised by other users, particularly with regards to religion? Belphenia comes across an a pretty extreme state but as it’s put forward as a fictitious one, like all of ours, it’s reasonable for us to treat it as such. I personally put quite a few references to my favourite things in the imaginary world of Karolia, but not so closely that I would be offended by somebody saying Myllariid’s latest album is an ear-bleeding waste of vinyl or that Finira build miserable tin boxes for people who don’t care about what they drive. (Good luck to anybody working out which real band Mylleriid are based on…!)
Perhaps Belphenia could launch a media campaign to show other countries what it’s really like?
Comment from bhj867 on 4 December 2015 at 00:00
I’m going to be blunt. This is petty and personal and doesn’t belong on the user diaries for the entire community to see. If you have any personal grievances about other users, please contact a mod, not write a novelesque public complaint. There are many things about my country people don’t like or would like to change. This is a community that supports interaction and compromise between fictional countries and there is a right and wrong way to raise grievances about other users. If you are feeling harassed the mods will help, but it is a stretch to consider this harassment it sounds like your ego was bruised.
Comment from BelpheniaProject on 4 December 2015 at 01:18
@bhj867 It’s withdrawn because I got my senses together.
@Sarepava and the other user You’re probably right. Maybe I can try inventing my own ones instead of just choosing real world religion names. Now I will have to use a generator or come up with new names to get my own one for Belphenia. If you have any suggestions, let me know.
Comment from histor on 4 December 2015 at 10:55
OpenGeoFiction may be a fictional world - but clear is, that in OGF are realistic components. One of the basic ideas is, to mapping realistic. So where you will take the limit? What is too realistic? No easy question and I think, here everybody can acting as his/her own taste in a wide reach.
I do not like names as “Qoybuxanxyds-street” or “Xyxcefsa-town”, because names gives certain associations - so or so. But if somewone like names in an artificiel language - may he / she do so.
Therefore someone other can have a “Shakespeare Avenue”. And therefore someone can have churches, synagogues or indigen tempels, shintos or hinduistic or bhuddistic elements. Or a brandnew religion - why not?
I think, in OGF-world is a lot of freedom, and that is good so. But if anybody install an theocratic or dictatoric regime it is no wonder, if the neigbours of this land looks astonished. We have the rule, not to write about an strange land in the wiki without the permission from the land-owner. This o.k. must not be discussed in the “user diaries” here in front of the public, but can ask and given with inbox/outbox-messages.