Atheist Forums - Rules & Information

Reporting Posts / Users (A Quick Clarification)

Thu, 29 Oct 2015 00:55:13 +0000

Recently we've had to reach out to a number of members because they were unintentionally abusing the reporting system, which is against the rules. Although we didn't punish any of these members, we felt it was important to clarify something about the reporting procedures in place here.

Whenever you report a post or a user, a new thread is created in a hidden forum which only staff have access to. The thread contains all the information that staff usually need to look into the issue: the reported user's name, their post (if applicable), the name of the member who reported, and the reason given, etc.

Staff have a duty to look into the report, discuss it, come to a decision, and then archive it. We don't keep reports in that forum for long, but rather move them to a separate archive. We do this so that we can see at a glance how many open reports there still are.

An issue that we run into from time to time is when a single person reports multiple posts by the same user for the same kind of violation (e.g. if a user is trolling the forums and a member reports 10 of their troll posts in quick succession). This situation is annoying and delays the staff's ability to respond quickly, as we have to deal with merging multiple reports which all cover the same violation.

If you are reporting a user for spam, you only need to report one of their posts (or alternatively, report their profile). We will look into their profile and recent posts in either case, so reporting every post they make is unnecessary. When reporting the post / profile, you can type a reason for the report, and feel free to mention that there are multiple other posts by the user which violate a rule. If you want to be extra helpful, after you've made the report, send a PM to a staff member (or staff members) and link us to as many posts as you want us to be aware of. We'll add those posts to the report and be able to discuss them at once.

Doing this will really help the staff out, as we can then dedicate more time to actually dealing with rule breakers rather than trying to make sense of multiple reports for the same thing!

Thanks for reading!

- Tiberius

P.S. I also want to be clear that people who continue to report multiple posts because they didn't read this message aren't going to get punished. We appreciate people reporting rule violations, and don't want to discourage that. Abuse of the reporting system has to be intentional for us to do anything about it.

Minor Protection Policy

Mon, 30 Mar 2015 18:26:03 +0000

While we have always had ad hoc policies in place with respect to minor/adult interaction at Atheist Forums, recent events have underscored the need to formally publish our policy regarding the protection of minors.

Minor Protection Policy Statement

The owner and staff of atheistforums.org ("the site") take the protection of minors from predators very seriously. As the membership consists both of minors and adults in a relatively unrestricted discussion forum that also features private communications, we are immediately implementing this official policy regarding the protection of minor members. This policy overrides and replaces any prior ad hoc policies and procedures.

Staff Responsibility

The staff is committed to keeping the site free of predators.
To that end, the staff will cooperate fully with any official investigation of inappropriate contact with minors on this site.
Likewise, the staff will respond to reports of inappropriate contact promptly and in good faith, in accordance with this policy, and will conduct it's own investigation and take whatever action is deemed necessary.

Member Responsibility

Members are responsible for maintaining lawful, age-appropriate contact with minors.
Members are responsible for reporting any suspected inappropriate contact as soon as possible after being made aware of said contact.
Persons under a court order restricting contact with minors are not authorized to use the site.

Reporting Process

Any staff or member that is aware of possible inappropriate contact with minor members will notify a staff member via Private Message (PM) or via the site reporting system. It is never appropriate to do so in public forum.
Any staff member who receives a report of possible inappropriate contact will immediately post the report in the staff forum.
The site administrators will investigate the allegations, and will take appropriate action, including notifying proper authorities if necessary.

Violations

Any violation of this policy will result in discipline, up to and including permanent removal from the site and/or notifying the appropriate authorities.

Privacy Policy

Sat, 16 Nov 2013 21:54:43 +0000

This has been something I've worked on with the help from others for a while now, and it's finally ready to publish.

A number of sites have privacy policies that tell the user what information is stored about them, and for how long it is stored. Whilst these sites tend to be large and have millions of users connect daily, in my view, this is something every site should be doing. Your information is just that; yours. By being open about how we store and what we do with your information, you can make a reasoned decision on whether you want to use our site or not.

Our new privacy policy is available here: http://atheistforums.org/privacy.php

As always with something like this, it is a work in progress. If you are confused about things in the policy, let us know and we can update it to make it more understandable. Likewise, if you believe the policy does not cover something, we can always add to it as well.

Whilst the staff do have a degree of control over the information stored in the forums, the best people to direct questions to over how it is stored would be myself and Moros Synackaon, as we both administrate the actual server. Unless there is a specific reason for contacting either of us via PM though, questions should be posted in this thread.

- Tiberius

Pidgin Tutorial for the Atheist Forums IRC Chat

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:34:35 +0000

I've been asked a couple of times by some people on how to use Pidgin. I know for some of you, the clients embedded into the website can crash and cause problems. A lot of use special IRC clients, and I personally use Pidgin, which was suggested to me by Adrian because it's easier to use by the more IRC illiterate. So the following is a simple tutorial on setting up Pidgin.

First, start by downloading the program.

Once downloaded, go through the normal installation process. Run the program when you're done.

Pidgin will pop up with a notification that you do not have any accounts configured. Click Add. You'll see a window that looks like this:

Under Login Options you'll want to fill in the following fields:

Protocol: Choose IRC
Username: Your Username
Server: irc.dal.net (It will automatically be set to "freemode" but you need to change it to "dal".
Password: If you have registered your username with dal.net you can enter it here and save it so you don't need to identify every time you enter the chat. If you don't have a registered username you can leave this blank.
Local Alias: No need to enter anything here.

*I recommend registering your username so no one can pretend to be you. There are certain IRC commands that let you do this, I unfortunately don't remember what they are. Maybe Adrian would be kind enough to post about that. -_^

Once you have completed this process you'll see a blank buddy list. From here you can simply click on "Buddies>Join a Chat" and then enter #atheistforums (No password needed). However if your sole purpose of using Pidgin is for the atheist forums chat, you can set it up so you login into the chat automatically. Here's how:

Click on "Buddies>Add Chat". You'll find a window that looks like this:

All you need to do here is enter #atheistforums in the channel field and check off autojoin and you're all set. It will add #atheistforums to your buddy list and automatically connect you when you open Pidgin.

Pidgin also has some fun plugins, which you can browse through here. Once downloaded, you can edit them by clicking "Tools>Plugins".

And there you have it! Any thoughts, questions?

Forum Rules

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:36:16 +0000

Please refer to our forum rules page here: http://atheistforums.org/rules.php

Forum Netiquette Guide

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:41:02 +0000

This forum is largely dedicated to discussion and debates, and as a result how you present yourself online goes a long way to how your argument is received by others. There are general netiquette guidelines that, in essence, help your posts to be taken seriously and prevent you from coming off as stupid/annoying/flaming. While most rules outlined here won't necessarily result in a ban if you chose not to follow them, it's still a good idea to understand how you present yourself greatly affects the way you are perceived. This is similar to the idea of how you gesture, what facial expressions you make, actions you take, also affect how people react to your arguments.

First, I want to explain what "netiquette" is.

Wikipedia Wrote:Netiquette (a compound formed from "net etiquette") is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums. These rules were described in IETF RFC 1855.[1] However, like many Internet phenomena, the concept and its application remain in a state of flux, and vary from community to community. The points most strongly emphasized about USENET netiquette often include using simple electronic signatures, and avoiding multiposting, cross-posting, off-topic posting, hijacking a discussion thread, and other techniques used to minimize the effort required to read a post or a thread. Netiquette guidelines posted by IBM for employees utilizing Second Life in an official capacity, however, focus on basic professionalism, maintaining a tenable work environment, and protecting IBM's intellectual property.[2] Similarly, some Usenet guidelines call for use of unabbreviated English[3][4] while users of online chat protocols like IRC and instant messaging protocols like SMS often encourage just the opposite, bolstering use of SMS language.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette

Ultimately, it is etiquette designed for the internet. There are many different rules and conventions regarding netiquette, and I will provide links at the end that discuss netiquette at length if you feel so inclined. However, I plan to highlight here certain netiquette that is specifically geared toward this forum.

Spelling/Grammar

It's very common for people to start using chatspeak on the internet, as it provides a way to communicate faster by typing less characters. Ex. How r u? The problem with chatspeak is it's meant for simple dialog and this is a discussion forum. So to put it plainly, when you're getting into a debate/discussion here and you use chatspeak, you 'sound' dumb. Obviously we can't hear you, but in our heads you come off as an uneducated idiot. It would be like a professor speaking with ghetto slang words. It doesn't necessarily mean that you are dumb, but you're not giving a good impression. Most people will ignore or laugh at someone who can't use simple spelling or grammar.

Therefore, when you are getting into an discussion, type out all your words and use spell-check. Almost every browser has them built in now, but if you don't have it, open word and check it there. Then, once you've finished typing, read what you wrote. Look for spelling mistakes, typos, missing periods, etc... No one is perfect and people make mistakes all the time. (I'm sure there's a mistake in here somewhere. :/ ) However, if you make the effort to write complete words and complete sentences, people will notice and take you more seriously.

This rule also applies to l33tsp34k, which is the method of using other numbers/characters that look similar to the alphabet in order to chat. However, chat abbreviations like "lol" and "btw" are often acceptable as long as they are not overused and avoided in more formal discussions.

Fluff Posting

Fluff posting is when you respond to a thread that doesn't add anything to the conversation, or in some cases derails it. Saying "That's nice", "Thanks for sharing", or "cool" is not really adding to the discussion, and this is a discussion driven forum. Everyone has fluff posted before, and in general, it's not a terrible thing. However, it's when people do it too much that it can really hurt the conversation, especially if two people start fluff posting off topic jokes, etc... It's okay in small doses, but if it continues to happen, you could get a warning from a moderator.

If you want to show agreement or respect to a post but cannot think of anything to say to add to the thread, please consider using the kudos button below the post instead. This will add kudos to the post, and to the member who wrote it.

Avoid Flame Wars

We are an atheist forum that is welcoming to theists of all brands as long as they don't preach. Even among the atheists and agnostics here, there's a lot of idealogical disagreement. As such, heated discussions often happen. While it's against the rules to personally attack someone, we do permit some incendiary language as long as it doesn't become a flame war. Flame wars are usually between two people, but it can be more, where they constantly insult each other with long vitriolic rants. The point is to insult and it adds little conversational value. That is forbidden here. We are a group of snarky people, but we do try to keep a level of decorum here, and hope you do too. Attacking a person's argument and calling it idiotic is one thing; to do so to a person is another. Understanding the difference can help you get along well in here.

Tone Matters

Because the internet is text based and we cannot hear the person speaking, we lose the tone of voice. Text is very matter of fact, and therefore one person can misunderstand what another person is saying if they don't know it is intended to be sarcastic or witty. Try to think about what tone your text has by considering word choices and maybe using certain cues to convey a specific tone.

One way to do so is to use smilies. However, overusing smiles can make you seem smug or just annoying. (At least to me.) It ultimately depends on how you use them. Adding a smiley face to the end of a post can help make the post seem more positive. Adding a wink can convey sarcasm. We have a great selection of smilies to convey lots of moods. Use them wisely, but remember you can also come off as a smart ass if you use them too much, or inappropriately. It's all about balance.

Another way to convey emotion is to end a statement with /sarcasm or /rant. These internet cues inform people that you were being sarcastic or you ranting in general and not necessarily yelling at them. Since sarcasm and general ranting can be easily misconstrued as personal attacks, it's always good to use them, especially if you're not sure the person will get it. Better safe then sorry.

Similarly, typing in all capital letters is associated with shouting. IF YOU TYPE LIKE THIS, PEOPLE WILL FEEL LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING AND IT WILL ALSO MAKE IT HARDER TO READ BECAUSE PEOPLE THEN READ IT WORD FOR WORD INSTEAD OF AS A FLOWING SENTENCE. If you want to convey shouting, that's fine, and it can be appropriate in some cases. If I'm making a sarcastic comment, I sometimes use the caps lock button myself. However, typing in all caps is not necessary and nobody really likes it.

How to emphasize

Oftentimes in a conversation, we want to emphasize a certain word to show that it's important to the point we are making. The best way to do this is to use italics. Sometimes people use bold, other people use capital letters. These are okay, but can make reading your response difficult to read if you overuse them, and in the case of capitals, make it appear that you're shouting. Italics are a smooth way to emphasize words, and I personally recommend that method. This is an extremely loose rule, but valuable, nonetheless, since a lot of us do it.

To use italics, put the text you want italicised between two [i] tags like so:

Code:
This text is not italicised, but [i]this text is[/i].

Quoting

Quoting is a valuable tool; it lets people know who we are responding to. In this forum specifically, every time you hit reply instead of using quick reply, you quote that person. If that person replies the same way, and then you reply again, and so on and so on, you end up with what's quote vortex. In my BB Code Guide, you can see an example of quote vortexing. It's extremely annoying and can make a thread seem cluttered and hard to follow. If you're quoting someone who has quoted you, remove your original quote to keep it clean.

Another thing to remember is that there is no reason to quote someone's really long post, especially if you're making a short reply. It's annoying, clutters threads, and is really unnecessary. There are a few things you can do to avoid this. First, you can use quick reply instead (which does not automatically quote) and refer to the person's username to show you're responding to him/her. Another method is to simply cut out the important bit you are responding to, and only quote that. Another method, if you really must quote the entire thing, is to use the Hide tags, (refer to BB Guide) so that the entire quote is still there, but hidden by a button people can click.

If you are responding to an image posted, never, I repeat, never quote the picture or a video. We've all seen it once, we don't need to see it again in the next post down.

Another common practice is to cut up posts into quotes and respond to each point with your own point. This is completely acceptable, but remember to avoid quote vortexing if you respond the same way.

Also, preview your post if you're quoting, especially if you've cut up a post and quoted point by point. It's easy to get confused with a lot of quoting BB Code and miss a /quote, ruining the entire format of your post. This can result in a reader being unable to distinguish when you or the other person is talking.

Excessive quote vortexing, or quoting large texts/images can result in moderator warnings.

Paragraphs

Paragraphs are your friend. No, really, they are. If you write a long post please break it up into paragraphs. The internet is not like reading a book or piece of paper. A large block of text is daunting, straining on the eyes, and ultimately hard to follow. Break up your post into paragraphs. Use whitespace. This means, press that enter button twice so there's a space between the first paragraph and the next one. If you don't do this, don't be surprised if you get a string of tl;dr. You deserve it.

Using Sources/Plagiarism

If you're quoting a source, never post an entire article. Use a snippet that is relevant to your point and then link to the article, website, or study. What I did at the beginning of this post is a perfect example of how to appropriately quote a source.

Similarly, never plagiarize. If you get caught plagiarizing, you could be banned. Always give credit where credit is due.

Note: If you're making a scientific claim and post to a website promoting your idea and not an actual scientific study, most of us will ignore you and dismiss your claim. It's always important to consider your sources and how valid they are. Posting a link to a flashing website about how sand can cure cancer, which amounts to a bunch of testimonials, is not proof. Posting links to established medical websites, with studies that show the efficacy of sand as a cancer cure, is proof.

Necroposting

Necroposting is when you respond to an old thread. In essence, the thread has already served its purpose or is too old to matter anymore. If you are about to post in a thread that is more than a month old, you will notice this message abover the textbox: " You are about to post in an old thread that has not been active for more than a month. Please consider creating a new thread instead of reviving an old one." Please avoid posting when you see a message like that. It's considered bad netiquette, and honestly, you will probably be served better by creating a new post.

Bumping

Bumping is when you post "bump" or a fluff in order to bring your post to the top of the page in hopes more people will read/respond. Hence bump stands for "bring up my post". Once again, this is bad netiquette. It makes you seem like you just want attention and frankly, it's annoying. Please refrain from doing it, or you will be warned by the moderators.

Spam/Preaching

Lumped together, because I consider them pretty much the same thing.

This is a discussion forum, so even if you have a really awesome website you want everyone to see, we don't know you from a hole in the wall and could really care less. If you want to promote a website, the best way to do it is in your signature. We do allow you to promote a personal website/blog if you are an established member. Otherwise, spammers will be banned.

As far as preaching goes, this is a discussion forum. If you want to share your ideas and debate why you believe in God, awesome. If you want to tell us Jesus will save us and repent now or we go to hell, you will be mocked. No one cares, we've heard it all before. In fact, you're fair game for flaming and excessive snark. You will be banned if you keep it up.

Don't Feed the Troll

Trolls are people whose only intent is to insult and get a rise out of you. Trolls are banned as soon as they're spotted, but it's important to remember that if you come across a troll to report them to a moderator. Feeding a troll is generally discouraged, though not ban worthy. We're pretty quick to react with the ban hammer. Trolls often look remarkably like preachers. I'm certain they come from the same bloodline.

Swearing/Cursing

Fuck this, we're all adults here. (Or most of us are...)

In all seriousness, some places have rules against swearing. We don't. We allow any kind of dirty word as long as it's not used to specifically attack another member. (Unless of course, in good humored jest.) Racial slurs will be met with appropriate mocking and repeated use of them could result in a banning. Some of us might have filthy mouths, but we don't condone bigotry.

Clickbait

Members should try to avoid posting "Clickbait" threads. We consider clickbait threads to be those where the thread subject spills into the first post and hides otherwise relevant information, or where the thread subject is so generic it conveys almost nothing to a potential reader about the contents of the thread. People should be at least partially aware of what a thread is about when they click on it, and leaving out relevant information from a thread subject does not encourage discussion and can even dissuade it.

Conclusion

We're all here to have fun and engage in intriguing discussions. A lot of this amounts to good common sense. Remember, you're talking to another person at the end of these tubes and the best rule of thumb is to interact with them the way you would face to face. Avoid bad internet habits that can make you come off as a blithering idiot and we'll all get along. ^_^

For further reading on Netiquette, please consult:
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ia_nq.htm
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc-sci/netiquette.html
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/primer/part1/

BB Code Guide

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:27:50 +0000

Note: I created this guide to help people familiarize themselves with BB code, and also as a quick reference guide, especially for custom made BB code. This page will be updated if any new codes are created.

BB Code Guide

Here is a list of useful BB codes to use while you are on these forums. Some of these codes are basic, well-known and can be used with buttons when you post, others have been created specifically for the forums and may be a little tricker.

Just like HTML, BB Code uses tags, however instead of <> and symbols, we use [] and [/] symbols. Many HTML tags can be transferred into BB code tags such as the ones for bolding, italicizing, and underlining text, however not all HTML tags translate directly into BB Code. Here are some examples of BB Code that can be useful in your forum experience.

Quote
Quoting is great for showing other members what you are referring to in a reply. Hitting the reply button automatically generates a quote, but you can make your own using this tag.

Code:
[quote]I am God[/quote]

Example:

Quote:I am God

You can also signify who you are quoting by inserting their name into the code.

Code:
[quote=God]I am God[/quote]

Example:

God Wrote:I am God

When quoting someone, it's important to remember it's considered bad netiquette to quote a large post or image, especially when replying to them with only a few sentences. It is a good idea to cut out parts of the quote that have nothing to do with what you are replying to, or to hide the quote or image using a hide tag (which is demonstrated further down). When in doubt, don't quote at all. Simply addressing a person by his/her username is sufficient to let people know who and what you are referring to.

Another thing to remember is not to quote vortex. Quote vortexing is when people have quoted each other so many times and have embedded quotes within a quote that it has created a vortex. An example of quote vortexing is as follows:

Code:
[quote=God]

[quote=Joe]

[quote=God]

[quote=Joe]

[quote=God]

[quote=Joe]

[quote=God]I am God[/quote]

No you're not[/quote]

Yes I am[/quote]

I don't believe you [/quote]

Too bad, it's true[/quote]

You lie[/quote]

I do not [/quote]

Example:

God Wrote:
Joe Wrote:
God Wrote:
Joe Wrote:
God Wrote:
Joe Wrote:
God Wrote:I am God
No you're not
Yes I am
I don't believe you
Too bad, it's true
You lie
I do not

As you can see, the embedded quotes can get annoying, so if you are quoting someone that has quoted you previously, or someone else, please trim out the excessive quoting.

Repeated failure to follow these netiquette rules can result in a warning from the moderators.

Image

In order to insert an image into the forums you can use the img tag.

Code:
[img]http://atheistforums.org/images/smilies/tiger.gif[/img]

Example:

Some images may not fit in the dimensions of your screen. This can create annoying scrollbars for some people and detract from viewing this site. If you are posting an image that is incredibly big, especially wide, you can use this code to make the image fit without resizing it yourself.

Code:
[imgfit]http://www.someplace.com/reallybigimage.jpg[/imgfit]

Links

Copying a link into a post automatically generates a hyperlink, but if you wish to link some text, you can use the url tag.

Code:
[url=http://www.atheistforums.org]This[/url] is my favorite forum

This is my favorite forum

Hide

If you want to quote something with really long text or an image, or if you want to hide a text with spoilers or answers to something, you can use the Hide tag to create a button for people to click in order to show that text.

Code:
[hide] You can't see me [/hide]

Example:

Wikipedia

You can now easily link to Wikipedia articles using the article's name in the new wiki tags.

Code:
[wiki]atheism[/wiki]

will result in a link to the Wikipedia article on "atheism", with the link text set to "atheism", like so: atheism

Whereas typing this:

Code:
[wiki=atheism]This is a good article on atheism.[/wiki]

Youtube

The need to use the following youtube tags are no longer necessry as Adrian has implemented an automedia feature, however I will leave the instructions up for reference and explain the auto media feature.

Automedia
In order to post a youtube video, all you need to do is post the link and the forum will automatically format it into an embedded video. If you wish to only display a link, use the following amoff tag. For example:

Code:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-syH7OK-_0E

More details here

Old Youtube Tags

You can embed a youtube video into the forum by using the youtube tag. Every youtube video has a specific video code after the = in the web address. So for example, in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-syH7OK-_0E the link code is "-syH7OK-_0E". You use this code to insert into the youtube tag, like so:

Code:
[youtube]-syH7OK-_0E[/youtube]

Example:
[youtube]-syH7OK-_0E[/youtube]

Another variation of the youtube code allows you to embed not just a video, but a playlist of videos. This is helpful, since youtube has a 10 minute time limit, so sometimes people have to upload large videos into 10 minute sections. This tag works the same way as the youtube tag, except you use the youtubep tag and insert the playlist code instead of the video code.

For example, this playlist http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=...4B600FF0B9 has the code "10230C4B600FF0B9" and you insert it like this:

Code:
[youtubep]10230C4B600FF0B9[/youtubep]

Example:

Code

The code tag allows you to show various computer codes as plain text. As you may have noticed, I have been using the tag to show you the various BB codes. It works the same as any other tag using the word "code"

[code]Code goes here.[/code]

If you have any questions about BB Codes, please feel free to ask any of the admins or moderators on the forum.

When complaining about other users who have broken the rules

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:42:12 +0000

This forum has been growing lately and as a result we need to make it clear the best course of action to take when you feel another user has broken the rules.

It is not appropriate to make a public thread to complain about another a user. We've let this slide in the past, but honestly it really isn't the best way to deal with issues like this.

If you feel a user has violated the rules, the best thing to do is to report the post in which they have done so. Doing so brings the matter to the attention of the moderators/admins almost immediately and action, if deemed necessary, is taken soon after.

Another method of dealing with complaints is to PM a moderator/admin. While it is still private and acceptable, the report system is better since it makes every moderator/admin aware and permits quicker response time if the person you PM is not online.

In either case, it's important that these matters be dealt with privately and no longer in public threads. If you create a public thread complaining about another member, it will be removed.

We all hope you understand this new restriction and comply for the benefit of everyone.

And thank you all, you continue to make this forum an enjoyable place to hang out online.

Important information for theists.

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:00:40 +0000

Although theists are more than welcome to join in with debates and discussions on these forums you must remember that this is primarily a forum for like minded individuals.

Therefore I have prepared a short list of things that some theists tend to say which can detract from the discussion and/or are simply irrational, rude, annoying and disrespectful.

Please keep the following list in mind when posting and we should all get along very nicely.

You are asked to avoid..

Telling them that since there isn't a god they might as well kill themselves now.
Telling them that since there isn't a god they might as well kill other people.
Telling them they don't believe because an evil power is controlling their lives.
Trying to make your belief appear more truthful by TYPING IN CAPITALS.
Telling them that they don’t believe because something bad happened in their lives.
Telling them you know God exists because the Bible says so and that the Bible is true because God said so.
Insisting that they really do believe in God but are afraid to admit it.
Ending your posts with “god loves you” or “I’ll pray for you.”
Arguing that evolution isn’t true by simply pointing to a site such as AnswersInGenesis or being so ignorant as to say "it's just a theory".
Quoting Psalm 14:1
Asking them to open their hearts and give Jesus a chance.
Telling them they are going to hell.

When talking to atheists

Most theists have a rather naive view of what an atheist actually is. So, before you start debating with atheists it's best to be armed with a bit of knowledge.

An atheist is simply someone who is not a theist. Commonly, atheists don't believe in a god or gods. Most typically this takes the form of the god of the Bible, the Koran etc.

Other than that there is no particular reason why atheists should have anything else in common.

Here are a few things that atheists are not..

Someone who hates God. You can't hate something you don't believe exists.
In league with the Devil or Demons.
Rebelling against religion or God.
Under the control of evil spirits.
Immoral, Emotionless, Heartless, Closed Minded, Cold etc.
Someone who lacks beliefs, ideas and philosophies.

What is an agnostic?

Agnostics are people who claim that it is either unknown or impossible to know whether any deity exists or not. The word derives from the Greek word gnosis (knowledge) being negated by the privative alpha, giving us the Greek word agnosis (without knowledge). Agnosticism is compatible with both atheism and theism; an agnostic atheist says, "I don't know if God exists or not but I don't believe he does" (or "I believe he doesn't"), while an agnostic theist says, "I don't know if God exists or not but I believe he does." There is an important difference between what one knows and what one believes; people can believe things they don't know, e.g., that life exists on other planets. (It is disputed whether or not it is possible for an agnostic to be neither atheist nor theist.)

Agnostic (weak) atheist

This is the most typical kind of atheist. An agnostic atheist will admit that there is no way to prove or disprove the existence of a god but chooses not to believe. This is largely but not exclusively due to the lack of evidence.

Gnostic (strong) atheist

Strong atheism is a position that certain types of gods definitely do not exist. An atheist may be gnostic towards the non-existence of some types of gods yet an agnostic atheist towards other types of gods.

From http://www.strongatheism.net:

"Strong Atheism is the proposition that we should not suspend judgment about the non-existence of a god or gods. More extensively, it is a positive position against theistic values, semantics and anti-materialism, a rational inquiry in the nature of religious thought, a new way of thinking about religious and spiritual issues."

What is an apatheist?

Apatheism is not having a belief in god and couldn't care less if a god exists or not.