I propose a reboot.
I'm concerned, and something is likely to start to happen as a result of what is going on. There's a lot of bad blood around here, and I won't say much of it is unearned. But it is not helping. I'm not immune either, I've been plenty pissed off, and I'm sure I've pissed others off as well. But a couple of problems are arising.
1. We're starting to get reactions here in A&A of posters that do not accept the tone of discourse right now, here, within the group. For every one that gets banned for flipping out over it, you can be sure many others just walked away, saying nothing. All that produces is an echo chamber, and nobody benefits from that. There have been hinting posts here and there that other users that don't post much are not enjoying what is happening right now, and these are our friends.
2. There is increasingly credible huff and noise about the possibility of creating additional groups, to get around well-earned bans/turn this folder into even more of an echo chamber/result in the tumbleweed fest that we can see resulted in breaking out faith based forums into interfaith, and the like. Dilution is unhelpful in this context. It's another tool to chip away at A&A, just as bad or worse than someone masquerading in here about being an atheist or agnostic, and instead, being an religious apologist contrarian and starting shit.
3. Jury comments. There's a lot of bitter vets out there. Either people who look in here and see the vitriol, and assume the worst about all of us, or worse, people getting taken out by multiple hides for posting things here that aren't acceptable anywhere on DU, and frankly, deserve a hide. I see a lot of comments in jury decisions where the jury member is clearly prejudiced against the group, and that might spread.
I understand all of the bitterness. I do. The phrase "I've been plenty provoked, thank you very much" comes to mind. I totally understand, and I share much of it. But the vitriol here, the knee jerk reactions, the coded mockery of specific posters, it's all going to come to a very bad end if we all don't take a breath, take a step back, and clear the content of anger.
I propose, before posting anything here, take a moment to consider, 'would this post survive in GD?'
I don't want to compare to other subgroups that have SOP's that serve to ban us on one-two post notice, I mean, would XYZ post reflect well on, and be acceptable in the DU community at large? If no, maybe better not to post it.
Sometimes a victory lap, or spiking the ball in the endzone can produce a penalty. Let's not be the ones to do that. If we need to blow off steam, there are other outlets off DU, apparently.
Anyhoo, just a proposition, food for thought. My hope is that the discourse IN HERE could be clean enough that if someone new wandered in, they wouldn't be aghast at our own comments. It's bad PR at the least.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Is that randomly selected jurors often don't know the long and rancorous history here. In one of the recent AA mega-threads, a juror complained about "being dragged into the religion wars again." I can't blame that juror. If I were a normal DU user with no skin in the Religion/AA debate, I'd resent being dragged into this too.
But jurors like that just see what probably looks like petty squabbling, and don't know our back-story:
Such as two of the comedians you mentioned above, claiming atheists openly discriminate against the religious because they can no longer openly discriminate against gays and racial minorities.
Such as blasting members of the A/A group as "malcontents" and bragging about making the Religion forum a "nicer place." Clearly implying a place with no outspoken atheists. Though NICE atheists were still welcome, I guess.
Such as posters in Religion openly calling for non-believers to be banned completely from that forum, even though the forum description explicitly welcomes non-believers.
Such as lecturing people endlessly on their Atheist Privilege, while steadfastly refusing to recognize their own privilege.
And let's not forget the master-baiters in Religion, who provoke people until they get an alertable response. Where they are no doubt hoping to rope in Jurors with no knowledge of The Great DU Schism.
So yes, along with the thought-provoking posts about atheism in general etc. in this group, I often come here to enjoy childish humor at the expense of these pompous, self-appointed guardians of All That Is Right And Good. It reminds me of the classic mission of journalism - to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Having said all that, I'd rather not get booted and know that we have quite a few itchy little Alert Fingers in here nowadays. So I will try to be good. 
Hi, trolls! Nice to see you again.
(This is NOT directed at you. I hope you know that!)
The only thing I can think of is to not Religion or Interfaith arguments spill over here then.
Would mean a whole lot of thread locks until everybody got used to it. 
So "successful" they opened a branch office to enlarge profits, imo. 
Probably in their view, opening the alerters' transparency would increase their headaches.
Seems like it would decrease the problems for members, though. I'm all for transparency. 
No need to keep poking them with a stick? 
I feel lucky that I live in a part of the world where the corner rats are basically ignored, and shrivelling away.
I was hoping that we might consider burying the hatchet, so to speak, (preferably underground, and not IN someone) but it looks like that's not a broadly appealing option, AND as we can see in this very thread, the hostile alerts will continue, so.
Here's what I'm doing. I'm using alert too. I see a post out there that violates TOS/DU standards, I'm pushing that sucker, and I'm making a calm, reasonable case for it. They want to root around in here, fine. I will do the same in response. I encourage all of you to do so as well. It takes a few, but when people get near 3-4 hides, I notice a violent shift through the 5 stages of denial, and then the poster's demeanor calms considerably. So, I suppose, it does work in a way.
So that means, if you don't want to get hit in response, I suggest dropping the meta in this venue. In fact, I recommend dropping it anyway, as some posters have expressed above that it is a significant turn-off for the forum. Let's not shit where we eat.
But I am nothing if not honest, so I wanted you to all know (and them as well, hiya ) that I will use the alert/jury system as intended against appropriate posts, regardless of the venue they choose to conceal it in. (And I know I am not alone in this) Which means, we can hardly expect them to stop either, so... all's fair in love and war.
In the past, I never used the feature, because I prefer for shitty posts to be visible, but since we are clearly getting hit, and hosts in other venues aren't doing their jobs, fine. People want to play games, I play to win.
Please give pause before posting meta. Please. It is not my intent to provoke bystander casualties, but they were already doing it anyway so... try to minimize your target profile.
