[cinggooft]

I will have to agree with the consensus so far. Despite the usual quarreling and arguing etc which goes on from time to time, this is the only Islamic forum which I have seen where they (those running it) try their best to adhere to the Shri'ah. It is commendable how everything on SF from disabled private messaging to even the "small" things like smilies, everything has been setup according to advice from scholars (or so I understand). On SF, I don't see a list of 29 different things under each username in a thread, things such as name, address, gender, longitude and latitude, the # of pounds they can bench press, their social security & passport number, their favorite song to sing in the shower, their favorite color, how many dogs they own, and of course how much ultra, mega, super-duper (exuuuber) "Rep Power" they have.

SF prevents things like showing off and promotes humility. I can make the 'best' posts but no one can give me any ultra, mega, super-duper (exuuuber) "Rep Power" to my username, so my intention becomes to help someone rather than try to score ultra, mega, super-duper (exuuuber) "Rep Power" points... and Insha'Allah get some duas in the process instead of ultra, mega, super-duper (exuuuber) "Rep Power".

The only time I usually end up on other Islamic forums is when I might be Googling something and a thread from another forum pops up in the search results so I go to check it out.

I was recently actually doing some research and trying to see if there were any other active Islamic forums which could be a good fit for me, and I came across one which seemed very popular and the name sounded very Islamic, so I started browsing it. I saw some users had what seemed to be their picture with their dog in their avatars (unless of course it wasn't their pic), and then I saw there was a very lengthy thread about how their dogs act at home while they are making salat and engaged in other acts of ibaadah etc. There were many different users participating in that thread and it was all being discussed very casually. One user was saying their dog acts weird when they are making salat, it comes and starts jumping on them or something, etc etc. I left that forum at that time trying to figure out if I was dreaming or was it real. I meant to go back there to try to register and point them to some scholarly resources which explain the ruling on dogs... but for some reason I never did (still trying to figure out if maybe I was dreaming... no joke).

All in all... SF has it's cons, but I personally think the pros outweigh the cons; so for now I am hanging around. I do sometimes think about leaving as I feel the possibility of fitnah, more so from myself than from others (I don't want to end up saying something wrong and be held accountable for it in this world and/or the hereafter [may Allah forgive and protect us all, Ameen])... plus sometimes I have an issue with how some members of the opposite gender portray themselves (though often unintentionally I presume), the type of user-names some of them have (such as "Mein Khoobsurat Hoon" (I Am Beautiful) and then under it in pink it says "SISTER".... come on, fitnah alert... lol. (Not an actual username but I've seen some pretty close).

In any case, there's a long reply to a simple question. Sorry bro!