I tried that for @O’Darby III over there, but maybe it hurt his chances. Certainly didn’t help.
Banned from Christianity Board
- Thread starter SteVen
- Start date
I tried that for @O’Darby III over there, but maybe it hurt his chances. Certainly didn’t help.
O'Darby III
Active member
Wow, you are desperate. @Wrangler can lobby on my behalf too, because I would love the opportunity to tell them to shove their silly forum up their "Christian" asses.
"And whoever does not receive you nor listen to your words, as you leave that house or city [or internet forum], shake the dust off your feet." Matthew 10:14.
SteVen
Active member
I turn it over to God.
If he wants me to have a voice there, He will open the way.
(I would not be terribly surprised) God has shown me favor in many similar situations.
If it doesn't work out, that is fine too. Thanks.
]
SteVen
Active member
LOL
If God wants me to continue to have a voice there, he will work it out.
Access would be good. I've been migrating topics over here.
I worked hard on those topics. (7+ pages worth of titles)
]
I just went over and discovered that I too have been banned. "Your account has been disabled for violation of (unspecified) rules."It's funny, because that place has maybe a couple or three dozen active posters among supposedly thousands of active members. It's a facade.
O'Darby III
Active member
This confirms what I was beginning to suspect. My suspicion was that someone had noticed or been alerted that several participants at CB were also posting here and that there would be a wholesale purge. The fact you hadn't been banned was a fly in the ointment of that theory. Voila, it has now been confirmed.
It's funny, because that place has maybe a couple or three dozen active posters among supposedly thousands of active members. It's a facade.
For @Wrangler's information, I was on perfectly good terms with a couple of moderators as well. I had reported a number of posts that were in clear violation of the "no discussion of the Trinity" rule and had been thanked and complimented. I believe the basis for the bannings comes down to - as it always does - nothing more substantive than "You're more trouble than you're worth and you're upsetting our pet regulars."
The problem there is the exact problem that led to the creation of this site a couple of years ago. I was on a site called theologyforums.com and the Moderators had no direction and not even any interaction with the owner. Same thing now at Christianity Board. The Mods do whatever they please and the owner does nothing.
So the Mods go rogue.
Two Forums..... one owner.
"Our community has been around for many years and pride ourselves on offering unbiased, critical discussions among people of all different backgrounds."
Seriously-- that's their motto. --it's just not their practice.
O'Darby III
Active member
Perhaps the most stunning example is the notorious City-Data. I've been a regular at the Religion & Spirituality forum as Irkle Berserkle, Troglodyte, Zonked, Little Bo Peep, The Venerable Bede, O'Darby and probably five others I can't even remember. The moderation, to use the term loosely, is indescribably arbitrary and inconsistent, although far more active and heavy-handed than most. The moderators seem to revel in their curious "power," as though they have no other lives. Until I got completely bored, I enjoyed reappearing in some new guise just to see how long I could pull it off.
When I started this place-- I built the platform and gifted the whole thing to the Admin from the old site. He brought over all the same moderators with him and with that move-- all of the issues that folks were having with them at the old site. As for myself-- I took no stake in ownership nor Admin. But-- the same folks that were trouble on the old site were trouble on this new site. @Mattathias was among them-- so I tried to bring him on board to resolve a conflict he was having. His pride prevented him from reconciling.
Ultimately, the owner to whom I had gifted this site- fired all the moderators and banned everyone-- including me, during a mental break of some sort. I scooped the site from the ashes and acquired it back from him to prevent it from going into the Internet dust bin.
I have some ideas for site promotion-- this place won't be (exactly) like the others.
Incidentally-- I've now rejected membership access to more than 30 requestors. Some are obvious spammers. Some are known trouble-makers.
O'Darby III
Active member
I do sympathize with the massive sites in the sense that moderation is extremely difficult when you have hundreds or thousands of posts per day and that controlling the moderation is extremely difficult when you have perhaps 40 moderators who are generally volunteers anyway. Hence, a hugely successful forum becomes a victim of its own success, and all the problems endemic to internet forums are magnified. A smaller, more easily controlled forum becomes basically the equivalent of the private email list that I described some of us refugees from the atheistic FACTS forum having created decades ago. There was also a really wonderful, informative site called UFO Updates (now defunct) that was basically like a private email list and that attracted almost all of the true luminaries of the UFO field; that's the one forum I don't recall ever descending into complete snarky chaos.
Every forum does seem eventually to reach a stage of entrenched moderators and entrenched pet regulars, and I don't know how this could be avoided.
Someone has to moderate the Moderators. That person is either the Owner, or an Administrator appointed by the Owner.
When there's a failure to act in this capacity-- (the designated adult)-- then the kids run roughshod and ruin the place like it's a frat house.