The Closing of the Religious Discussions Forums

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Genesis1315

Genesis1315

Ladies
Effective October 13, 2006

The Religious Discussions forum will be closing today. After almost 2 years as a moderator, I cannot support the decision to keep it open any longer. While I think there is a great potential for Christians to grow in an arena where topics can be addressed, I do not think that Religious Discussions on CGA will be such a place at this time.

When I first took on the position of moderator for RD, the forums were a joke. It was a hotbed of hostility and a general free-for-all on posting. Even after the forums were completely moderated, the posts were still fruitless. It was very discouraging to see brothers and sisters in the faith unwilling to bend in their opinion, even if it was wrong. Frustration does not begin to express emotions over those who would not change their mind about anything.

I cannot begin to count the number of hours spent in prayer for the members of CGA who post in Religious Discussions. The recommendation to close RD has come up many times, with ultimately, the decision resting on my shoulders as to whether or not to keep the RD forums going. Until now, I had hoped things would change...or people would change.

It has been through a considerable amount of prayer that I have come to this decision. God has continuously reminded me of the passage in the Bible where Jesus curses the fig tree because it does not produce fruit. It withered away and died. So, it is at this point that RD will close. It has not produced fruit.

I will continue to work on the Bible Study. Please do not move the RD topics to the Bible Study section of the forum. I will delete the posts and ban any user who does so. The Bible Study forum will be controlled discussion around specifically chosen topics. It is designed for Biblical growth. In addition, should anyone complain about this on any of the other forums, I will encourage the moderators of those forums to ban such users.

I am not leaving CGA, just redirecting my efforts to a place where God can receive the glory instead of the constant bantering, bickering and general disrespect that seems to regularly occur in RD. I wish all of you the best.

As always, if there are any questions, please PM me directly. This decision is not based on one specific person. If that was the case, the matter would be addressed via PM instead of the course of action posted here.

In Christ
Genesis1315
 
Firstly, I would like to note that this reply is not an attempt to get you to leave the RD forums open. From there....

I would like to thank you for all of the work that you put into the RD forums. With your explanation, I can truely appreciate what you've been through for us. Which leads me directly to my second point.

I wouldn't say that the RD forums have been fruitless. They actually meant a lot to me - on several occassions, they have stretched my understanding and lead me to research a specific topic in my Bible. I probably wasn't there for the "right" reasons (sometimes I was researching so I could prove my point and "be right"...reaffirming my beliefs), but I think that I learned some very important lessons, all the same.

With that said, though, I do understand how hard it is to keep working on a project that just doesn't seem to be going the direction that it should be. And if God is telling you to spend that extra time in the study area... who are we to contest? I'll have to find that area now, and pay more attention to what happens there.

Just remember this: your efforts have not been wasted. The forums have helped this one sheep. Thank you for leaving that beacon out for me as long as you did.
 
I do all of my "debating" on CCGR's forums. Don't know why, but it seems less hostile over there. I'm not saying that CGA's forum was bad.

I don't support or condemn the decision, as I didn't use it enough to make an informed opnion on it.



But here's a question: when a thread in General Discussions gets to be what we used to call "Worthy of being moved to RD", what will we do? I suppose the best thing to do would be to leave it here, but I dunno.
 
Luke 13:6-9

"A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put some manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

If you remove the tree, you also remove any possibility of it ever producing fruit.

If you close the forum, you remove the only place on this board for religious discourse.

Unfortunately, not only was the forum closed, but by removing it entirely, you have cut off any and all knowledge that was gained therein.

A mistake compounded by a mistake. Truly sad ones at that.

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
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The Hollow Men --TS Elliot
 
It is not all lost, someone could convince one of those lovely admins to restore it :P Unfortunately it is probably not worth the time and several of the latest posts will be lost.

If noone would care for the RD forums they would wither and die. So closing them was a better decision. Respect the mod for having the guts to say they need a break.

The RD forums are not the *only* place to discuss as long as the thread is not so horrible derailed *cough*. When you argue to the point of no end, having to read all of those posts and approving them has to be incredibly grating.
 
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The header indicates that there are 881 theads with 26,426 posts in the RD forum, but only about 30 or 40 (2 pages) actually show up. Is there a way to view older posts that I have missed?
 
Why not just ask for someone else to moderate the forums if you don't want to anymore Genesis? I think that would be a quite feasible way to solve the issue. If there was a posting about the position being open then I must have missed it. Please direct me to where if possible.
 
Then I think it would be nice to hear from the others who contributed to this decision and their thinking behind it.

What, exactly, was expected of RD? What "fruit" were you looking for? What, if anything, would bring it back?

Didn't you just go through a pledge drive? What about everyone that gave money for this board? Shouldn't you let the forum users vote on whether or not to keep it open?

Oh, and thanks for the heads up on the archives SirThom!
 
Dark Virtue said:
Didn't you just go through a pledge drive? What about everyone that gave money for this board? Shouldn't you let the forum users vote on whether or not to keep it open?
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They may be reopened, but for now they have to be closed.

You seem to be operating under the assumption that all decisions are final. It is best to let the leadership think this through and appoint decisions as needed.
 
I'm sad to see the RD forums go, particularly for the sake of Dark Virtue and others who like me thrive on these kinds of debates and discussions. But ultimately I have to support the decision to close them. I'd already personally elected that I would no longer debate issues on the RD forums, because I found it nearly impossible to either defend arguments I was making or to express disapproval or condemnation of opposing arguments without setting off red flags with the moderators. I don't say this to blame the moderators; though my personal conviction is to always err on the side of freedom of expression and the avoidance of censorship, I understand that the moderators had other priorities that were important for maintaining a family-friendly atmosphere and avoiding flame-wars. But the end result was a forum which nobody could be happy with - not those who wanted to debate, not those who wanted to avoid hostility and bad feelings.

The fact is, there are, and have always been, many places for religious discussions on the internet. And it is vitally important that Christians and others of good conscience enter them, because many are dominated by ideas and ideals that are quite harmful, and which lead people away from Christianity on principles that are completely, provably false. If someone is to reject Christianity, let that person reject it on a fully informed basis - not because they just read the 'DaVinci Code', accepting the author's deceptive attempts to mask his speculative fiction as established fact. Not because they were taught in Science class that Evolution as the origin of Humanity is an incontrovertible scientific fact, which is beyond debate or discussion. If we don't tell people the truth about these things, supporting that truth with facts and evidence, then who will?

Paul
 
There has been a range of reactions to the closing of the Religious Discussion Forum. Some people agree with the decision and others disagree, but people have posted their concerns thus far in a respectful manner. For that, I am thankful to all who have posted.

It's been asked on more than one occasion why Genesis did not simply retire and "pass the baton" to another member of the community. Under normal circumstances, this would be the appropriate and expected course of action. But the circumstances surrounding the RD Forum are not what one would consider normal.

A while back (Genesis could likely provide a more exact date), Genesis and I had a phone conversation regarding what to do with the Religious Discussion Forum. At that time, I was leaning toward closing the forum. Genesis convinced me to keep the forum open, on the condition that she would take responsibility for moderating the forum. It was, essentially, a compromise: the Religious Discussion forum would remain open to new posts, Genesis would serve as Lead Moderator, and I would support her in her role.

Given the circumstances, Genesis was well within her rights to close the forum. If not for her persistence and volunteering to serve as Lead Moderator, I would have closed the forum long ago.

That being said, I have not dismissed the possibility of re-opening the Religious Discussion forum under new manangement. It is an option, but one that will not be immediately decided. Genesis served as Lead Moderator of the Religious Discussion forum for a long span of time, and if, with the benefit of her experience, has concluded that it is in the best interest of the CGA to close the forum, at least temporarily, I trust her decision.

Again, the closing of Religious Discussion is not necessarily permanent, but I agree that it should be closed for a "season." I understand that the term "season" is vague, and ask that continued debate on the matter remain civil, as it has thus far.

If you are interested in volunteering to serve as Religious Discussion Forum Lead Moderator, please send me an e-mail at tek7 AT cgalliance DOT org. I make no promises on whether or not we will re-open the RD Forum, nor will I suggest a timeline should we decide to re-open it, but I will keep, read, and consider all e-mails sent.
 
[toj.cc]phantom;188140 said:
I actually believe that DV would make a great moderator.
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Thanks Phantom :)


TEK, since I forgot in my last post, let me thank you for the explaination.

I don't think I was the only one who was left clueless as to why RD got shut down.

There's one thing that still bothers me though. I've been part of many different forums, from the extremely liberal to the ultra conservative.

They all had one thing in common, and I'd like to use the fig tree analogy again if I may...If there was a problem, the tree was pruned. Does anyone know what the purpose in pruning is? Pruning removes dead limbs and makes room for new, fruitful growth. I don't understand why this wasn't done here. If there were individuals that were causing problems, why not remove them instead of making EVERYONE suffer. And yes, I include myself knowing that I am offering myself up on the chopping block. It seems that you are cutting off your head to spite your face. It's too heavy handed, it's too much.

But, that's just my opinion.

Again, thanks for the explaination and the chance to talk this out. Especially since this thread was locked once already.
 
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