[POLL] What is the Future of the FAIR/MAAD Boards

[_Bond...James Bond]

Since the Fair Boards are breaking off and forming the new MAD boards what does the board consider will be its future?

More specific written responses also much appreciated.

Bond



Edit: I tried to put as many choices up as possible. Perhaps some of my earlier questions should have been polls, but still figuring out this thing.

[_Yoda]

I voted "Exactly the same".

I think that it will continue to attract the same traffic it's always attracted. You're going to get the same core of posters, and the same type of dancing around the issues. Dan G, who is in charge of the new board, and Juliann, who I'm sure still has some creative license, will make sure of that.

I think that the benefit for FAIR and FARMS, is that these organizations will be able to quietly distance themselves from the Message Board mess.

[_Bond...James Bond]

I voted "Exactly the same".

I think that it will continue to attract the same traffic it's always attracted. You're going to get the same core of posters, and the same type of dancing around the issues. Dan G, who is in charge of the new board, and Juliann, who I'm sure still has some creative license, will make sure of that.

I think that the benefit for FAIR and FARMS, is that these organizations will be able to quietly distance themselves from the Message Board mess.

Does anyone know if they're going to retain a link from the FAIR site to the Board??

I vote for some dropoff if not.

I do think that the same core posters will be there debating and arguing until doomsday, but if the board stops its official connection with FAIR it might lose some casual members.

I think the banning actions there already insulted some excellent posters who left (Who Knows, moskha (sp?).

Bond

[_Who Knows]

Does anyone know if they're going to retain a link from the FAIR site to the Board??

That's exactly why i voted for some drop-off. Without the link from FAIR, you lose some advertising. Lose some advertising, lose some posters.

Although if they turn out to be not as asshole-ish, then things could turn around for them.

[_Yoda]

LOL! Who voted that it's going to wither and die?

One can only hope!

;)

[Anonymous]

LOL! Who voted that it's going to wither and die?

One can only hope!

;)

Not sure.

Now its looking out of kilter, seeing as the "exactly the same" doesn't have the same number of choices on each side.

But since that board already has a ton of traffic compared to some of the more humble boards, I thought I add more on the downside.

Bond

[_Bond...James Bond]

LOL! Who voted that it's going to wither and die?

One can only hope!

;)

Not sure.

Now its looking out of kilter, seeing as the "exactly the same" doesn't have the same number of choices on each side.

But since that board already has a ton of traffic compared to some of the more humble boards, I thought I add more on the downside.

Bond

Edited: Whoops! tried to edit last post, ended up quoting myself. Sorry.

Bond

[_Yoda]

In lieu of this news posted on the FAIR website, I should probably change my vote. It looks like FAIR will discontinue the supplying any type of link to the new board after "a sufficent period of time", according to Scott Gordon, President of FAIR. Here are his comments:

FAIR Message Board
As FAIR continues to grow and evolve, we make changes to better meet our goals. In this regard, a major change was made on December 2, 2006, to divest ourselves of the FAIR Message Board, turning their operation over to one of the current moderators. The message board will continue with a new name of Mormon Apologetic & Discussion Board. The URL will be http://www.MormonApologetics.org.

FAIR was born from LDS individuals posting on Internet message boards, so this is a big step for us. But we believe this change will remove the confusion from people's minds about whether or not FAIR endorses the posts on the message boards, allow more freedom for the posters, and allow FAIR to focus our resources. Message boards are a valuable discussion medium, but the format does not universally appeal to people who come to FAIR looking for answers. FAIR will, in turn, devote our scarce resources to enhancing the FAIR wiki (http://www.fairwiki.org) and providing more international articles.

At this point all decisions and management have been given over to the new Mormon Apologetic & Discussion Board management team. In the very near future the old URL for the message boards (http://www.fairboards.org) will be retired, so you will want to update your bookmarks for the new URL, noted above. FAIR will maintain a hands-off policy and does not endorse the actions nor the posts on this new message board. Those who currently post on the FAIR message boards won't need to do anything differently, other than create a bookmark on their computer to the new URL. For a short time we will continue to have a pointer from the FAIR Web site, but after a reasonable amount of time has passed, we will be removing the link.

--Scott Gordon
President

In the long run, based on this news, I do think that the new board, MAAD, will see a decline in traffic. I think this is a very smart move for FAIR. And, it also shows that the Message Board was NOT promoting FAIR's goal, and really helping people who were sincerely looking for answers to questions. Again, I've stated this before, but I think it is the wisest thing that FAIR could have done.

[_Bond...James Bond]

In lieu of this news posted on the FAIR website, I should probably change my vote. It looks like FAIR will discontinue the supplying any type of link to the new board after "a sufficent period of time", according to Scott Gordon, President of FAIR. Here are his comments:

FAIR Message Board
As FAIR continues to grow and evolve, we make changes to better meet our goals. In this regard, a major change was made on December 2, 2006, to divest ourselves of the FAIR Message Board, turning their operation over to one of the current moderators. The message board will continue with a new name of Mormon Apologetic & Discussion Board. The URL will be http://www.MormonApologetics.org.

FAIR was born from LDS individuals posting on Internet message boards, so this is a big step for us. But we believe this change will remove the confusion from people's minds about whether or not FAIR endorses the posts on the message boards, allow more freedom for the posters, and allow FAIR to focus our resources. Message boards are a valuable discussion medium, but the format does not universally appeal to people who come to FAIR looking for answers. FAIR will, in turn, devote our scarce resources to enhancing the FAIR wiki (http://www.fairwiki.org) and providing more international articles.

At this point all decisions and management have been given over to the new Mormon Apologetic & Discussion Board management team. In the very near future the old URL for the message boards (http://www.fairboards.org) will be retired, so you will want to update your bookmarks for the new URL, noted above. FAIR will maintain a hands-off policy and does not endorse the actions nor the posts on this new message board. Those who currently post on the FAIR message boards won't need to do anything differently, other than create a bookmark on their computer to the new URL. For a short time we will continue to have a pointer from the FAIR Web site, but after a reasonable amount of time has passed, we will be removing the link.

--Scott Gordon
President

In the long run, based on this news, I do think that the new board, MAAD, will see a decline in traffic. I think this is a very smart move for FAIR. And, it also shows that the Message Board was NOT promoting FAIR's goal, and really helping people who were sincerely looking for answers to questions. Again, I've stated this before, but I think it is the wisest thing that FAIR could have done.

Could the spinoff of the FAIR boards be a precursor to ending the board---i.e. a chance to delete those hundreds of thousands of messages from the past few years.

Bond

[_Yoda]

Could the spinoff of the FAIR boards be a precursor to ending the board---i.e. a chance to delete those hundreds of thousands of messages from the past few years.

Bond

Actually, a lot of those threads were lost when the board had a massive system crash earlier this summer.

In viewing the new board, (and yes, Dan G, in case you're lurking here, even though you have blocked my IP address, I CAN still view the new board), it appears that all of the current threads were transferred successfully.

My view is that the core group of posters will remain the same, and that there won't be a large change in content, from that sense. Daily entries of posts will likely remain about the same. However, in viewing the big picture, I think that in the long run....looking at the scope of the site in say, 2-5 years, the traffic will decrease because there will be fewer new posters based on the disassociation with FAIR.

Again, I think this is positive. Those who are struggling with their faith don't really need to be in that type of environment.