I have to wonder if the rebranding and spinning off of the message board from FAIR is the result of a failure of the FAIRboard to meet it's intended mission?
Perhaps we Mormons were so contentious that we reflected badly upon our faith?
Perhaps the owners of FAIR did not think we were succeeding in making successful defences against the critics -- and thus failing at being apologists?
Perhaps the LDS on the FAIRboard were generally successful in defending the faith, but the presence of so many harping critics made the board fail in its mission?
Perhaps the hassle of running a message board proved to be too much effort?
This leads to other possibilities and questions.
This move could be the first step toward the ZLMBizing of this message board. LDS mods will fall off...traffic will go down...the critics will increase in number and hostility...the board will become a backwater.
Is the math such that a thoughtful LDS board cannot be sustained. (A few dozen/hundred online apologistic Mormons vs thousands/millions of critics)?
We online Mormons are so poorly behaved that any board will eventually fail?
Are we Mormons who are interested in online discussion of our faith better off (and more effective) by simply going to discussion boards where we are the outsiders defending our faith? (Personally, I loathe such sites.)
Is it time to pack the bags and move on from participating in online discussion of Mormonism?
Ah...such blasphemous thoughts.
Regards,
Six
I pretty much agree with his statement when he stated, 'Perhaps we Mormons were so contentious that we reflected badly upon our faith?'. Some of the LDS Apologists there such as Confidential Information, Hammer, Nighthawke, Pahoran, and Juliann (who was also known as Dunamis the Moderator) were contentious there in my opinion in trying to defend the LDS Faith that they did reflect badly upon the LDS Faith. I don't believe that all of the LDS Apologists there were contentios but just some of them such as Confidential Information, Nighthawke, Hammer, Pahoran, and Juliann which in my opinion it did reflected badly on the LDS Faith. The next Post on that thread was Posted by Dale who is of the Community of Christ Faith, however he is a pretty big defender of the LDS Faith over there. Here is what he wrote on that discussion thread:
I don't see this as defeat. FAIR never had an official apologetic presence on the board. They have enough apologists if they wanted the board filled with volunteeer apologists they could have done it. The board has always been left up to individuals to join or not.
I think that some LDS people probably did not like what discussions they saw going on the message board. They kind of liked what FAIR was doing, but confused what they saw on the board with what FAIR was about.
Read stories from time to time of angry people being upset with FAIR because of the boards. So when they get kicked off the board for misbehavior they run to another & start FAIR bashing because of the board. Not sure these stories are all legitimate. But it will mean they will have to discuss FAIR & this now totally independent of FAIR board in seperate categories, or be lying. Though I think you
I think it more likely in this instance the LDS moderators would close down the board rather than let critic's take over.
The board participants are kept pretty well in line because of board rules. The really kind of repugnant behavior is kept off the board. But to some LDS they are squeemish with any type of debate with critics. So some may have been turned off to FAIR because they don't like seeing arguing with critics. Since Darryl Barksdale left FAIR as its leader I have seen FAIR move away from anything that looks like a contentious confrontation with critics. They tried to tell people that they wern't responsible for board discussions, but some would never get the point.
I find this statement by Dale to be pretty fascinating and interesting:
Read stories from time to time of angry people being upset with FAIR because of the boards. So when they get kicked off the board for misbehavior they run to another & start FAIR bashing because of the board.
Hey Dale, 'FAIR' didn't just banned people of 'misbehavior' on the "FAIR" Message Board, they have also banned people of 'misbavior' on other Message Boards that are totally seperate from the "FAIR" Message Board now called the MA&D Board. 'FAIR' has banned people for 'misbevaior' of people of what they have Posted on Dr. Shades MDB and what they have Posted on Kevin Graham's Message Board. Those Message Boards are totatly seperate from the "FAIR" Message Boar now called the MA&D Board. I haven't heard of any other Message Board that has Moderators who go over and moderators other Message Boards, and then those Moderators will go and ban People for what those Posters wrote on other totally seperate Message Boards, except the "FAIR" Message Board which is now called the MA&D Board. The "FAIR" Message Board now called the MA&D Board is surely one of a kind with its Moderators constantly lurking on other Message Boards, and then banning People such as Who Know, Moksha, and Southern Redneck for what they wrote on other Message Boars totoly seperate from theirs. Those Moderators also probably banned moksha because they didn't like his sense of humor, and those 'FAIR' Moderators didn't have that much of a sense of humor over there, and also when they were lurking here.
Here is the URL to that discussion Thread on the MA&D Board: http://www.mormonapologetics.org/index. ... opic=20107