My understanding is that Juliann "started" the FAIR boards with funding, but I'm sure others probably help fund it now, too, although I'm just guessing.
Even Juliann is alluding to the evolution, although she is, of course, using different language to describe it:
http://www.mormonapologetics.org/index. ... 463&st=100
emeliza (who I think is a believe, but I could be wrong) asked:
I thought this was a Mormon apologetics board where we could all come together to discuss things....Mormons and non-Mormons alike........but that it was suppose to be done respectfully.
Juliann responded:
Yes, that was the intent and I am the one who knows my own intent in starting this better than anymore. But it was never intended that rude countermos would see themselves as having any say on how the board was run or what we should talk about....or how. If a Mormon is angry about something this is the place for them. I feel responsible for setting up a situation where the antis were allowed to trash Mormons on their own board and they are fighting to maintain the privilege despite the change of guard.
This is what I'm talking about: the guard has changed, and in that changing, has adopted a more aggressive, openly partisan tone. "If a Mormon is angry about something this is the place for them." I don't think FAIR would have ever described themselves in that way, but I think Juliann has been angry for a long time. I know, from her solicitation of ZLMB members to FAIR, that she "advertised" FAIR as a place where LDS would be afforded a type of protection from critics that ZLMB was not doing. So FAIR was always openly biased, in its own way, but I think high profile posters would not have felt comfortable identifying it as a place for angry Mormons. Now Juliann is openly advertising it as such.
The irony in all of this is that the mods at ZLMB struggled with this same issue, and the problem wasn't misbehaving exLDS. It is that LDS, in general, often feel personally attacked when the truth claims of the LDS church are vigorously analyzed and critiqued. Believe me, on ZLMB, the mods did their best to keep PERSONAL attacks off the board, and LDS offended as frequently as exLDS. (and, at times, moreso) But this didn't stop LDS from feeling attacked, anyway, because their cherished truth claims were being analyzed by exbelievers. It has to do with the tendency of believers to enmesh their identities with the church, in my opinion.
So guess what. Even on FAIR/MAD where the moderators didn't make any attempt to be nonpartisan, and critics are rigorously censored and banned, believers STILL are feeling "under attack".
It is interesting to see Juliann struggle with the same issue Pacumeni (the founder of ZLMB) struggled with, at the end. And what will the resolution be this time? They can't create yet another board with even more partisan protection - the only answer is one they've been increasingly hinting at - a board that will be comprised almost solely of believers, with only a few "select" nonbelievers here and there.
This, to me, is validation of what I had concluded long ago: that dialog between believing Mormon and exmormon is a pipe dream, by and large. It just can't happen, with rare exceptions.