DiscussMormonism.com

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:46 pm**

The dawn of a new message board....LDS Forums. *cue 2001: A Space Odyssey*

The LDSforums.com have the official blessing of the MAD admin and are being run by the More Good Foundation (those lovable folks who'd love nothing more than to sanitize the heck outta the Internet)....so I gotta ask...are we seeing a successor board (official or unofficial) to FAIR/MAD?

Here's what Chaos has to say:

Chaos wrote:Greetings MA&DB posters,

We have been asked to announce the opening of a new LDS forum. It is run by the More Good Foundation and can be found at http://www.ldsforums.com. This new forum is intended for investigators and members of the church to seek (LDS) faithful answers to genuine and sincere questions. It will be a critic/contention-free zone (in other words: no debate), where members of the church can discuss issues and aspects of the church in a more congenial manner. It is not for never-mo non-investigators, disaffected Mormons, or ex-Mos. It is hoped that this board will fill the gap our posters have been asking for, and we hope those who have been wanting a forum such as LDSforums will be willing to use it and help get it off the ground.

This board administration has made a commitment to More Good Foundation/LDSforums to share content with them. What that means is soon we will be linking to some of their forums and share our user base with them, and some logistical support; however, to do this we will first need to upgrade our site to the latest version of IPB, which will happen perhaps in the next month and will include a couple of days downtime. This will give us time to make the changes and do some testing before we get things back to normal. We will more then likely do this over the weekend when we are at out slowest. No need to fret, our board members will have ldsforums.com to play on while MA&DB is down time. We will make an announcement when the time comes (perhaps this coming weekend).

Right now we would like all of our LDS posters to sign up and help get this project off the ground and make it one of the best LDS message boards on the net. Use (the good stuff of) what you've learned here to help answer others' questions there.

Thank you,

Chaos

(My bold)

So there you have it....is that a passing of the baton sort of speak?

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:07 pm**

Momus wrote:
Arlon James wrote: Some days I think that way [that message boards help apologists strengthen their arguments] but other days I think I'm affected by the overall spirit of contention (not to mention how irritating it is to watch people flatly ignore reasoned, factual responses).

This is exactly why we partnered up with LDSforums.com.

Momus

So MAD is partnering with a fellowship-only board. They have made a commitment to share their user base (believing LDS-only) with the new board.

I don't know if it's going to be a successor as much as a safe haven. Even with so few critics on MAD and moderating biased in the favor of LDS, they still need someplace even safer to exchange faith promoting rumors and wishful thoughts.

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:09 pm**

Nah, I think it’s going to be more of a day spa for us. We spar with miserable curs such as yourself, and then go and relax in a testimony sauna to recover.

My understanding is both with continue to operate. One will just be 100% LDS oriented whereas the other is only about 70-80% that way.

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:12 pm**

The Dude wrote:So MAD is partnering with a fellowship-only board. They have made a commitment to share their user base (believing LDS-only) with the new board.

I don't know if it's going to be a successor as much as a safe haven. Even with so few critics on MAD and moderating biased in the favor of LDS, they still need someplace even safer to exchange faith promoting rumors and wishful thoughts.

Sounds like they've just moved the Fellowship forum to another board. A while back MorningStar was complaining that there were too many critics on MADB. So I guess she's getting her wish: a critic-free zone where consiglieri, Her Amun, and the others can do their bullseyes and high fives in peace.

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:14 pm**

I don't know if it's going to be a successor as much as a safe haven. Even with so few critics on MAD and moderating biased in the favor of LDS, they still need someplace even safer to exchange faith promoting rumors and wishful thoughts.

Bull's eye.

I love watching the evolution of all this. Feisty LDS apologists were so certain that they could best critics when their critics were Tanner evangelicals. Suddenly, when secular critics outnumbered EV critics, they needed more and more moderating protection.

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:14 pm**

What'll happen when the believers start arguing?

"The Book of Mormon is inspired, but not historical."
"How can you say that? The church rests on the fact that the Book of Mormon is historical."

etc.

Now that'll be interesting.

I think that most people come to forums to engage in debate. When there are no critics to debate, they'll have to debate themselves.

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:17 pm**

Who Knows wrote:I think that most people come to forums to engage in debate. When there are no critics to debate, they'll have to debate themselves.

I don't think that's going to happen. It will be just like in church meetings -- if you disagree, you keep it to yourself and don't make waves. The post from Chaos was explicit that there will be no debates.

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:17 pm**

Who Knows wrote:What'll happen when the believers start arguing?

"The Book of Mormon is inspired, but not historical."
"How can you say that? The church rests on the fact that the Book of Mormon is historical."

etc.

Now that'll be interesting.

I think that most people come to forums to engage in debate. When there are no critics to debate, they'll have to debate themselves.

Nah, they'll just ban the "inspired but not historical" folks.

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:19 pm**

I don't know that it's really accurate to label that kind of an MB a "successor" to FAIR/MAD. I predict that this "ldsforum" will be the absolute pits---basically a retread of the very boring and uneventful "Fellowship Forum" that was found on MAD. This *is* a peculiar move, however, and I kind of have to wonder about the thinking that went into it. Of course, as we all know, the More Good Foundation was somehow related to that "The LDS Church monitors over 1,500 anti-Mormon websites" posting, and also the the MGF---via Allen Wyatt---was behind the "savegrantpalmer" cyber-squatting fiasco. It'll be interesting to see how things evolve. I, for one, am curious if they will allow posters such as Bond and The Dude to participate. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Posted: **Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:21 pm**

Mister Scratch wrote:I, for one, am curious if they will allow posters such as Bond and The Dude to participate. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Nope....I was banned (along with a whole slew of posters from here) for my (in)famous "Joseph Smith's Wives Shoutout Thread".....ah good times. Good thing I saved that thread for posterity.....since it was totally deleted by Guiseppe the Cowardly Mod (who hasn't even been taught the subtle art of the red text threat yet....what a newb)

DiscussMormonism.com

Are the LDSforums a successor to FAIR/MAD?

Are the LDSforums a successor to FAIR/MAD?