I'm so glad you brought this thread to our attention, because it is providing many possible sig lines, although I don't believe I can give up hammer and his hat just yet.
I'll start with my old favorite, Hammer:
I think it is because they smell a rat. Seriously I feel there are more troll 'lamentors' and 'questioners' than LDS who are really wanting to know.
It comes from the feel of the posts. They dwell on negative, never mentioning that they had any spiritual confirmations-- same mo of exmos and antis. This why I jump on some.
No doubt!!! There are probably very few LDS who are really wanting to know!!!
And shame on those supposed doubters for not bearing their testimonies in their posts!
it occurs to me noted that a recent doubter who was given the bum's rush:
Yes, she was also counseled that perhaps a different board would be more conducive to her situation.
. . . so apparently the MODS also agree that this is not the best place for doubting members.
to which Juliann responded:
Hello? Anybody home? Since when has this ever been billed as the place to build a testimony or even give testimonies?
OMG! Ya gotta love Juliann!!
Well, I absolutely agree with her on this one. MAD is definitely not the place to build testimony.
Deborah:
A doubting member should find better sources of information than discussion boards.
There you go!! Instant justification for assuming any
so-called doubting member is really a TROLL. Real doubting members would never go to a discussion board to get information to help them deal with troubling issues.
I guess they would bring it up in Sunday School. :O
Cal:
A truly doubting member may not have all that hard of a time from what I've seen. Depends a great deal from what I've seen on their overall tone and attitude. Generally it seems to me that those who stick to the topic and don't add a lot of personal negative commentary do rather well.
Also those who seem to have a lot of fear about consequences tend to have more emotional posts and they often don't handle the board experience too well.
Is this the "no real scotsman" argument going on here? A
truly doubting member won't add personal negative commentary - even if they've been attacked by the MADdites who feel justified assuming he/she is a troll and treating them as such.
Yet she admits that fear of consequences - the consequences of doubting - may cause more emotional posts.
Clue to cal: emotional posts can lead to personal negative commentary.
I don't read a lot of MAD anymore - when did they decide to stop referring to themselves as MAD and start using MADB?
And did they make a formal announcement, like the church did when it no longer wanted to be called "Mormon"?
Gee, I wonder why they decided MAD was not the best anacronym for the board?
(actually, as we all know here, it is a PERFECT anacronym for that board)