Use the quote button in the top right corner of the message. This board might be salvaged more efficiently with an illustration posted by Quasimodo. Hope that helps.
Sad...
Re: Sad...
Cry Heaven and let loose the Penguins of Peace
Re: Sad...
Using a suitable browser seems to be helpful. I am happily using Chrome, but different operating systems may work better with other products.
Select Full Editor and Preview.
Uncheck Disable BBCode
Select any part of the message you want to quote.
Click on the quotes sign, 4th from the left in the ribbon above your message window.
Check the result by clicking on Preview
Zadok:
I did not have a faith crisis. I discovered that the Church was having a truth crisis.
Maksutov:
That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
I did not have a faith crisis. I discovered that the Church was having a truth crisis.
Maksutov:
That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
-
_NorthboundZax
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2007 7:17 pm
Re: Sad...
That is extremely sad ... and a sure way to run a discussion board into the ground. It really shouldn't be a difficult thing for a competent software guy to address. If the software guy can't manage to fix it in this kind of time frame whether because of competency or time, it is beyond due considering other options than relying on that particular person.Temp. Admin. wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2020 8:17 amDr. Shades here. A huge part of the problem is that, due to continuing software issues, no new users have been able to sign up since mid-April or so. Ergo, there hasn't been any fresh blood since then; it's continued to be just us.
Needless to say, I'm praying that our software guy can figure out an effective fix before much longer.
-
_Symmachus
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 1520
- Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:32 pm
Re: Sad...
There is another factor that nothing to do with the board culture itself (which is a fantastic zone of free inquiry—thanks Dr. Shades!).
The most active posters, from what I can tell, I have been here for some time, and it seems to me that most posters here are Gen X and older. That is the generation most impacted by the Internet's snare of Mormonism. To me, a message board was alien architecture in the age of Reddit and Youtube, and it was quite happenstance that I found this place; even then it took a few years of lurking before I first posted. I would consider even Facebook to be old-fashioned at this point. The short of it is: I wonder whether this board is having or will have trouble replenishing itself because, with all due respect, it feels like a relic from 1999. That is kind of what I like about it. It encourages long-form discussion (threads that go on for dozens and dozens of pages), and that tends to bring out some really excellent posts and posters that I have enjoyed reading over the years and have been lucky enough to engage with at times. But that is completely antithetical to internet culture. There is a certain degree of snark here, but it's hard to sustain interest with that alone. Moreover, there is very little appeal to the self-esteem lizard-brain that drives so much of places like Twitter and old Facebook (no like buttons or retweets and BS that like). So it is hard to draw in users attracted by the ephemeral entertainment of social media.
But who are those users? They are mostly younger, and, as I've argued here endlessly, they/we do not care about the aspects of Mormonism that motivate GenXers. We millennials, who all suck, mostly have just faded away from Mormonism and don't care or even know about the Book of Abraham issues (sorry Shulem). I didn't even learn about them until after I quit going to Church when I was a student at BYU. Church was boring, stiflling, and obsessed with uniformity, and that was enough for me to say "no thanks." I didn't need to prove to myself that the Church was incorrect on matters of Meso-American archaeology or Egyptology (also, I never took a lot those claims that seriously either). My suspicion, based obviously on anecdote, is that it is even more the case with people born in the late 90s and early 2000s. What is there to discuss for that kind of demographic? The Church's social stances are much more of an issue, but they are not an issue for discussion but merely an easy grounds for rejection.
Some people will just be interested in the topic (like me), but that's quite different from the period in the late 90s and early 2000s when all these GenXers who had grown up hearing a version of FARMS in Church suddenly discovered Richard Packham's site or things like that and had their worldview start crumble. From what I have learned from some of you hear, I would guess that a lot of GenXers saw that older form of Mormonism before it was completely subsumed by the weird corporate culture and where doctrine—that is, truth claims—still mattered. Challenges to the Church's truth claims, particularly those based in evidence, were taken so seriously because they had such deep implications. For people like me, though, who mostly just heard about the evils of porn and saw the doctrinal people treated as total weirdos by the bishops and such, truth claims weren't the central issue. The central issue—that being Mormon was just boring and dumb with no perceptible benefit—is not one worth discussing because it's solution is obvious: stop being Mormon. Huge swathes of my generation and the following have taken that route. Also, even GenXers tend to move on at a certain point, and as people start orienting their lives without Mormonism at the core, their resentment, frustration, and preoccupations with their Mormon experience start to fade.
Peterson-mania is more noticeable of late perhaps because, when it comes to Peterson, this board behaves almost like a Twitter thread where the offending Tweet is screenshotted but not linked to: he says something over there on his blog, which is reported here, and then people comment over here. It also provides some posters satisfaction, perhaps. So it is an activity that in part replicates what his happening elsewhere in Internet culture, but the fact that it is about Peterson also imbues the whole thing with nostalgia, since a lot of the people posting about him talk about a time when he was here (I wish I could have been here for those discussions!).
PS. To the assumption above that the Church will sink to an activity rate of 40% as if that were a bad thing, I would invite readers with an interesting to peruse one of the talks of Ezra Taft Benson from the late 50s or early 60s available on BYU Speeches. It's been a long time since I listened to them (because I do think they are very interesting historical artifacts), but in one them Benson recounted to his audience one of his many discussions with leaders of other Churches. In that discussion, Benson bragged about the activity rate of the Church, which the Protestant clergyman could not believe: it was around 40%! So Benson in the 1960s or late 1950s thought that number was a good one. I am inclined to agree with Huckleberry: 40% activity rate is just fine if they no longer depend on that group for their financial basis. With $100 billion cash, the Church leadership can ignore wet washrags like Uchtdorf and hammer on the doctrine again, content to jettison any pastoral approach to the disaffected because the truly elect will self-select.
The most active posters, from what I can tell, I have been here for some time, and it seems to me that most posters here are Gen X and older. That is the generation most impacted by the Internet's snare of Mormonism. To me, a message board was alien architecture in the age of Reddit and Youtube, and it was quite happenstance that I found this place; even then it took a few years of lurking before I first posted. I would consider even Facebook to be old-fashioned at this point. The short of it is: I wonder whether this board is having or will have trouble replenishing itself because, with all due respect, it feels like a relic from 1999. That is kind of what I like about it. It encourages long-form discussion (threads that go on for dozens and dozens of pages), and that tends to bring out some really excellent posts and posters that I have enjoyed reading over the years and have been lucky enough to engage with at times. But that is completely antithetical to internet culture. There is a certain degree of snark here, but it's hard to sustain interest with that alone. Moreover, there is very little appeal to the self-esteem lizard-brain that drives so much of places like Twitter and old Facebook (no like buttons or retweets and BS that like). So it is hard to draw in users attracted by the ephemeral entertainment of social media.
But who are those users? They are mostly younger, and, as I've argued here endlessly, they/we do not care about the aspects of Mormonism that motivate GenXers. We millennials, who all suck, mostly have just faded away from Mormonism and don't care or even know about the Book of Abraham issues (sorry Shulem). I didn't even learn about them until after I quit going to Church when I was a student at BYU. Church was boring, stiflling, and obsessed with uniformity, and that was enough for me to say "no thanks." I didn't need to prove to myself that the Church was incorrect on matters of Meso-American archaeology or Egyptology (also, I never took a lot those claims that seriously either). My suspicion, based obviously on anecdote, is that it is even more the case with people born in the late 90s and early 2000s. What is there to discuss for that kind of demographic? The Church's social stances are much more of an issue, but they are not an issue for discussion but merely an easy grounds for rejection.
Some people will just be interested in the topic (like me), but that's quite different from the period in the late 90s and early 2000s when all these GenXers who had grown up hearing a version of FARMS in Church suddenly discovered Richard Packham's site or things like that and had their worldview start crumble. From what I have learned from some of you hear, I would guess that a lot of GenXers saw that older form of Mormonism before it was completely subsumed by the weird corporate culture and where doctrine—that is, truth claims—still mattered. Challenges to the Church's truth claims, particularly those based in evidence, were taken so seriously because they had such deep implications. For people like me, though, who mostly just heard about the evils of porn and saw the doctrinal people treated as total weirdos by the bishops and such, truth claims weren't the central issue. The central issue—that being Mormon was just boring and dumb with no perceptible benefit—is not one worth discussing because it's solution is obvious: stop being Mormon. Huge swathes of my generation and the following have taken that route. Also, even GenXers tend to move on at a certain point, and as people start orienting their lives without Mormonism at the core, their resentment, frustration, and preoccupations with their Mormon experience start to fade.
Peterson-mania is more noticeable of late perhaps because, when it comes to Peterson, this board behaves almost like a Twitter thread where the offending Tweet is screenshotted but not linked to: he says something over there on his blog, which is reported here, and then people comment over here. It also provides some posters satisfaction, perhaps. So it is an activity that in part replicates what his happening elsewhere in Internet culture, but the fact that it is about Peterson also imbues the whole thing with nostalgia, since a lot of the people posting about him talk about a time when he was here (I wish I could have been here for those discussions!).
PS. To the assumption above that the Church will sink to an activity rate of 40% as if that were a bad thing, I would invite readers with an interesting to peruse one of the talks of Ezra Taft Benson from the late 50s or early 60s available on BYU Speeches. It's been a long time since I listened to them (because I do think they are very interesting historical artifacts), but in one them Benson recounted to his audience one of his many discussions with leaders of other Churches. In that discussion, Benson bragged about the activity rate of the Church, which the Protestant clergyman could not believe: it was around 40%! So Benson in the 1960s or late 1950s thought that number was a good one. I am inclined to agree with Huckleberry: 40% activity rate is just fine if they no longer depend on that group for their financial basis. With $100 billion cash, the Church leadership can ignore wet washrags like Uchtdorf and hammer on the doctrine again, content to jettison any pastoral approach to the disaffected because the truly elect will self-select.
"As to any slivers of light or any particles of darkness of the past, we forget about them."
—B. Redd McConkie
—B. Redd McConkie
-
_Jersey Girl
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 34407
- Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:16 am
Re: Sad...
Link to our temp. board: https://mormondiscussions.forumotion.com/
Write that down. If something goes badly wrong, that's where you'll find us.
Write that down. If something goes badly wrong, that's where you'll find us.
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
Chinese Proverb
Chinese Proverb
Re: Sad...
Jersey Girl, if that happens could you post this as an emergency alert at newordermormon.net? Perhaps you could use a code phrase to emphasize the seriousness of the situation, like "The Shades have been drawn".Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 3:15 amLink to our temp. board: https://mormondiscussions.forumotion.com/
Write that down. If something goes badly wrong, that's where you'll find us.
Cry Heaven and let loose the Penguins of Peace
-
_Jersey Girl
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 34407
- Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:16 am
Re: Sad...
moksha wrote: ↑Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:43 amJersey Girl, if that happens could you post this as an emergency alert at newordermormon.net? Perhaps you could use a code phrase to emphasize the seriousness of the situation, like "The Shades have been drawn".Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 3:15 amLink to our temp. board: https://mormondiscussions.forumotion.com/
Write that down. If something goes badly wrong, that's where you'll find us.
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
Chinese Proverb
Chinese Proverb
-
_Gadianton
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 9947
- Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2007 5:12 am
Re: Sad...
If a mod can still do sticky posts, I suggest making this thread sticky to point to the thread in SP about the board, which also should be sticky.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=53641
I started a thread in SP explaining the problems with the board from my perspective. A couple months ago, Shades got me Admin access to both the phpBB software and also the server to help figure things out. This is what I've come up with.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=53641
I started a thread in SP explaining the problems with the board from my perspective. A couple months ago, Shades got me Admin access to both the phpBB software and also the server to help figure things out. This is what I've come up with.
Lou Midgley 08/20/2020: "...meat wad," and "cockroach" are pithy descriptions of human beings used by gemli? They were not fashioned by Professor Peterson.
LM 11/23/2018: one can explain away the soul of human beings...as...a Meat Unit, to use Professor Peterson's clever derogatory description of gemli's ideology.
LM 11/23/2018: one can explain away the soul of human beings...as...a Meat Unit, to use Professor Peterson's clever derogatory description of gemli's ideology.
-
_honorentheos
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 11104
- Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:17 am
See Gad's Thread in SP
Not sure if you can change the thread title, but the thread in spirit paradise seems important for anyone to read who is interested in the long term health of the board.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth?
~ Eiji Yoshikawa
~ Eiji Yoshikawa
-
_Quasimodo
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 11784
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 1:11 am
Re: Sad...
Thank you my old and dear friend Moksha! Most dependable of flightless birds. Ill give some thought to an illustration.
This, or any other post that I have made or will make in the future, is strictly my own opinion and consequently of little or no value.
"Faith is believing something you know ain't true" Twain.
"Faith is believing something you know ain't true" Twain.