Catching Up With Chino Blanco

[_Kishkumen]

Some of us may remember those days when DCP thought that Chino Blanco (a.k.a. Jason Echols) was our own maestro of Mopologetic Studies, Doctor Scratch. For those who do not remember, it is a convoluted tale involving board feuds and the ongoing conflict with DCP that somehow Chino Blanco got caught up in, albeit temporarily.

In any case, Jason Echols has now appeared on Mormon Stories to tell his story and discuss r/exmormon. It is an interesting episode and I highly recommend it. In my experience Echols is a decent enough fellow, and I wish him well in his boosting of the r/exmormon. It sounds like a platform that abounds in opportunities for interested ex-Mos.

Something Echols said in the second installment of the podcast, however, rubbed me slightly the wrong way, perhaps in a "I resemble that remark" kind of way. As he was boosting r/exmormon, Echols compared that platform to our beloved MormonDiscussions, which he chided for having discussions that sometimes veered in bizarre directions, noting that unless someone knows our MDB lingo, they're likely to be put off.

I guess I have to wave my white handkerchief and say, "Guilty as charged." If you listen to descriptions of the most popular posts on r/exmormon, they are the kind of broadly appealing, clever stuff that just about any ex-Mormon can identify with. And, hey, there are great discussions going on over there as we speak.

But, I feel defensive about my beloved MDB. Sometimes it drives me nuts, but it has always felt like home to me. It is a place with a rich history. It is a place where friends and frenemies gather. It is a place known for its conflicts with MDDB and certain Mopologists. It is a place where ex-apologists come to vent as they recover from Mopologetics. It is a place where I have read many quality threads.

But, yeah, I don't think this place will appeal to everyone. And, certainly there are aspects of the humor that are esoteric to the uninitiated. There I am as or more guilty than anyone. Where else can one read the exploits of Cassius University scholars? Catch up on Jaredite Studies? Read Doctor Scratch's yearly Sampson Avard Golden Scepter Awards?

This place has its own amazing history, and here I have made amazing friends. Oh the story that is here to be told!

[_Jersey Girl]

This place has its own amazing history, and here I have made amazing friends. Oh the story that is here to be told!

This place is a living historical record in progress. We write the history every day. Turn back the pages and you will see a written record of the LDS Church, of ourselves as a community, and of our journey as individuals.

I did listen to part of the Chino Blanco interview. It makes me sad that people fail to recognize the work of rpcman (Al Case) and his contributions around the exact time that RFM was birthed. He birthed a forum when Eric birthed his.

Why no mention of him? I'll never understand it.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Yeah, Chino Blanco never misses an opportunity to crap all over MDB. He's a good guy and does good work on r/exmormon, but he lives in a bit of a glass house if he claims r/exmormon doesn't get reeeeeeally weird sometimes. I think he likes being a mod so he can shut something down if it doesn't suit him. It doesn't help that DCP did what he did, either.

One of the strong suits of r/exmormon is the sheer quantity of aggregated information being pulled in. Obviously I visit it every day because Reddit is the sht, and r/exmormon is consistently uncovering tidbits here and there about Mormonism that are fascinating. BUT, you just can't beat MDB's format for sustained and in depth exploration of Mormonism in toto. One forum is panning for gold and pulling some nuggets here and there. The other is taking that gold and crafting it into a work of art.

The repository of information on MDB is right up there with the likes of mormonthink, just different and for a different consumer.

- Doc

[_Jersey Girl]

Scooching back in here, because Chino Blanco's criticisms of RFM's software program, I dunno, got next to me so to speak. It's hard to put my finger on just why. I noticed that RFM deleted the story of how RFM began and lds-mormon.com/Honest Intellectual Inquiry, created by rpcman. It's like he never happened. Also noticed that rpcman posted on RFM in 2015. Anyway...

Here is the story of rpcman, Al Case. He was excommunicated on account of his website, lds-mormon.com. His website was actually 2 in 1, so to speak. Honest Intellectual Inquiry hosted one forum, and lds-mormon.com hosted the first forum I ever posted on. Many of us here from MDB were there. Some of us posted in both forums. Those old forums would put you in mind of MDB, except for the fact that it functioned without moderation. Only a full on massacre would prompt rpcman to step in.

Here's his story:

http://www.lds-mormon.com/myexcommunication.shtml

When rpcman decided to give up the forums, someone volunteered to serve as admin and we paid for the forum ourselves.

I don't really know who Chino Blanco/Jason Echols is in the grand scheme, I do think it's important to recognize the pioneers who started these online forums and informational websites, and the sometimes personal cost to them for doing so.

Just wanted to recognize that here since we're defending forums.

[_Dr. Shades]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words about this site. We must be doing something right!

[Guest]

I don't really know who Chino Blanco/Jason Echols is in the grand scheme, I do think it's important to recognize the pioneers who started these online forums and informational websites, and the sometimes personal cost to them for doing so.

Just wanted to recognize that here since we're defending forums.

The story must be told! was a latecomer to all of this because I and Don Bradley ran our own little online group called Loyal Liberal Mormons (if you can believe it) for about three or four years. When that started to fizzle, I started hunting around for new fora. I had done some alt.religion.Mormon (Is that the name? It did not have anything to do with the new alt-right phenomenon.) back in the late '90s. But LLM put me in a little cubby hole of blissful unawareness of the rest of the online Mormon world. Then, after LLM, I discovered ZLMB right as it was shutting down. ZLMB led me here. When I first arrived here, I posted under my own name, until the bullying ways of Mopologists taught me the value of anonymity. At that point, I became Kishkumen and joined the faculty of Cassius University.

Wow. I just went back to my alt-religion.Mormon posts. I was essentially the same guy I am today. I was already arguing against the antiquity of the Book of Mormon in 1998.

ETA: I was even arguing in a friendly way with Kerry Shirts!

[_CameronMO]

I'm somewhat new to the topic of discussing Mormonism; I didn't really start investigating my church until Romney ran for President. That opened a whole new area of church history for me.

One of the first websites I found was mormondiscussions.com. It was a great resource for me and one I used to find sources to study. I eventually found r/exmormon as well.

I use the sites differently, I guess. r/exmormon is great for the latest news and gossip, but isn't great for discussion. There's new topics all the time, and only the juiciest and most scandalous get attention. And like Doctor Cam said, it gets very strange over there at times.

This is the website I come to when I want to know about a subject. I think there are a lot of smart people over here, and people that are willing to take the time to talk about, discuss, and analyze various Mormon topics, sources, and history. I feel like I can ask a question, and if someone knows the answer or source, I'll get a response. I really like the format and people here. Plus, we have our own, official Japanese electropop group.

[_Analytics]

Scooching back in here, because Chino Blanco's criticisms of RFM's software program, I dunno, got next to me so to speak. It's hard to put my finger on just why. I noticed that RFM deleted the story of how RFM began and lds-mormon.com/Honest Intellectual Inquiry, created by rpcman. It's like he never happened. Also noticed that rpcman posted on RFM in 2015. Anyway...

Here is the story of rpcman, Al Case. He was excommunicated on account of his website, lds-mormon.com. His website was actually 2 in 1, so to speak. Honest Intellectual Inquiry hosted one forum, and lds-mormon.com hosted the first forum I ever posted on. Many of us here from MDB were there. Some of us posted in both forums. Those old forums would put you in mind of MDB, except for the fact that it functioned without moderation. Only a full on massacre would prompt rpcman to step in.

Here's his story:

http://www.lds-mormon.com/myexcommunication.shtml

When rpcman decided to give up the forums, someone volunteered to serve as admin and we paid for the forum ourselves.

I don't really know who Chino Blanco/Jason Echols is in the grand scheme, I do think it's important to recognize the pioneers who started these online forums and informational websites, and the sometimes personal cost to them for doing so.

Just wanted to recognize that here since we're defending forums.

Rpcman played a hugely influential role in my own life. Around 1997 I was in the church and very active, but suffering from some severe cognitive dissonance. When I got on the Internet I started browsing for all things Mormon, and rpcman was fascinating and hard to understand--he was critical of the church, but was also honest and balanced--at the time that was an anomaly I couldn't quite understand.

One of the things that crystalized the issues for me was his review of Dan Vogel's The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture. I had read the FARMS review of this book ("Korihor is back, and now he has a printing press!"), from which I had gleaned that this was one of the worst anti-Mormon books of all time. I then read rpcman's review, which went into detail about what the book actually says and that it is actually quite good. I decided to purchase a copy and read it for myself. I found a used copy on Amazon from a third-party seller by the name of "Al Case." It turned out I read the exact same copy of the book rpcman had!

Before rpcman, I had never bothered reading the stories at exmormon.org, because I assumed they would be uninteresting evangelical testimonies about people leaving Mormonism and embracing the real Jesus. When rpcman gave a measured recommendation to exmormon.org I was surprised and decided to check it out. It was only a day or two later when I had the epiphany that my own thoughts were not the promptings of Satan and that Mormonism was in fact just another false Church that manipulates people the way that false Churches do.

[_Yahoo Bot]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words about this site. We must be doing something right!

I wear as a badge of pride the fact that you banned me for 30 days for having the temerity to say I was going to post something from a public court site to contradict a statement by one of your board members who was posting under his own name. Free speech my ass.

[_Kishkumen]

I wear as a badge of pride the fact that you banned me for 30 days for having the temerity to say I was going to post something from a public court site to contradict a statement by one of your board members who was posting under his own name. Free speech my ass.

And yet you are here to contribute to the pain in our asses.