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I’ve been asked to put out a general invitation for any people who need support for a more candid and personal discussion using real names and photos at a private forum. The rules of the forum are listed below. Send me a private message using the PM button if you would like to go register there. 1) The forum is private. We should make every attempt to make sure
everything said within the forum stays in the forum.
2) Everyone has to register with the forum using their real name (first
and last) and a real photo (avatar); when you first log in, please upload a real photo of yourself (if you need help, there’s a topic explaining how). Your first
post to the forum has to be an introduction where you tell your general Mormon/faith
story to the group (in the Introduction section).
3) We define Mormon very broadly — as a culture…not simply as a belief
system. Consequently, folks in the forum will come from all parts of this
belief spectrum. The only hard and fast rules are:
a) This is an online family. This is a safe place for expression. We speak
respectfully about people’s beliefs, and about their non-beliefs.
b) We don’t argue with each other here. We can share our own
feelings/experiences/impressions. But we respect each other here, we
support each other here, and we don’t try to “win converts” to our own
positions.
c) No profanity. No disrespect.
4) No lurking. If you read, you need to comment. There are private topics being discussed between friends, and some of us don’t feel comfortable posting personal details without knowing who is reading along.
5) Stay semi-active. You don’t need to be super-active, but we may sometimes remove accounts that are very old with no activity. If folks go months without logging on, their accounts may be de-activated. This isn’t to be mean, it’s to help us manage membership and community health.
6) The board leadership reserves the right to remove anyone at any time
who violates these rules. Hopefully that will never be necessary.. [The phrasing made it unclear, so I just took it out.]
7) Most importantly, enjoy and build a wonderful, uplifting, empowering
community!
Thoughts? Can we advertise for another forum here if we don’t know who is involved? Might this end up being just another OpenMormon-like site?
I have concerns and just want to know how everyone else feels.
This is Tom’s response to my request for more information: Quote:Also, Ray, it is the Open Mormon second ward. As each ward is different, it’s certain that Second Ward is different from OM. And unlike OM’s being both secret and private, Second Ward is only private.
The admins change periodically. The recent biggest admin and owner has been Julie Crockett. James Rogers and Michael Gonda and I have been helping her lately, and I have recently been given admin privileges to do a bunch of janitorial stuff. Basically, the personalities of the leadership are pretty minor. Our Rix and George are formative participators there, I think. It’s a nice place if that’s what you like and need.
“He drew a circle that kept me out.
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win.
We drew a circle that took him in.”
I think that more, not less, inclusivity is good in this area. And more, not less, solidarity, is of heaven. If you have any other questions, let me know.
I am a bit concerned about the Open Mormon connection, frankly – not for those for whom it works, but appearing to endorse it actively here. We have enough issues, and adding what probably will look like an open endorsement of and recruitment for Open Mormon to those issues . . .
Thoughts?
I think Tom is confused. Which quite frankly isn’t a surprise considering the scattered wake of MANY small groups that John D. has semi-created over time and left to their own devices. That manifesto is not a part of the OM forum “second ward” which was a second Open Mormon super-dooper secret private phpBB forum, which might have morphed into a FaceBook group, that I can’t remember exactly because I never got really involved with it, but I was invited once to be the “friend” of the fake public FaceBook figure that would announce OM 2nd Ward stuff, so that people who were FB friends of this fake identity could give each other the heads-up about things without tipping anyone else off on FaceBook they were part of the super-secret OM 2nd ward
Confused? Me too…
See the other topic for the longer explanation of where this “manifesto” comes from.
Both Angela and I are members of that second ward. I think Angela participates about as much as I do ( = hardly ever, and less lately). They have tried to stay open to allow discussions in support of church, and threads to get support to leave the church. The latter gets the most activity, and as the moderators (called bishopric
🙄 ) let the group decide the direction to go, in my opinion it goes into the direction of negative experiences and frustrations about the church.I have not found it compelling discussion to stay much involved there. There are not really interesting topics or Sunstone-like material presented, it is just a group that chats about stuff. It sounds like they are still trying to define their identity and purpose and mission, and some people posted that they thought it was going to be a super secret small inward circle of chums with John, only to find out John only pops in and out from time to time, not really involved with it other than to advertise the OM get-togethers.
I’m not in favor of opening the StayLDS forum up to recruiting or advertising it. We wouldn’t be able to stop Tom from sending PMs to individuals to invite them if he wanted to…but to post something on the forum that people could search and find and possibly associate us with other groups or movements, I don’t see any upside to it. How would that help us achieve our mission?
I say we stay consistent with what we’ve told Bridget about other sites and groups…we are not here to promote, we are here to support.
Just my opinion.
I agree, Heber. Brian, what do you think? If we decide not to allow the posts to be published publicly, who wants to talk with Tom and explain this to him? I can do it, since I’ve already initiated a discussion with him – unless one of you who is more involved in the other stuff thinks it would be better to approach it from that angle. Frankly, that seems like a better approach to me, but that might be just me ducking any responsibility with this one.
Oh, and he asked me in the last PM if we have considered changing admins and moderators – to allow some new blood into the decision-making process. Given the timing . . .
I don’t think a public recruitment should be allowed for other boards or communities on our StayLDS.com site. I would really like to keep us out of that. I like Tom. I think he is a little flaky sometimes going in all kinds of directions. I don’t believe in giving people titles in online groups as a reward or for status. I only believe in giving people jobs
I don’t think I have any problem with Tom privately messaging people through our site if he thinks they might enjoy the content of another group. I can’t claim that is terrible since I have done it elsewhere (like recruiting at NOM). I think that is more “tasteful.” I would not post recruitment ads at NOM. I have posted news about the site, but not recruitment elsewhere.
I think I also confused this thread with the manifesto. Reading skills were not my strong suit today.
I think we are aligned, so I don’t think it matters which of us approaches him. I would say that Ray already conversed, so it should be Ray…but Quote:that might be just me ducking any responsibility with this one.
Does anyone have any lots we can cast?
I’ll talk with him. Thanks for the input!
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