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I am a good example right now of greatly reduced participation over the last few months. I have been crazy busy at work, for a number of reasons I can’t get into here. I have been working a lot of overtime hours, so my “free time” has had to be focused on staying in touch with family and close friends. I simply have not had much time after that for anything else. Add oral surgery and recovery, fatigue from the long hours, and a general lack of church participation even when meetings restarted (due to work-related precautions), and I simply have not been active here for quite a while.
(For context, I have nearly 17,000 posts over the last 11 years – but this is my first day of commenting in almost two months.)
I believe we still have an important purpose to fulfill, and I appreciate DEEPLY the time and effort the other admins and moderators have put in here while I have been absent. I also appreciate deeply everyone else who has continued to participate in whatever way has been best for you – even if that simply is lurking.
I sincerely hope this forum is not nearing its end. What I do see is people losing their connection to the church to a greater degree with the shutdowns and distancing. Even if participation here is reduced, I feel this forum is definitely as important as ever. I haven’t seen many other members of our ward over the past year. I have gotten a few text messages from my home teacher (or whatever they’re called these days), but that’s been very limited and not even on a monthly basis. There was another couple we reached out to earlier in the pandemic and at the time they acted very glad to hear from us and when we visited several times, but they became increasing hard to reach. They wouldn’t answer their phone unless we tried from something other than our regular number so they didn’t have our name pop up when we called, or they started coming up with more excuses about it being a bad time to visit. Eventually we just gave up, which is sad because we really wanted to be closer friends with them. In short, a lot of members are losing their connection to the church, which makes this forum as important as ever.
I’m beginning to believe that with the pandemic, StayLDS is at the end of it’s useful life. We don’t go to church. We rarely come in contact with other members. We rarely listen to the virtual services.
We do read on our own with little or no gospel discussion. The big thing is: there is not indoctrination and no propaganda
that puts me into a turmoil. In many respects, this has been a nice lull.
I do like & miss the social aspects of being in the church.
The last one out turns off the lights.
Minyan Man wrote:
I’m beginning to believe that with the pandemic, StayLDS is at the end of it’s useful life.We don’t go to church. We rarely come in contact with other members. We rarely listen to the virtual services.
We do read on our own with little or no gospel discussion. The big thing is: there is not indoctrination and no propaganda
that puts me into a turmoil. In many respects, this has been a nice lull.
I do like & miss the social aspects of being in the church.
The last one out turns off the lights.
Call me an optimist but I see light at the end of the tunnel. I agree that the current situation has brought about less aggravation for many of us and when we return the aggravation will return. I already get some in the limited stuff we currently do (even in our “Christmas program”). So light at the end of the tunnel may be a misnomer, I see an end to restrictions and fear of the virus, but a renewal of issues many of us have taken a break from.
I post very rarely these days, haven’t been active at all in any sense since probably ’10-’12 when I still had a few tenuous family connections to the church which inclined me to try to strike a balance, futile in the end as it turned out. Geography and career changes (AZ to Hollywood and back more than a few times) eventually just did me in and I already had too much stuff to keep up with. Now even those family connections have gone, to the point that it’s basically just me. Like many people I still took an interest when an important new message came out or especially when the Presidency changed; Nelson’s presidency has been like a shot in the arm for many people and the changes he’s bringing even caught my attention, for good and ill, so I’d think more people would take an interest in forums like this. By the same token, when the Presidency changes again I imagine there could be another uptick in interest, again both positive and negative.
The massive flowering of temple building is another noteworthy phenomenon that I can’t help but take note of, as temples and their history have long been a major interest of mine, one of the main things that first piqued my interest in the church in fact back around ’91. As time went on and I studied more and more of history and doctrine (all very fascinating, probably deadly dull to most people) I tended to drift off onto by-paths.
The last quasi-church activity I participated in, if these sorts of things count, is the Tucson Temple open house in 2017; before that it was the Phoenix and Gilbert Temple open houses in 2014. It seems that at some point they ended the customary cookies given in the reception area at the end of the tours, or maybe it was just a temporary oversight.
I’d’ve thought that the Covid lockdowns would have increased people’s participation in forums, them having more time to spend at home, as it’s certainly been that case with me. It could be a great opportunity for a renaissance in dialogue and conversation if we can get off of the snappy one-liner aphorism addiction that social media has inculcated. (tbh, I’m as given to telegraphic gnomic utterances as anyone)
tl;dr … I hope the forum continues since it seems you can never have too much useful communication and there aren’t a lot of options out there.
Edit: fwiw, I had to look up the meaning of the BoM name Limhah tonight after I logged on because I realized I’d forgotten completely in the interim
😳 I’ve probably said this before, but I FAR prefer this format to Social Media for a variety of reasons. There is a much better atmosphere on here and I find it easier to search through and read. SamBee wrote:
I’ve probably said this before, but I FAR prefer this format to Social Media for a variety of reasons. There is a much better atmosphere on here and I find it easier to search through and read.
I concur. I don’t do social media for that very reason.
Please stay. 
QuestionAbound wrote:
Please stay.
That is our plan.
:thumbup: Somewhat related to this topic, It is that time of year again for the payment of the annual hosting account and site management fee in order to continue.
The annual fee is $131.88 And the renewal deadline is February 6th, 2021.
This year we received a windfall blessing!One of our StayLDS members generously donated the required amount in a single lumpsum payment. This means that STAYLDS is not going anywhere and will continue to be available until at least February 2022. For all those that desire to support StayLDS yourself I encourage you to make a small donation. These donations will then be applied towards the February 2022 deadline
We have created a paypal account to receive donations to pay for this annual fee. The paypal account is linked to the email address
kapobob@aol.com We tested it out and sent from one paypal account to another with no fee. If you wish to send money from a credit card then there is a fee of a little less than 5%. Also, to send via credit card you will need to open a paypal account to verify your identity.
Thank you!
DarkJedi wrote:
SamBee wrote:
I’ve probably said this before, but I FAR prefer this format to Social Media for a variety of reasons. There is a much better atmosphere on here and I find it easier to search through and read.
I concur. I don’t do social media for that very reason.
I’m forced to use Facebook by the church. I have complained about it. Nowadays it shows me notifications for cat videos* but not messages.
I think it’s disgusting the way it spies on people.
* Not that I dislike cats. The videos are corny though.
SamBee wrote:
DarkJedi wrote:
SamBee wrote:
I’ve probably said this before, but I FAR prefer this format to Social Media for a variety of reasons. There is a much better atmosphere on here and I find it easier to search through and read.
I concur. I don’t do social media for that very reason.
I’m forced to use Facebook by the church. I have complained about it. Nowadays it shows me notifications for cat videos* but not messages.
I think it’s disgusting the way it spies on people.
* Not that I dislike cats. The videos are corny though.
How are you forced to use Facebook? Just asking, I don’t understand. Our ward has a Facebook page but that’s not the only way to get announcements or information.
I like cats too, but not so much cat videos.
DarkJedi wrote:How are you forced to use Facebook? Just asking, I don’t understand. Our ward has a Facebook page but that’s not the only way to get announcements or information.
I like cats too, but not so much cat videos.
It’s gotten worse since lockdown. Before I used to sit in church, hear all the announcements, speak to people etc. Now our government has banned church services – again – although our supermarkets remain untouched.
🤔 Every announcement goes through FB. If you’re not on there you won’t hear about it basically. Ward and stake. The ward group is private. You won’t see it without joining. No one sees any problem with this. We do have a stake newsletter which is emailed, and I’d prefer that, but it is mostly there to lift members’ spirits in these horrible times. But the recent FB revamp has made accessing messenger more complex, and I’ve a) no desire to download the app and b) not enough memory to so.
I’m on our Ward Council (sorry, that’s one of my secrets out
😆 ) and outside our Zoom meetings, all our discussions take place through it. So if I don’t do that, I’m locked out. And I suspect I would lose my calling. I believe I have been able to do some good over the past year (despite my pessimism and cynicism about what’s happening) and have streamlined our ministering system with some help, so that we can deal with lockdown issues. I have also helped roll out necessary adjustments to welfare for our post-Covid conditions. And arranged an online Christmas concert for some shut ins with special needs.I did bring this issue up with the last bishopric, but nothing changed. We have a new bishopric and I have remarked on it again. I don’t want to be seen as a troublemaker. I am on good terms with our local leaders and I want to keep it that way especially in these times.
I was very glad to see Zuckerberg being grilled recently by American politicians. I really think that man has abused his position and should be held accountable (by both parties). As should some of his colleagues in Twitter, Amazon and Google.
I can see how that can be frustrating Sam. As I said my ward has a Facebook page but that’s not the only way to get the announcements. That’s because I live in a rural area where some people don’t have internet access at home and we also have some Luddites in our ward. Fortunately our leadership understands that. DarkJedi wrote:
I can see how that can be frustrating Sam. As I said my ward has a Facebook page but that’s not the only way to get the announcements. That’s because I live in a rural area where some people don’t have internet access at home and we also have some Luddites in our ward. Fortunately our leadership understands that.
We have a number of elderly people but I think the attitude has been that most of them have been wrapped in cotton wool the last year or so.
I remember my first day on Facebook. A friend and his cousin having a fight. Went downhill from there. I enjoy the groups, but I don’t like the whole “friend” thing because certain people get prioritized and deprioritized. Politics and religion don’t go down well on it – I’m including atheism under those tags.
They’ve revamped the website recently. Big tech does this on a regular basis, however I find it is rarely an improvement. Certainly not this time as I can’t see the most essential feature – messenger – without going through several steps.
By the by, there is a massive controversy in Australia now regarding Facebook and Google. I think 70% of the Aussie population are on it, but they’ve admitted to manipulating the news people can see and it’s got them into trouble with the government.
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