Anybody Notice?

[refugepsa91]

How this board has changed over the last year or so? It's not the same as it used to be, where you can discuss almost any topic, ask questions, and even (gasp), go against the grain a little bit and get differing opinions and views on subjects. I'm not sure even why there is a forum for "Controversial" topics anymore, because it seems if anything even hints at being controversial, it's locked or deleted. Im not talking about the just the obvious things that need to be deleted either.

I'm sure this will be pulled, but I needed to say this. It just doesn't feel like the same place anymore.

:il: Its hard to put your finger on I know Calamity....I have been here in worthy land along time...now my posts arent really up there yet...I am a fine observer but usually keep my thoughts to myself unless I really feel the need to comment on something, I like to joke of course...you have to admit that some of these posts are just too funny.

Now I don't think it is the "boards" that have changed, I think it is population of the boards that have changed....it seems there are more and more persons coming on board to specifically cause strife...or to convince us of some pretty weird stuff to say the least. I have seen more angry newbies than ever before...I have seen people come on board just to slam our faith...and some do it in the most evil way...hurt feelings abound around these kind of people...I think it makes current members of the board very vigilant...and sadly yes sometimes over vigilant...

I feel for the mods who have to wallow through all that....can you imagine the private messages between the mods and the one that has caused trouble?...I think that is how they do it anway...to try to talk reasonably with the member and see if the problem can be solved...well some of these members are downright mean and nasty...I can't imagine having to communicate with them one on one.

So after that long winded story I need to catch my breath :oww:

Love and Blessings,

Angel

I hope you keep too....I really like you Calamity....you have a wonderful heart...

[Guest Called]

I would like to just take this opportunity to say that I appreciate the work that the mods do. I feel that God has his hand on these folks and they are sensitive to the Holy Spirit's direction when it comes to protecting these boards. Us peons (ha!) don't know all that goes on behind the scenes. I can think of a few folks that have joined that frankly scare me. If the mods see fit to let these folks post and roam then I can't imagine what they are protecting the boards from behind the scenes.

This morning I was thanking God for these boards. I have only been a member since May but I have grown so much in my walk with the Father and I have met some awesome folks that have had a great impact on my life. We need the mods here to continue the work as they see fit under the direction of the Holy Spirit. So mods...a huge thank you and you folks are in my prayers! I thank God for you! :il: :hug:

Ditto

[Adstar]

I have been coming to these boards for what seems like half a lifetime and yes calamity these boards have definitely changed.

When i first came here i was So happy that i had found a boards full of Christians seeking to grow in understanding and ready to discuss their differing thoughts in a stimulating and usually polite way. but then we seemed to have a rush of false prophets and others who it must be said where weird. I suppose the moderating team took the policy of showing as lot of longsuffering to these people. So much so that the boards ceased being a place where Christians from all different churches came together to discuss and grow in understanding to a place where Christians has to rush from one deceiver post to another like a fire brigade trying to put out ten different fires at once. No more time for in-depth discussion, no more time for growth, All our time goes to fighting those who are being allowing to bring lies onto the boards. I suppose it

[jamie]

I sometimes post on a different forum which is suppose to be christian.

The modoraters have let atheists, agnostics, and pagans have free reign of the board until it's probably evenly divided.

As long as these people dont break the rules and argue without personally attacking someone they can say whatever they want to about God.

It is really disgusting because it puts you on the constant defense.

The leaven that has been allowed into that forum is spreading and taking it over.

If it were my board I would pull the plug on some of them and maybe have a set limit on how many i would allow to post.

Worthy Boards is one of the better forums out there as far as really being Christian, I think overall the moderators here do an excellent job.

If you start allowing leaven in, it will eventually take over.

[Guest Calamity]

I'm not talking about obvious posts that need to be deleted or obvious new posters who are here to cause problems. Those need to be handled swiftly, and the mods stay on top of that very good.

But - sometimes, a thread just shows up locked or deleted with no explanation. Sometimes there's an explanation and sometimes it's just gone - poof.

Instead of "defending the faith" with unbelievers, before it gets deleted, there's not as much of a chance to do that now. Remember when VOG was here? How long that was allowed to go on? A lot of people "defended the faith" with his "prophecies" for a long time. It got me in the Bible very hard and very often, and I know it did for a few others as well. He never got de-membered that I know of, and very few of his posts got deleted or locked. At the last, he was "monitored" very closely and eventually left of his own, if I understand right, but many people were given the chance to talk with him, to try to show him where he was wrong, etc. Even if newcomers read that, they'd see where VOG was wrong, because he was put to the test over and over.

Aside from that, sometimes a thread disappears because it's "already been talked about", isn't "leading anywhere", "I know it will come to a debate", "it won't come to any good", etc., etc. Or, no explanation at all. Almost like there's an unwritten rule book somewhere, and the only way to know what's in it, is to break it. I don't mean to be disrespectful, and hope I don't sound that way, but I don't think anyone is above being asked questions. Like in church, when the people can't ask the pastor questions, or can't talk with him about something bothering them without seeming to be a trouble maker...

Maybe it's just me. This wasn't intended to hurt anyone - so if it has, forgive me. It was just intended to be put out there, as something I felt and observed and was bothering me. Actually, I really thought it would be deleted right away.

[Ovedya]

I think the volume issue has been covered sufficiently by the other mods here, but I thought I'd chime in anyhow. Saints we are getting around 1,000 new members per day here. If we figure a very conservative 10% of those new members who post just once, then that's 50 new posts a day. But we know that most folks don't post only once. A new member may post 15 or 20 responses within the course of just a few hours. Think of how many new posts that have the potential of problems.

From the time I signed off last night, around 6:00 MST to the time I signed back on this morning at 9:30 MST there were a total of 300 new posts. Between the mods (Not including George) that's around 60 posts each. Actually, that's not a bad number. But then we are not "on" at all times. Most of the time only a couple of us are on the boards at the same time. But then again, that 300 posts occured overnight, not during the day when we probably get 3 times as many new posts.

Now, this number has drastically shot up over just the past 4 months or so. We have seen an astronomical number of new members and post activity over the past few months.

you see where I'm getting at here? We mods would like to be less the board policemen and more the board's shepherds. But we simply cannot do that when the members act like goats instead of sheep. Okay, that might have hurt a little bit. But many of you saints really just don't know what we're doing behind the scenes. Many of you do not know what we have to deal with behind the scenes just so these boards can be as profitable as it is for fellowship. But to be quite honest with you, we really do not want you to know. Not that it's some big secret or anything, but because we would rather not draw attention to that. We want you saints to all enjoy fellowshipping together in the Spirit!

As we grow bigger we are hoping to add more moderators to help curb the ratio more. When Worthy was smaller it was a lot easier to shepherd the saints rather than act as policemen. I hope that when we get some more mods we can all go back to more of a shepherding role rather than just pulling threads without warning. We're working on it, saints; and I think that that's the best we can do for now. We're only human, after all.

I hope that I'm not stepping on too many toes. But this ministry is really what you make it. We all need to have the view that the buuilding up of the Body is through the functioning of each one part through every joint of the rich supply, which is Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:16), and that Worthy facilitates the building of the Body in this way. We have all the members here, each with their function and by their measure, to build up the Body of Christ. So let's not lose sight of that.

Anyhow, just speaking my mind here. I'm not trying to draw attention to our job as moderators. We are serving the Lord in the way that He has called us. As such, we don't expect any kind of special favor. A pat ont he back every now and then is fine. But I would rather you focus on the Lord Jesus and gain Him, and enjoy Him. For He is worthy to be praised in Zion!

Grace to you saints,

~G

[Ovedya]

I'm not talking about obvious posts that need to be deleted or obvious new posters who are here to cause problems. Those need to be handled swiftly, and the mods stay on top of that very good.

But - sometimes, a thread just shows up locked or deleted with no explanation. Sometimes there's an explanation and sometimes it's just gone - poof.

Instead of "defending the faith" with unbelievers, before it gets deleted, there's not as much of a chance to do that now. Remember when VOG was here? How long that was allowed to go on? A lot of people "defended the faith" with his "prophecies" for a long time. It got me in the Bible very hard and very often, and I know it did for a few others as well. He never got de-membered that I know of, and very few of his posts got deleted or locked. At the last, he was "monitored" very closely and eventually left of his own, if I understand right, but many people were given the chance to talk with him, to try to show him where he was wrong, etc. Even if newcomers read that, they'd see where VOG was wrong, because he was put to the test over and over.

Aside from that, sometimes a thread disappears because it's "already been talked about", isn't "leading anywhere", "I know it will come to a debate", "it won't come to any good", etc., etc. Or, no explanation at all. Almost like there's an unwritten rule book somewhere, and the only way to know what's in it, is to break it. I don't mean to be disrespectful, and hope I don't sound that way, but I don't think anyone is above being asked questions. Like in church, when the people can't ask the pastor questions, or can't talk with him about something bothering them without seeming to be a trouble maker...

Maybe it's just me. This wasn't intended to hurt anyone - so if it has, forgive me. It was just intended to be put out there, as something I felt and observed and was bothering me. Actually, I really thought it would be deleted right away.

I understand what you're getting at.

Well, first of all there is no rulebook. We allow the Spirit to lead us. We also fellowship with one another over certain matters with members. In the case with VOG we prayed together and had much fellowship. We deal with situations differently because each situation is unique. We don't always know that the Lord is doing, so we need to first get His sense before we do anything. At least I can testify that that has been my experience.

We do not hold any illusions. The Lord has brought each and every person to Worthy for a reason. Either he has brought them here for their salvation, for their correction; or for our salvation or our correction. So we need first to be open to the Lord before we can do anything. Then often fellowship between us is needed. So rather than a rulebook, we operate in a more "organic" way, because the Body of Christ really is organic.

Awareness is a factor we need to work on. I think we all understand that. A lot of times when a thread is deleted we will go ahead and send a PM to the person who started it. Other times we'll close a thread and place a message at the end. As I sais, it depends on the situation.

[Trinity]

Yeah there are alot of false doctrines going around here, Good job mods.

[Guest 4given1]

I don't even know where to start with my response to this. I used to come here daily and spend alot of time. That has changed because I don't have a computer in my home any longer, but also because things have changed so much since I first was without a computer until now.

When I first began coming to worthy (over a year ago), I thought it was awsome. Like I stated before, I came here every day. I developed a few very close friends. It's just different now.

Let me preface this by saying that I generally pray for a few days when I see a topic that I feel that I can have some intelligent input on, but when I saw this thread, I knew in my spirit that I had to post immediately. If this sounds like babbling at first, please don't discredit my words here, but I'm praying about this as I type it. Just please bear with me and continue reading. Before I forget to mention this.....thank you everyone for posting your true opinion here, but mostly, thank you Calamity for your courage in starting this thread.

I have seen name calling on the boards, other religions being boasted about, things called godly that are not Biblical.............and it sickens me. The name calling is childish, rebuking people is mean spirited, and lets call what is unbiblical unbiblical and not handle it with kid gloves like we're afraid of offending those who may need to be offended to see the truth. For those of us who are Christians........it's not about religion brothers and sisters, it's about a relationship with the TRUE AND LIVING GOD!!!!!!!!! For those of you that come here that aren't Christians, I pray for you diligently that you will learn and accept the truth here.

The most important thing that we have is our love for one another and I don't see it for the most part here anymore. I see arguing frequently, and while there isn't anything wrong with a healthy debate, why can't we agree to disagree in love. We are to show others love, kindness, patience, gentleness............and from the looks of it, I'm not the only person who has seen these fruits missing from the tree.

Threads get closed because they are contraversial and yet threads remain open that aren't Biblical. How is that possible in a Christian chat? I see accountability here, but are the right people being held accountable and for the right things?

I see friendships being betrayed or just "blown off" and a real friendship isn't "chaff" (not trying to be offensive to eric, just using that illustration) because someone says something that is odd or offensive. If we, as Christians, claim the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, why can't we agree to disagree and not call names, rebuke people and not welcome them with the love of God and live by the only rule book...The Word of God. Is it not the only standard that Christians live by? Is it not the only Truth?

Before I close this, let me say that I continually pray for worthy ministries, the moderators and George. I am quite certain that you all have a difficult task within this calling.

Thank you to all who read this post. Know that I love each of you through God and I am not in any way, shape or form here to do any damage whatsoever........I simply wanted to share what has been on my heart for some time.

God's love to you all,

4given1

[WISDOM]

If you just puff, you'll blow the chaff away. If you blow too hard you'll blow some of the wheat away as well. So be careful and and make sure you just get rid of the chaff. if you get my drift.

**The G.E. watt bulb LIGHTS up**.....very well put, Eric! ;)