I'm Imagining a different forum.....

Mustaphile

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Feb 24, 2004
2,485
236
Indiana
✟35,696.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Divorced
Politics
US-Others
Imagine a place where people could all come together and say what they felt moved to say without fear of banishment or exclusion.

What a balanced place that would be. Hmmm..now I think about it, maybe that place already exists. I think they call it, Reddit.com. At least it seems a good emulation of that ideal.

This forum has always interested me, but it was only as interesting as the level of chaos that it allowed to happen. The process of continually refining the the forum areas until everyone had a home seems quite a good way of getting people to organise themselves likes birds of a feather. What I think is missing is the autonomy of those areas to run themselves as they see fit.

I wonder whether this could ever be replicated on this domain name or whether I could just go to where it's happening already.

*goes off to reddit.com to search for christian orientated reddits.*

Sorry..just thinking out loud. :-D
 

Rajni

☯ Ego ad Eum pertinent ☯
Supporter
Dec 26, 2007
8,552
3,930
Visit site
✟1,210,341.00
Country
United States
Faith
Unorthodox
Marital Status
Single
I hadn't really given Reddit much of a chance, simply because
the format kinda throws me off. :D

Here on CF, the layout is a bit easier on my eyes.

That said, I remember that when I first joined CF years ago, I
felt overwhelmed by this vBulletin-type layout, with all the
graphics and colors, because up to that point I had only
frequented Yahoo Groups' message-boards, and was
therefore accustomed to the format of the latter.
Now, I like it.

I always gravitate back to CF, no matter what other boards I
find. :)

-
 
Upvote 0

Mustaphile

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Feb 24, 2004
2,485
236
Indiana
✟35,696.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Divorced
Politics
US-Others
CF has definitely got something going for it. The stroke of fortune in the domain name is one asset. From there it has gained the momentum with a dedicated and loyal following from a wide variety of backgrounds. It's that diversity that is the difficult balance.

Looking over Reddit I've come to the conclusion I probably needed to find a 'Spiritual' section on CF. Spirituality is a subset of my liberal experience, but probably has relevance to many people.
 
Upvote 0

Unix

Hebr incl Sirach&epigraph, Hermeneut,Ptolemy,Samar
Supporter
Nov 29, 2003
2,567
84
42
ECC,Torah:ModeCommenta,OTL,AY BC&RL,Seow a ICC Job
Visit site
✟139,217.00
Faith
Anglican
Marital Status
Single
Well, over there they seem to charge for basic features: such as having the new posts highlighted so that You can distinguish them from posts You've probabably already read (or had a chance to read some previous time You were logged in). The annual membership is $30.
Also something that doesn't work as well as on CF is that on reddit it's difficult to distinguish different users as there doesn't seem to be much visible options for different user name colours, avatars, signatures and a mini-profile that would be visible in every post. Here on CF I can recognize most of the frequent posters and comprehend what they are like:
or whether I could just go to where it's happening already.

*goes off to reddit to search for christian orientated reddits.*
 
Upvote 0

Fish and Bread

Dona nobis pacem
Jan 31, 2005
14,109
2,389
✟60,685.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Democrat
Imagine a place where people could all come together and say what they felt moved to say without fear of banishment or exclusion.

What a balanced place that would be. Hmmm..now I think about it, maybe that place already exists. I think they call it, Reddit.com. At least it seems a good emulation of that ideal.

This forum has always interested me, but it was only as interesting as the level of chaos that it allowed to happen. The process of continually refining the the forum areas until everyone had a home seems quite a good way of getting people to organise themselves likes birds of a feather. What I think is missing is the autonomy of those areas to run themselves as they see fit.

I wonder whether this could ever be replicated on this domain name or whether I could just go to where it's happening already.

*goes off to reddit.com to search for christian orientated reddits.*

Sorry..just thinking out loud. :-D

Yeah, I've frequently observed that when it comes to the liberal or progressive sub-areas of the site and the congregational areas for churches that are socially or theologically progressive, people are sometimes inhibited from agreeing with their own bishops, priests, and pastors by site rules.

It's like if you go to the Episcopalian area, a church that has openly gay bishops and priests, and performs same-sex blessings, you can't advocate for gay rights. If you are in a progressive sub-forum like this one who's very name argues for inclusion of people who might be outside the theological bounds of the Nicene Creed because they aren't trinitarian or don't believe in the virgin birth or view God in a different way, they can't come here and talk about that.

Heck, you can go to the Roman Catholic forum and agree with the Pope that evolution is real and, to use his words "God is not a wizard", or paraphrase St. Augustine of Hippo's 6th century condemnation of people who rejected what we'd today call science, and get nailed for not being properly respectful of creationistists.

Assuming that they want traffic and traffic is money (Ad-views, etc.), it would make sense to allow progressive areas to govern themselves. It makes little sense to even have the areas if we're going to exclude people who could be clergy in progressive churches from expressing what they could put in a sermon.

Has anyone talked to the new site owner about this? Maybe someone could private message him and raise the issue. The admins and stuff aren't really empowered to even grant site rules exceptions, I don't think. It has to come from the top. I think there is an assumption that the owner wouldn't go along, but he's never said anything about theology, has he? I'd encourage people to ask him about allowing these sort of exceptions in certain parts of the site.

Anyway, as to the two alternatives suggested:

1. Reddit isn't really a message forum. I like message forums running software like this one does. So that isn't the right alternative for me.

2. I would be interested in a site like this one using the same or similar forum software that was more open in allowing progressive thought to be expressed. In fact, somewhere back like 5-8 years ago, I started one. It didn't work out because I didn't have the money, technical expertise, or people skills to do it right. Eventually, I got rid of it. Running it was too much for me. But it can be done. If someone were to start another site like that, I'd probably stop by and say hi. It'd be a big time sink for them- it's very hard to get members to go from one site to another, even if they complain about the first site a lot and the other site is in theory exactly what they want, many will just not go or say they'll go and not go or pop by for a post and then never again- it's like herding cats. :) Gotta be advertised heavily. I remember lugging my laptop around everywhere everyday to keep pushing conversations along, starting new threads, and getting links out there to bring in new people just get any kind of conversational momentum on my old site.

But I would love for someone to make the effort and invest the time and money and energy and try to do what I did. I think there is still room for it. It can be done. I was the #1 Google result for the two words that made up the name of the site I had back in the day, and that was before Google had personalized results, so anyone that searched for those two words would have had my site come up. When I let the domain name expire and my ownership lapse, some holding company registered it and was trying to sell the URL for $10,000 or something ridiculous (They never got it, they are still advertising it as for sale like 5-8 years later).
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0

XtianAgain

Jesus Junkie
Jan 12, 2006
601
59
51
Mississippi Gulf Coast
✟2,231.00
Country
United States
Faith
Non-Denom
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others
Reddit is actually a pretty amazing place. They have so many subforums, almost anything that interests you is there. I read Radical Christianity from time to time. Really good subreddit. BTW I don't pay anything. I do fine without the enhanced membership.
 
Upvote 0

Mustaphile

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Feb 24, 2004
2,485
236
Indiana
✟35,696.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Divorced
Politics
US-Others
Reddit is actually a pretty amazing place. They have so many subforums, almost anything that interests you is there. I read Radical Christianity from time to time. Really good subreddit. BTW I don't pay anything. I do fine without the enhanced membership.

I will check out Radical Christianity. That sounds interesting. :-D
 
Upvote 0

Marius27

Newbie
Feb 16, 2013
3,039
495
✟6,009.00
Faith
Messianic
Politics
US-Democrat
It's unfortunate that there aren't more welcome very popular Christian forums around. This board used to be much better with the old owner. We had tons of liberals, agnostics, etc. to balance out the conservatives. But all the good posters got banned or encouraged to leave. TheologyWeb seems like the other big one, but haven't spent time there to see what it's like.
 
Upvote 0

Unix

Hebr incl Sirach&epigraph, Hermeneut,Ptolemy,Samar
Supporter
Nov 29, 2003
2,567
84
42
ECC,Torah:ModeCommenta,OTL,AY BC&RL,Seow a ICC Job
Visit site
✟139,217.00
Faith
Anglican
Marital Status
Single
Yeah I know. But I'm still here and am not going away, I can post balanced research:
This board used to be much better with the old owner. We had tons of liberals, agnostics, etc. to balance out the conservatives. But all the good posters got banned or encouraged to leave.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums

AceHero

Veteran
Sep 10, 2005
4,469
451
36
✟21,933.00
Faith
Non-Denom
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Others
Reddit is actually a pretty amazing place. They have so many subforums, almost anything that interests you is there. I read Radical Christianity from time to time. Really good subreddit. BTW I don't pay anything. I do fine without the enhanced membership.

Reddit is pretty cool for just about any topic you could think of, though I don't really see it primarily as a typical forum like CF.

It's unfortunate that there aren't more welcome very popular Christian forums around. This board used to be much better with the old owner. We had tons of liberals, agnostics, etc. to balance out the conservatives. But all the good posters got banned or encouraged to leave. TheologyWeb seems like the other big one, but haven't spent time there to see what it's like.

That's too bad. I've been here a decade this month, though I started out as a very conservative individual so I must not have noticed. :sigh:
 
Upvote 0

Butterfly99

Getting ready for spring break. Cya!
Oct 28, 2015
1,099
1,392
24
DC area
✟15,792.00
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Single
Imagine a place where people could all come together and say what they felt moved to say without fear of banishment or exclusion.

What a balanced place that would be. Hmmm..now I think about it, maybe that place already exists. I think they call it, Reddit.com. At least it seems a good emulation of that ideal.

This forum has always interested me, but it was only as interesting as the level of chaos that it allowed to happen. The process of continually refining the the forum areas until everyone had a home seems quite a good way of getting people to organise themselves likes birds of a feather. What I think is missing is the autonomy of those areas to run themselves as they see fit.

I wonder whether this could ever be replicated on this domain name or whether I could just go to where it's happening already.

*goes off to reddit.com to search for christian orientated reddits.*

Sorry..just thinking out loud. :-D

& where people are respectful to each other.
 
Upvote 0

Wgw

Pray For Brussels!
May 24, 2015
4,304
2,074
✟15,107.00
Faith
Eastern Orthodox
Marital Status
Single
Politics
UK-Conservative
& where people are respectful to each other.

The traditional theology subforum is actually usually an extremely nice place, although the activity there is not as high as one might prefer.

I myself wish there was an "advanced theology" forum on this site wherein members of diverse views, including non-Nicene perspectves could discuss interesting topics, in which certain types of posts (eisegesis,appeals to ignorance, endless repetition, and so on) would be disallowed, but in which different threads might be discussed in a respectful, energetic manner. So no bullying or flamage, but active debate. So for example, I would love to be able to discuss theology in a non polemical manner with a sophisticated, intellectual Unitarian Universalist.

One of the more miserable things about some of the fora here is the members who SHOUT excessively. In Controversial Theology there are several chaps who basically seek to shout down their opponents and intimidate them in this manner, and the result is that many of the more talented members shynaway from it. Steve Caruso, for example, the Aramaic scholar, posted therein last week and was treated in a very disagreeable manner by some people, and I doubt he will post there again. Which is a shame, because one cannot really discuss, for example, non-Nicene early Syrian Christianity in the main forums (Tatianism or Severianism, for example), which would be a subject where he could contribute.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums