Right, here are my 2 pennies worth about the Forum change. I don't really feel comfortable writing it anywhere else here because I don't really know people around here much anymore cus the only place I've kinda retreated to is here. God's given me an amazing place to chat about things and has blessed me with some amazing people to ask for advice, opinions or just to chat with about life in general - I really love you guys and I don't think I've said that enough. It's really funny how times like these really get you thinking and not taking as much for granted isnt it? Anyway... this is the only place I'm going to post my opinion about "FORU.MS" - if anyone wants to quote me then please do... but I shant be going any further afield then here.
And it's not that I don't want to go further afield in CF. I havent been around the forums in AGES. I've felt no real need to, no real urge to, no time to really. But over the past few months I tried to go further into CF and I just got disillusioned and deflated and disappointed with the whole thing. I've not really mentioned it all because I felt I wasnt allowed to and I'd get an infraction because of the nature of what I was talking about but I've got nothing to lose right now if everyones moving on! But now all the mod rules and privacy policies have changed I spose I can talk about it.... and it kinda explains why I havent really been around for a long time.
Most of you know, I was a mod on Friendship team. And as a trainee I thought it would be ace. It took me some time to get onto mod status cus of things going on in life. But then I got mod status woo hoo! And I spent so much time doing reports, commenting, sending PMs, checking forums ets.... I thought it'd be great, and I'd be a senior in no time at all and doing reports would be great and not only would I be helping out something dear to my heart but I'd be making friends along the way. Well..... I got really really really disillusioned cus not many people really made an effort to get to know me. I tried starting threads up and I tried chatting through reports n stuff but it just all felt really stale.... IT WAS THE FRIENDSHIP TEAM AS WELL which I found really ironic but anywhoo! What made it worse was probably all the rubbish going on with a supervisor mod - who I LOVED to pieces - who ended up forced off the team which didnt really help... anyway....
So, as time went by I just got kinda fed up. And I wasnt around as much because of things in life that happened.... maybe when I needed you guys the most. And I felt that if I wasnt doing reports n things it wouldnt look very good if I was writing on here pouring my heart out. So I did neither!
During this time... NOONE on the team asked me how I was doing via PM. Nothing about it all. Until I got a really dry PM saying to me if they didnt see me active over the next fortnight I'd be taken off staff. That was pretty much it. Well, rather than not be active... I replied to the PM with apologies and explanations.... and you know what?......
I never ever ever ever got a reply......
No thanks, no oh sorry to see you go, no thanks for letting us know - hope all is ok... you're still welcome to keep posting on CF etc etc.... nothing! What made me feel REALLY bad though was the CF angels who were writing me thanks for being a mod on my guestbook when I hadn’t been around for ages.
And it wasn’t as if I was expecting a thank you – maybe just a confirming PM to just say that they received my apology…. The confirmation I got was the staff tool bar taken off my profile, my mod status taken away and ALL my PMs wiped out! Yep! So long Erica! And farewell!
I’ve never dared say to anyone how I felt about the whole thing. I mean, I was the one who dropped out and left the mod team in the lurch - who am I to complain? And I kinda felt as if I wasn’t allowed to say anything to anyone else. I’m probably not, and I’m going to get in trouble I don’t know! But that’s how I feel.
So….. as soon as I got off the mod team… talk about change was going around. I was so numb about everything I didn’t really give an opinion. I was only on and off the site and never really got back into the swing of things until a few weeks ago. Talk about change was still going on and then SHOCK! HORROR! The first non-Christian mod was introduced!
I’m not going to lie to you guys. I’m all for non-Christians contributing towards this site. I think it’s great that we’re able to witness to those who don’t yet know God. And I think it’s a positive challenge to live life to the full and be seen to do so…. With what we say and what we do. If the non-Christian guys are willing to submit to the Christian ethos of the site then that is fine. And I’m sure if they were seen to be hi-jacking our faith they’d be strongly challenged about it…
Call me cynical but maybe this was the vision in the 1st place? To have a multi-belief forum where it was predominantly Christian…. Calling it CHRISTIAN FORUMS in the first place got all the Christians to sign up and hey presto! The site is going to always be majority Christian no matter what the name is.
All I’m going to say now though is that if they end up given the same treatment as I was given as an ex-mod then I really feel that we’re not showing the love of Jesus through the web at all.
All this is a bit messed up I know. But it’s my head at the moment….. sorry if some of you don’t agree. But my opinion isn’t going to stop me from talking to you guys and praying for you guys……… being really truthful – you guys are the only reason I log on here now…. Call it sad, call it touching…… I don’t know what to call it.
Erica
xxx