Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
Yea, thanks Erwin for putting your time and effort into all of this. I personally appreciate it.Thank you, Erwin, for all your hard work here and there. Perhaps what each of us can do is to pray for this hard-working servant of the Lord. Amen?
Ann
It would be best to hard delete all that gossip and rash judging which can and does go on behind those staff doors. And I call it gossip for a good reason.
I hope that Erwin will enable Admins to hard delete and dispose of all threads and posts that should not see the light of day again. People's lives can be absolutely ruined unless this is done. Porn especially can destroy people due to their addictions.
I have been hoping for an answer to this too.I take it all moderators are hereby terminated. Rather unceremoniously, it sounds.
Also, what will prevent debate in the congregation forums? Or is that all going out the door too?
e. No more restriction of forums for non-Christians - if a non-Christian can walk into a church, a non-Christian can walk and post in any forum here. Some forums may still have gender or age restrictions, but the whole side, as should be any Christian site, will now be totally [OPEN].
I would agree. It is well known that there is a good deal contained in the 'sooper seekrit' forums that is not just confidential but rather inflammatory towards individual members. With this new attitude I think a flushing of what went before and forgiveness from all for that might have been said behind closed doors is appropriate.
It's not about sweeping things under the rug. As I said - there are things I would LOVE to have come out into the open. BUT - what good will it do now? If things really are going to change, it's time to cast off the old, cast off unforgiveness, and live:Wouldn't that just indicate even MORE secrecy than what has already happened? I don't think you can just sweep this under a rug and call it a day.
Thanks, Erwin!Let's discuss the "new" CF. One thing to make clear is that these are things that I want happen, and that will happen, and whether staff or members agree with them or not, they are what I believe to be the right things to do. Some, maybe a lot, may disagree, but I believe it's time for a MAJOR paradigm shift at CF.
Unlike what people might have mistakenly expected, the "new" CF is NOT going to happen overnight.
It's going to happen in stages. However, there are mainly going to be 2 stages:
1. The first stage is the CULTURE change stage. This is going to start happening from TODAY but will be an ongoing process. This will involve:
a. Changing the site rules - simpler, less legalistic, and more open
b. Changing the way rules are developed or changed - wikify it! The rules process should be a member-initiated community-propelled, and consensus driven, not something that a minority can decide on.
c. Changing the way moderators are appointed - the members decide! There will be forum moderators, category moderators, and then super moderators. Members nominated, members vote, members appointed. Appointments are for a 12 months - at the end, can be renominated, or not. The power is with the people. And yes, if you are not a Christian, you can be on staff, if people vote for you to do so. The whole process will be open, transparent, and clear. What about current staff? They will all have to be renominated and voted in at some stage.
d. No more warnings. If God can forgive, so can we. Of course, consistent rule-breakers and trolls will still be banned, but hey, that's not going to be avoidable for any site. But not legitimate users.
e. No more restriction of forums for non-Christians - if a non-Christian can walk into a church, a non-Christian can walk and post in any forum here. Some forums may still have gender or age restrictions, but the whole side, as should be any Christian site, will now be totally [OPEN].
f. No more restriction of faith icons - who are we to tell you who you are or what you believe in? In fact, no other restrictions - if you want to call yourself married, go ahead. It is between you and God, not you and CF.
g. Related to the above, if you believe you are a Christian, you are. No more reliance on our own definition of what we think is a Christian. In the end, who are we to judge.
h. Transparent appeals of moderator actions in a much more simpler format - with member input allowed - in fact, the community has a say in all appeals. The way it should be. As the community has written the rules up in the end.
i. No more hidden moderator forums - in fact, no hidden forums at all (except trash forums). If we can read it, you can read it. What is there to hide? If it has to be private, it can be in a PM. This will mean more transparency from all people.
The above outlines the setup of the new rules. A lot of the above cannot happen overnight, and will require some work. But the aim is for culture change at CF.
Many people, including current staff, will not be happy with the above, and some will quit, leave or resign. I bear you no ill-will - you do what you think is right, I do what I think is right. Yes, some of the above changes are controversial, and in fact, radical. But it's time for a total new way of looking at CF. We want to unite all Christians. Not just some.
2. The second stage is the TECHNOLOGY change stage. This is going to start happening over the next MONTH as this will involve extensive recoding and even software replacement. New features will be added. Members would have noticed that we have hit a hiatus in terms of new features being added and CF has not had a new feature for a long time. Well, I am looking at changing this. In the past, I've been the only server administrator, webmaster and coder. I've outsourced the server administration part of things, but there is room to outsource other things. The software behind CF requires a lot of improvements, and this WILL occur. I won't say too much about them because the second stage will be the part that will be most visible and trust me, when it happens, it will be obvious.
In other words, stage one, the culture change, is the change of CF's heart and soul, while stage two, the technology change, is the change of CF's look and body. In my mind, stage one is by far the most important. Both stages are hard to do.
Stage one starts now. Stage two will occur later and will mean some significant functionality changes.
Let's go.
Absolutely Amazing!!! Breathtaking!!! Wonderful!! I can't tell you how these proposed changes make me feel...I DO see the opportunity to fulfill a "UNITED BODY" in Christ!!! I see all Christians AND Non-Christians communing and sharing!!!!
Truly staggering!!!
I say, the moderators should stay unless voted out.I take it all moderators are hereby terminated. Rather unceremoniously, it sounds.
Also, what will prevent debate in the congregation forums? Or is that all going out the door too?
Erwin if you are still around I hope you will address the issue of the Congregational fora. They are the only reason many if not most members are here.
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