Hi,
I've been thinking about this a little lately, and actually just realised I have no idea why any of this is even necessary. Why do we need a name change, why do we need to cater to people outside the Christian faith when this is clearly a Christian forum and what is wrong with how things are done now?
1. A safe social community site with a heavy and strong Christian influence (with the vision being to offer a safe online community, and a secondary vision being to allow Christians to outreach to non-Christians) - which will allow for a name change
First, I can't see that ever happening in my opinion. It's not so much that I feel a safe social site is out of reach, it's that I feel a safe social site with
a strong Christian influence is. As soon as we try to provide a strong Christian influence, threads devolve into disagreements, which turn into debates and arguments and eventually get petty as seems to be our way until we finally realise we are wasting time and grow bored and move on. Some posters are better than others, but as usual it's the few that ruin it for the rest.
What I think you will get instead is the General Apologetics forum, which is far from pleasant in my opinion and I feel both sides are responsible for that. I won't divorce Christians from the issue, as we contribute as much as any and it takes two people to contribute to an argument which eventually follows the path I outlined above. Threads devolve into petty mudslinging contests ripe for trolling and the OP's first question or comment goes by largely unanswered or unresolved. This is only slightly reduced in the Christian only areas, as by and large we all agree on the same things at least and can move on to the actual issue, only getting stuck on semantics.
Second, why does the name need to change? Isn't that just a semantic too? How strong a Christian influence will be apparent without a mention in the name? Is that not a step away from God, dimishing your work in His name Erwin? To make it more acceptable or more agreeable to secular society?
Return to a more restricted Christians-only site with a heavy emphasis on uniting mainstream Christians only with a less emphasis on outreach, in which case we keep the name.
Why is strong outreach and mainstream Christian fellowship mutually exclusive? I have issues with the way these things are worded.
Again, first the reason I came to this site, is because it was an online church. I got to post with Christians, learn about Christianity and engage in debates and discussions when desired. I found many people with similar issues as me, and many struggling with things I had overcome, where I could help. Outreach was good not only in
ministry, but also as a learning ground for voicing my own thoughts and understandings and reading what other Christians posted in response to the OP question too.
I've already been witness to what the new changes and freedom has brought about and so far I've not seen any benefit as of yet. Certainly the strong Christian influence hasn't been something I've seen.
I think this largely comes from the nature of the internet. You likened the changes once to a non-Christian walking into a church, yet the net isn't like that. That requires effort, no one would really do that unless they were sincere, yet the internet requires the barest minimal effort, and the anonymity makes us all very brave people. Willing to say much which we would not do in real life. In light of this, I felt the way things were handled before were better.
Although this site has a large non-Chrisitian userbase too, and in that regard I often wondered why some forums were Christian only? Like the Life Stages for example. I wish to retain Christian only forums for those areas which pertain to Christianity, like Philosophy and Ethics, or Theology, or to have a Marriage Ministry that is open to advice and comments from Christian members only. Yet I can see the need and desire to have areas which are open to all people.
So my question is, why not just mirror them? If you are Christian and have an associated faith icon, then the Christian forums are open to you and visible, if you do not hold that icon then they remain hidden and private, so you have just the normal areas visible (to make sure it is uncluttered). A list is drawn up as to which forums members wish to have open/closed and based on that you move forward.
The thing I want to avoid, is that I am forced to post in areas where non-Christians can join in. As elitist as that may sound, it's not for any lack of desire to commune with non-Christians, it's purely because I don't want to have to justify my faith in each thread, or wade through unrelated posts to my faith.
CF is a church. Can you imagine a church where each time the pastor said something, he had to answer questions and comments from someone else to justify it, or prove it or clarify it? It would be chaos, which is where I feel this is heading.
Oh and lastly, the rules wikis are just chaos incarnate. I went to look up the rules for the Ethics and Philo forum and from a thread with over 1000 replies, I couldn't glean anything. If there is someone who actually knows what the state is currently, it would be great to have it up in writing somewhere findable.
Cheers,
Digit
