Christian Forums Under New Management

Teshi said:

I'm cool with a private staff forum if it's strictly for administrative matters. It would need strict guidelines to keep it from becoming full of gossip and bickering, though.

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LeeD said:

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your patience. In the past 18 days, I have had a lot of PMs from people sharing their concerns and hopes. I want you to know that I have listened, and in the next 5 days we will be addressing many of those concerns, including:

1. Overwhelming support to return to the christianforums.com site.
2. Concern about efficacy of Wiki Policy
3. Rules
4. Desire for unbiased and fair staff action
5. Fear that changes will adversely affect groups on the forum

In order to make sure that we can make the forum a better place for everyone, I am going to:

1. Gather a small group of advisory members
2. Create private staff forums to discuss staff structure and policy going forward.
3. Return the site to a more inreach focus as contrasted with outreach. This will not affect access for non-Christians.
4. Work with Christian and non-Christian staff to determine where non-Christian staff may mod.
5. Create a new policy for staff. Staff serve at my pleasure, they will no longer be elected or subject to member recall.
6. Instate a reconciliation team to handle appeals, mediate member-member conflict, staff-member conflict, oversee staff, and make recommendations to my designee as concerns staff discipline, and or staff removal.
7. Provide a wiki formatted forum for members to discuss a rule or provide solutions to a problem.
8. Turn on the infraction system with some modifications.

New Staff Structure
Moderation:
Mods -Admins (team leaders) - Advisors

Staff conflict/discipline:
Mods -Admins (team leaders) - Advisors/HR Assistant

Staff Action Mediation:
(members) - Reconciliation team - Advisors/HR Assistant

Technical support:
Superadmins

Temporary rules:

• The names or titles of God, including Jesus Christ and the Persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, or Holy Spirit), in any language, are not to be used as expletives or interjections or in an abusive, mocking, or insulting way.

• Sharing of information about one's beliefs, for instance by quoting Bible verses or witnessing, is encouraged. Honest debate and discussion regarding the existence and nature of God is allowed and welcome. Mockery of Christians, Christians beliefs, and the Christian God are not.

• Promotion of the religion or rituals of Satanism is strictly prohibited. Promotion is defined as the active attempt to sway others to Satanic beliefs and/or practices.

• Flaming, baiting, trolling, or feeding trolls is not allowed. This also applies to groups. In other words, play nice, don't hurt others, nor call them names.

• If you think you are being flamed, choose *not* to be offended, but instead take a break, and communicate, rather than escalating or accusing others.

• Defamation is not allowed.

• Harassment of another member is not allowed.

• Threads which are off topic for the individual forums are not allowed, and substantial derails ot threads are not looked upon in a favorable fashion.

• Congregational Forums wishing to remain safe havens may choose to limit debate to members of their own denomination, insist that all posts conform to their creed etc.

• Age and or gender restrictions are to be respected.

• Reasonable confidentiality will be respected by Staff and Members, alike.

• Issues with staff decisions should be taken to the staff member, then the reconciliation team, period. Don't post them, don't PM them to others, don't take them to Lee.

• Do not say racist or sexist things. If the swear filter is activated, edit your post, don't try to bypass it. Don't post graphics or text you would not be comfortable sharing with someone's grandmother.

• Don't break the law, don't violate copyright, threaten others, or do or promote anything illegal.

• Don't spam in threads or sigs, don't promote get rich quick schemes anywhere on the site.

• Use the brain God gave you. Think before you post. Think about how your post may affect someone else.

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This is something I really don't like because I am always nervous when there is too much concentrated power- that is why we have boards, committees, elected governments, etc. I think it is always better to have a structure that shares power and ensures that all ideas- good or bad, ultimately accepted or not, can be expressed, and that more than one mind ultimately decides what is best.

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RavenRift said:

God Bless you Lee... I too will be praying for you... you are surrounding yourself with great leadership.

As to the teens section which I am a mod over... because of the sensitive nature and different circumstances involved with the minors - we will be able to keep the rules that we are currently in process of adjusting to better meet the unique needs of the teens?

I believe mnphysicist might be aware of these changes - if not our Admins would be glad to share that information with you...

God Bless brother and thank you for bringing back CF...

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Redneck-Melly said:

Thanks for the quick answer Lee. How about the reports, will they remain open or will they go back to being private?

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Sojourner1 said:

Good question on the reports. Also, the rules need to be numbered somehow (makes it easier when posting which rule was violated when a post is edited or deleted).

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