Private forum information

[Hentenza]

Hi All,

This is the latest information concerning the creation of private forums. I am happy to inform you that the Refuge forum will be regulated to make sure that it won't turn into a devil's playground or promote satanism.
The information below was developed by a team composed of ministry/pastoral/recovery folks. It addresses most of the points of contention.

BTW- The Refuge forum was closed yesterday, after only being open for 24 hours, until the proper protocol can be put in place.

Here is the information:

Refuge Forum...Hidden/Private Recovery Forums: Staff Discussion & Decision

(if any of the folks involved in the discussion need to edit any of this...feel free...I'm sure I missed something somewhere / mischaracterized something etc).

Good evening,
Based on guidance from Erwin, mnphysicist, and Constance, and multi-team staff discussion the following is the bottom line:

The Recovery Category will have the option for "hidden" (private) forums for a variety of issues and the site rules will not be relaxed for these forums. In order to post in one of the private forum(s) a desire for recovery must exist.

The key is that members need to be actively moving away (or want to be) from the occult and toward Christianity...and each one of us has a different road to walk, and what works for one may not work for someone else.

There have been some general guidelines that have been developed but will require development via the wiki process as they're not entirely fully formed as of yet. In many cases these are red lines.

1) Membership and staff have identified a need for a forum to discuss certain struggles - in this case recovery from the occult.

2) This forum needs to be private to for both the members that will post in the forum and to protect other members of the site. There will, likely, be a regular public recovery forum for discussion and a private sub-forum for discussion.

3) The need to be safe extends to the entirety of the Recovery Category (I'm not 100% clear on what this means and it will, clearly, need to be further refined).

4) Posting guidelines will need to be developed. This is, likely, similar to the process of developing forum guidelines. I believe that these will be discussed internally to the forum itself.

5) Age limits will need to be defined. Certain Recovery private forums will be age restricted - to include the Occult Recovery forum.

6) Similar to point 4, each forum should have an Introduction Stickie with hot topics, perhaps a "tread carefully list" and any disclaimers - legal or otherwise that are deemed necessary. Again, this is likely internal to the specific forum.

7) Some way to vet those who request access will be needed. Decisions on who to admit (and who to remove) will be made by staff - likely some combination of Ministry / Recovery / Pastoral / Staff asked by membership to assist in a specific subforum. As an addendum to the Occult Recovery Forum - any current staff member struggling with overcoming occult tendencies / draws / pulls etc will not be eligible to staff the Occult Recovery Forum.

8) Any sub-forum in Recovery will be governed, ultimately, by the in-force site-wide rules and any specific Recovery Forum rules.

9) Specific to the Occult Recovery Forum no games of "my afflication is worse than yours" or "you are not really recovering from the Occult" will be permitted.

10) A loose afiliation between recovering members, members in the forum there to assist / help and forum staff will be attempted. Not sure how it will work or even if it will.

11) There is a need to define "professional counsel" (as it is not permitted).

12) Seekers who are trying to determine what type of recovery they need will be permited; vouyeristic lurking will be prohibited.

13) A definition of "promotion of religion" will have to be developed (promoting satanism is prohibitied. full stop)

14) Members will be taught / encouraged to use their member drafts for their ventings.

15) The Recovery Private/Hidden Forums will be viewable by all staff. For the purposes of posting and moderation staff are considered regular members and must be approved to post and / or moderate in the forum(s). Reports will be directed to Recovery's queue which is hidden from the general membership.

The following was rejected and will not be implemented:

A) an overall benchmark which defines who is a recovering member and who is not a recovering member

B) an overall benchmark which defines who on staff is eligible to participate (this may be sujbect to an age requirement).

C) Refering to members as "Clients"

D) Christian-Only. The private recovery forums will be open in terms of faith.

Again, this is a baseline only. I'm sure some things will change and some things will not change. Confidentiality of what occurs in any of these forums will be respected at all times. Full stop.

Edit to add: Tonks posted this in support so is now public. If you want to chime in follow this link.


God Bless

 

[~*Lady Trekki*~]

Thanks for the update Hen!

 

[ContentInHim]

Hen, -I would like to ensure that at a minimum some staff who are skeptical of this forum will be allowed to at least view the forum and be permitted to discuss what they see with supervisory staff above the forum.

My concern is that the mods in the forum are soooo pro-forum that it will degenerate into an enabling club instead of a ministry to help the suffering. kwim?

Also, Christ must be the center. If it becomes clear that a member isn't interested in being saved and is just jerking everyone's chains, they must be cut loose and perhaps even banned.

Also, the name is a misnomer - Beth She'an was NEVER EVER a city of refuge - the cities are named in Deuteronomy and they are very significant. Beth She'an was nearly ALWAYS a pagan city of the decapolis - a pagan refuge if you will.