Teens Forum

I agree that the teen representatives would be a good idea. I know that I'd be willing (and I suspect a likely candidate) to participate in that. I won't be able to post in the teens section after all this, but I'd like to make it as good as possible for those teens that will return, and those that come in the future.

OK, in that case im off to bed... ill keep an eye on this thread and soon as we here more I will talk to people... also feel free to drop me a pm.

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God bless man.

I agree that the teen representatives would be a good idea. I know that I'd be willing (and I suspect a likely candidate) to participate in that. I won't be able to post in the teens section after all this, but I'd like to make it as good as possible for those teens that will return, and those that come in the future.

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I'll keep you in mind dan.

icarusforde said:

I'll keep you in mind dan.

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The teens section must be the ones to pick these people... haveing people from the staff pick the people they will be talking to will fix nothing.

on a side note... sleeps over rated.

The teens section must be the ones to pick these people... haveing people from the staff pick the people they will be talking to will fix nothing.

on a side note... sleeps over rated.

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Oh yea. Silleh me.

And yes. Yes it is overrated.

more people decide the new forum is equal or better.

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6000 posts in 5 days? Hmph. Yeah.

'Nuff said.

closing this for now, until someone is back to watch

here for a bit so let me re-open and try to formulate some thoughts. it's early so they won't come out that great

PM box- is turned off when I go on LOA so people don't send PMs that would need urgent attention. I thought I had them back on :/


a representative--you can certainly do that if you like, however I think a lot of you posting here are doing just fine.

new boards- well, some people won't come back. that happens with any changes. I left CF for awhile once, too. Some people do come back, some don't. I hope it gets worked out to the point that people do come back. However we do know in truth that many will not. Do not take that as we're happy about that. We aren't. I just see no reason to lie about it and think everyone will come back. I know they won't.

I've been asking for input on how to word this, but I think just being honest is the way to go: some things will not be open for debate or discussion. And I don't want to make it seem like they are. There will be an age change. That's a final. What the range will be is not. Everything from the cut-off being 18 to the cut off being 20 has been discussed.

We'll need input on why it's important that over 18 remain in Teens. I know I thought, and I assume others did as well, that Young Adults would be the next step. Or singles or the college forum. Also some groups have stuff like ASA in Site Supporter, or threads in Friendship or Blessings Exchange where they can all post and get together. Some feedback has been that when people leave their 20's they go to the 30's forum. 30's leave and go to the 40's, etc. And that at some point everyone moves on to a different group.

I'm leaving in about a 1/2 hour so we'll leave it with that point now for discussion.

closing this up as I"m on my way out to work

re-opened I'm here for a while at least

Here is my opinion for what it's worth:

Closing of the forum: 24-48 hours would have been more than sufficient. The way you handled it is the equivalent of using a nuclear bomb to stop a man throwing hand grenades. You have caused much pain and hurt many innocent people in your rush to justice. This does not demonstrate reliable leadership decision making abilities. In closing the forum, you have caused many of the teens to lose respect for your leadership. The quicker it can be re-opened, the sooner teens will regain respect for your leadership.

Rule changes: I for one am glad to see this coming. I have been saying for a long time that things needed to be changed in the teen section. As it was, teens was much too dangerous for someone weak in his faith. I have read the proposed changes and think they sound good. I like the idea of having an open section for 13-18 year olds that is Christian only and the only sections that non-Christians can post in will be with their own age group. That is good.

And about the other board. . .it may take a while, but eventually most will come back. They always do.

The bigger issue is the loss of confidence in the leadership of the board. Again, the longer you wait to re-open the teen section the harder it will be for you to regain the confidence of the teens.

Would like to say something. editing

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I have been in CFT for almost 6 years and I modded for 13 months at some point. Over these 6 years I have followed a number of changes in CF, watching processes run their course and begin other processes. I was surprised to find a "mess" like this. I gather similar things to what Atlantis posted in post #25.

I would like to comment on the age thing as that seems to be the big point of contention. My main qualifications here are these:
1. I recognize that CF is a private forum.
2. I also recognize that CF exists to benefit Christians.
3. I believe that the entire admin staff and related operate with good intent.

That said, here is my comment. I have had extremely positive, formative relationships with older "teen" members. They helped shape various disciplines and orientations that have been of great benefit, to myself and to others. Others whom I less interacted with brought important perspectives and helped begin various paradigm shifts in my thinking. These I credit as the key agents in why I remain a Christian despite being deeply ashamed to be related to Christianity.

Personally, I began a personal research project into academic biblical studies several years ago. That, as others will appreciate, began some huge paradigm shifts. In the last 1-2 years I have introduced many "teens" to biblical scholarship and challenged them to be far more rigorous in their personal readings than Sunday School and "devotions" allow. This exposure simply doesn't happen until college and various insular discourses encourage suspicion towards academia. (Yes, I know there are exceptions.) The result is that quite a number of young Christians who have never known anything but "devotional" ways of reading have their "faith" utterly decimated by the alien world of biblical scholarship.

I would not be a Christian now if it weren't for the older "teens" who showed me that engaging with biblical scholarship and following Christ are compatible. Serious intellectual engagement is not a characteristic of mainstream Christianity. Many still think that "intellectual Christian" is an oxymoron and even more think that those who call themselves such are simply prideful fools who cannot accept God's wisdom.

A world of personal growth happens after highschool. For many, their only exposure to what kind of changes are possible was in CFT. It is perhaps too inorganic to simply excise 19-21s based on abstract models that apparently had significant issues in implementation.

BelindaP said:

Y'all should have led off with meh's explanation than the way you did. It would have done wonders.

Now, for the mods who ended up fired and banned, they went to the mat that night to try to stop the trolling and hacking. It would have been much, much worse if they hadn't literally stayed up all night consoling hurting teens. You really ought to reconsider the bannings/firings. They have a heart for teens and will be needed if you want to have a hope of rebuilding the teens forum. I guess it will come down to whether you value mindless adherence to the rules or a true heart for ministry with teens.

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Thank you for posting that. These are the mods that I know. When I modded, several of the CFT staff's time was 50% PMs with individual members. I remember group prayers for certain people for weeks and weeks and very intense discussions over MSN. Having known a few of the... now ex-mods for a few years, I am proud of what they did.

I wanted to leave a note here- I am reading each new post. I'm going to wait to respond because I'm rushed the next couple of days with stuff at home and other work on here. But please...anyone with constructive input, ideas, etc., please keep posting. Every post is read and gone over.

Why is the age range being changed? I skimmed the topic but I don't recall seeing an answer to that question.

Before I continue with my thoughts I would like to thank Jbarcher for his above post. He more or less voiced what many of us older CFT members feel. For many of us, it was the then older teen members that helped us grow in our faith in ways we never would have considered. Older peers can have a wonderful positive influence on their younger friends, and I have found CFT the best place to meet such fine young men and women over my last several years here.

Besides what I just mentioned, there is another gripe I have with the coming age limits. I as a 19 year old guy in college have much more in common with the members in the teens forum then I do in the young adults forum. Most of those people are older and are in a completely different part of their life. For example the most recent thread about not liking bars. I can't even drink for another few years. People up to age 21 tend to have more in common with teens then they do with those up to their mid-30's (the upper age limit in YA which makes no sense to me). People who are in their mid-20 and up are not young adults, they are adults and usually have started careers and families, something the majority of older members in CFT's have nothing in common with.

Why after so many years would you want to change the age limit now? Were there problems that we didn't know about? If it's not broke, don't try to fix it.

meh said:

I've been asking for input on how to word this, but I think just being honest is the way to go: some things will not be open for debate or discussion. And I don't want to make it seem like they are. There will be an age change. That's a final. What the range will be is not. Everything from the cut-off being 18 to the cut off being 20 has been discussed. We'll need input on why it's important that over 18 remain in Teens.

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-I do recommend opening the forum as it was before temporarily for the purpose of Goodbyes... or creating a temporary sub-forum for that purpose.

-I would also suggest the age limit be no less than 19 to remain true to the teen forum name (IE: teens) and to recognize that there are 19 year old who are in High School or the first year of college for whatever reason.

+I do want to ask, also, why the age change is necessary in one respect: Any 14 year old on the site can go to the ethics forum and debate homosexuality or abortion with 50 year olds. Or any other forum. It seems odd that parent's suggestions are being allowed for one single forum that causes much damage... yet also doesn't change anything because if a perv was here, they could make an account saying '15' and post in the new forum anyway... or a legitimate 14 year old could go anywhere besides the age-limited forums. It doesn't make too much sense to me from that perspective.

I know I thought, and I assume others did as well, that Young Adults would be the next step. Or singles or the college forum.

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I recommend combining a few of those forums into one main and several sub-forums. They all redundantly are around the same age group.

SuperOktav said:

Before I continue with my thoughts I would like to thank Jbarcher for his above post. He more or less voiced what many of us older CFT members feel. For many of us, it was the then older teen members that helped us grow in our faith in ways we never would have considered. Older peers can have a wonderful positive influence on their younger friends, and I have found CFT the best place to meet such fine young men and women over my last several years here.

Besides what I just mentioned, there is another gripe I have with the coming age limits. I as a 19 year old guy in college have much more in common with the members in the teens forum then I do in the young adults forum. Most of those people are older and are in a completely different part of their life. For example the most recent thread about not liking bars. I can't even drink for another few years. People up to age 21 tend to have more in common with teens then they do with those up to their mid-30's (the upper age limit in YA which makes no sense to me). People who are in their mid-20 and up are not young adults, they are adults and usually have started careers and families, something the majority of older members in CFT's have nothing in common with.

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This is all entirely true. Even at my Church in real life, the College students are still hanging around with the Teens if they are at a local college.

Perceivence said:

Why is the age range being changed? I skimmed the topic but I don't recall seeing an answer to that question.

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As far as we can tell without an official word:
-Some unidentified parents complained that older people who were 20, 21, ect. were allowed to interact freely with 13, 14 and 15 year olds.
-If those parents are related to anyone in the teen section is also unconfirmed.

Samuel_Rigby said:

Here is my opinion for what it's worth:

Closing of the forum: 24-48 hours would have been more than sufficient. The way you handled it is the equivalent of using a nuclear bomb to stop a man throwing hand grenades. You have caused much pain and hurt many innocent people in your rush to justice. This does not demonstrate reliable leadership decision making abilities. In closing the forum, you have caused many of the teens to lose respect for your leadership. The quicker it can be re-opened, the sooner teens will regain respect for your leadership.

Rule changes: I for one am glad to see this coming. I have been saying for a long time that things needed to be changed in the teen section. As it was, teens was much too dangerous for someone weak in his faith. I have read the proposed changes and think they sound good. I like the idea of having an open section for 13-18 year olds that is Christian only and the only sections that non-Christians can post in will be with their own age group. That is good.

And about the other board. . .it may take a while, but eventually most will come back. They always do.

The bigger issue is the loss of confidence in the leadership of the board. Again, the longer you wait to re-open the teen section the harder it will be for you to regain the confidence of the teens.

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I always supported the Christian only identifier of that Forum and opposed the changes that took place a year or so ago when all rules were lifted and all the nether regions broke loose.

I don't see a need for the age limit for reasons I already voiced.

I will, however, promote a compromise at 19 or 20 if it is absolutely pre-determined.

Personally, I would like to see the age set from 13 to 20. A 12 year old is not a teenager and can't even join without parental consent. We saw very few below 13 year olds anyway, and everybody was always gentle and kind. A 19 year old is a teenager. And a 20 year old is still in a transition stage and will have more in common with the younger ones.

Having these older people has been extremely beneficial to the rare young one (below 15) we get because we do have knowledge and experience. You should see the responses they receive when they complain about their parents. They are told, by the older ones, they need to respect their parents. Their parents love them and thats why the limitations and rules are there. And they receive extremely helpful advice on how to handle disagreements with parents in a mature manner. This is just one example.

I also think Atlantians has a great point. A 14 year old is not restricted anywhere else in the forum; they are free to go talk to much older, atheistic and non believer adults about topics like abortion and homosexuality, where they can easily be swayed. They don't even need to participate in the discussions, just read them. Theology is CO, but it's not exactly the gentlest section either and no place for a younger one trying to learn more about God. One post there and it's quite possible they will be ripped to pieces. The teens forum as it was, was by far the safest place for young teens to be.

well I'm headed to bed, so I'm closing this up til someone else is on