On the Closing of Topics

[Joy]

Barnabas is an administrator of the Baptist Board and personal friend and mentor of the webmaster. In the Webmaster's absence, Barnabas has the last word and the control on matters that concern this board, including moderator's decisions. The moderators also stand behind him and recognize that the webmaster has given Barnabas authority to speak in his stead when he is not online.

 

[Barnabas H.]

Arrowman, you have posted here at 5:18 PM and stated that the reason you are doing so is because the thread you started was closed - yet you had no problem posting on the same thread twice this evening, at 7:44 PM and again at 11:06 PM. Wonder what happened, since nobody closed down your thread, it is still there where you left it on the FFAF All Other Discussions forum under "Abstenence vs Education." BTW, I would appreciate if you refrain from using this thread to went your personal likes or dislikes. Thank you.

http://www.baptistboard.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=000540

P.S. BTW, I liked your post on the FFAF All Other Discussions forum under "Weight loss concerns." And it wasn't because of what you have said about me but because you actually came through with the genuine intent of helping another human being - and you rose for the occasion.

[ March 12, 2002, 12:20 AM: Message edited by: Barnabas ]

 

[Arrowman]

Barnabas, I have no wish to extend this discussion unnecessarily; I have PMd moderators and the webmaster on this subject. However you have made a public assertion about me which I must refute.

The thread to which we refer was closed; it was reopened after I PMd a moderator. I still do not know why it was closed or by whom, and await clarification. I resent your implication that my assertion that the thread was closed, was false.

I have also PMd the webmaster (twice) and you, on this subject.

I am not "venting personal likes and dislikes". I am seriously raising the legitimate issue of whether moderators should close threads without posting an explanation, and/or close threads while making a "last word" post. I think these are legitimate questions on this thread "On the Closing of Topics". Why should I not ask them on this thread, rather than one in another forum on a completely different subject?

I am responding to, and questioning where appropriate, the exact things that people write. Where I was not sure of your status as a moderator or administrator, I edited my post to clarify what I had said.

I do not wish this to become acrimonious; I merely seek clarification of certain recent activity on the boards, and I have made a suggestion about how moderators should be expected to act when closing threads.

You and I apparently differ on the latter point. Should we not debate that on this thread? And is it not legitimate to use a recent and topical example?

--------------------
Edited because:
While I was composing the above response, Barnabas edited his post and changed some of his words, which I had quoted in my response. I will respect his wish to re-word his post and edit mine also.

PS: On the weight loss comments: Your words are appreciated. I'm really an OK bloke, you know.

[ March 12, 2002, 12:25 AM: Message edited by: Arrowman ]

 

[Barnabas H.]

Arrowman, I am sorry, I was not aware of the closing of the thread I linked to you. Have no idea which of the Moderators closed it, but probably it was surmised that you have gotten everything off your chest and there was nothing more to add.

 

[Arrowman]

G'day; how's the weather over there?

OK; I can only (must) say that this incident is exactly the sort of thing I am thinking of when I propose that moderators/administrators should be required to post a notification when they close a thread, so it is clear (a) who closed the thread and (b) why.

In the case of the "Abstinence..." thread to which we refer, and the original "Colin Powell" thread, there was no such notification and the last post on each thread was from you (Barnabas). Didn't look good and I'll refrain from publicly drawing any further conclusions.

 

[Barnabas H.]

That's very funny Arrowman! I din't know that you had that in you. No, I did not close the second thread only the first - but I did state that pretty clearly.

The weather is a bit on the cool side. Thanks for asking. Tonight they remembered the 6th month anniversary of the September 11th incident in the Big Apple and they turned on two columns of lights to symbolize the twin towers. I went up to the roof of our building and see the light. The weather is clear and you could see it perfectly. Have a good night.

[ March 12, 2002, 12:36 AM: Message edited by: Barnabas ]

 

[Arrowman]

23 Celsuis and fine over here; we've had no summer to speak of - record low temperatures in fact. At least the airconditioning bill is low!

Good night to you to; and my thoughts are with our US friends on this six month anniversary.

 

[tulpje]

What does it mean that my post has been deited? How come I can't post a certain post?

 

[radiochemist]

Why should threads be closed at all? Those who are not interested in a topic will not read it anyway. What is the purpose of closing a thread? Let the readership determine when the interest has diminished enough that they don't want to follow a topic. Some moderators make the point that this is a PRIVATE forum. In a legal sense it is, but you encourage posting. If you don't want to allow a considerable amount of latitude for people to express themselves, then I think you are in the wrong business. Also, over regulation of expression is counter to American values and when you do that, you come across as narrow and intolerant of views that you do not share. Is that the image that you Baptists want to present to the world? Some of you should go to a Muslim site, such as the following and see how open and tolerant Muslims are of views that are highly critical of their own. I am astonished that Baptists show more intolerance to opposing views than do Muslims. Here is the Muslim site. It must be viewed by Internet Explorer as Netscape will not work on the site. I have posted a few messages there, highly critical of fanatical muslims, under the name roberth.

http://www.islamonline.net/english/index.shtml

 

[DocCas]

radiochemist, the Baptist Board is a private forum owned and operated by Baptists. The webmaster, administrators, and moderators caucus regularly in private to discuss the posting/moderating rules and modify them as needed. The decisions of the webmaster, administrators, and moderators are final and are not subject to debate. If you are not happy posting on the Baptist Board, please feel free to design, finance, and open your own board, where you can make all the rules and suffer the constant sniveling of trolls who are unhappy with your rules.

 

[Dr. Bob]

Over the past 2 years, I've closed a few threads simply because:</font>

• They were getting too long and no one had time to read all the arguments</font>
• They were going far off subject</font>
• They became personal attacks ad hominem rather than speaking to the issue</font>
• They were started by a non-baptist in a baptist-only forum</font>

In most other cases, I just let them run the course and folks eventually lost interest in them and they "died" naturally.
I only see posts from the last 10 days (you can set your parameters at your preference). It helped not to see so many threads that were old. Occassionally a "newbie" comes on and sees something and reopens discussion - which is GREAT!

But the rest of the threads go to sleep in cyber-space.

One other note: I got way too involved in some topics and have chosen simply not to even go and read in that Forum. God bless the Moderators there; I have to ration my time and already post too often!

 

[tulpje]

All topics on evolution with the athiests, which is the natural course of discussion when trying to witness to them, in the "all other discussions" board keep getting closed and placed in the evolution forum. I am told to post all messages on this topic there. Yet, when i try, I get this message: You do not have permission to enter this area.

» Please use your browser's back button to return.

Why?

 

[Clint Kritzer]

tulpje -

Click on the words "Creation vs. Evolution" and you will see the instructions for contributing to that forum.

 

[tulpje]

However, Clint, I don't mean to complain but, why are these topics being closed when it it impossible to witness to the Athiests without discussing evolution? You know that I have been down there trying to bring them closer to God. That is practically the only forum where they are allowed(by the way I am grateful for that).

 

[Cskokido]

I too have had my share of deletions from posts. Some were justified, others were not. (Just for the record... I AM A BAPTIST Born and raised, accepted Christ as a teenager, served as usher, youth director, and now currently Director of the Baptist Men at our church.)
I have sent letters to the admin asking them to help initiate a renewing of friendship between a moderator and myself who had words in the past, but either I am not getting through to them, or the aforementioned admin/moderator does not want to bother.
I find this very disheartning, as this is not how Jesus would have us conduct a relationship with each other.
Remember, if we can not forgive each other, why should we expect the Lord to forgive us. Not to mention how can we show others the essence of forgiveness if we in turn do not forgive each other for less important items.

 

[Barnabas H.]

Cskokido, in the interest of fairness, let me inform you that there are always two sides to a coin, and I am sure there were ample reasons for deleting your posts. But going back to your note to an Administrator (?), I'd like to know to whom did you send your message? As you may know, we have a total of five (5) Administrators. So, which one did you send your letter of inquiry? And since you brought this into an open forum, would you mind telling us who was the Moderator who locked horns with you?

[ March 15, 2002, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: Barnabas ]

 

[Cskokido]

To answer your first question, I simple clicked on the "Contact Us" hyperlink and posted an e-mail to baptistboard@bartistboard.com, and then it changed to admin@baptistboard.com I am not sure if it went into a cyber-black hole, but that is what I did.
Now I do not want to point fingers, because I am as much at fault as the other, the difference being I want to make amends, and move forward. The moderator in question is Thomas Cassidy. I have written numerous times to him in private and apologized (so as not to drag it out in public) but never got a response. I guess it doesn't really matter, but I just don't like to have anyone have ill feelings toward me if I can help it.

 

[Barnabas H.]

OK, that pretty much answers that. I am all for moving forward!

 

[tulpje]

Originally posted by Cskokido:
I too have had my share of deletions from posts. Some were justified, others were not. (Just for the record... I AM A BAPTIST Born and raised, accepted Christ as a teenager, served as usher, youth director, and now currently Director of the Baptist Men at our church.)
I have sent letters to the admin asking them to help initiate a renewing of friendship between a moderator and myself who had words in the past, but either I am not getting through to them, or the aforementioned admin/moderator does not want to bother.
I find this very disheartning, as this is not how Jesus would have us conduct a relationship with each other.
Remember, if we can not forgive each other, why should we expect the Lord to forgive us. Not to mention how can we show others the essence of forgiveness if we in turn do not forgive each other for less important items.

I am having this same disheartening experience with Clint. He never answers my mail. I had to go to moderator who is outside the thread in question for help in a certain matter. He could not help me as he would have liked to because he is not the moderator in the board in which the situation evolved. He told me to be patient. I'm trying. I suppose it is good practice for my new Christian outlook.

 

[Clint Kritzer]

Mary -

I have answered all of the mail I can for you. I am not your babysitter nor a referee in your cat fights. I think you will find me unbiased despite your constant walking the line of the rules of this forum. Please get off of this thread with your complaints. Other members in all of the forums you post in have spoken objections to your approaches to subjects as well. I will not show bias toward any individual member in my moderating and I will SURE not show favoritism toward you.

- Clint