Susie, if you re-read my post, notice I emphasized that I didn't expect monetary contributions at all in the form of funding because many are of little financial means (and I'm blessed by comparison) -- but asked for contributions in the form of posting within the forum guidelines. ANYTHING within the forum guidelines. Those who have been there and are willing to speak truthfully will attest that many posts by Jan H., Norm and Kent were highly controversial.
In fact, Susie, you know what bears witness to my truthfulness in stating that people got away with proverbial "murder" on H2O, even more so than on Simon's board today, without getting deleted?
JOSEPH MALIK and RADO VLEGUEL (darned, I can never spell the second named brother's name!), who both archived on several CD-ROM discs over 320,000 postings!
Can you fathom that many postings, Susie, on several CD's? That's over 600,000 bytes per CD. My point is that you can quickly SEARCH on most computers those CD's for Jan H. Norm or Kent (and variants like "JH", "NH" and "KS" etc.), and see the literally HUNDREDS OF MEGABYTES of their postings over almost 5 years! Now whose funds lead to the creation a library authored by these three alone (and I've just scratched the surface -- search for many other regulars here on that CD-ROM set), that is the equivalent to 10 32-volume Encyclopedia Brittanica sets? Why, little old Rick.
Sound like someone into censorship?
I would dearly love it, if somehow in the "twighlight zone" or some parallel world, we could be in this court where everyone here who has accused me of censorship, is confronted by my attorney holding a set of CD-ROM discs in his hands. In front of the Judge, he starts searching for each regular who is here now, tallying up the megabytes of their postings and printing them out. The courtroom would not have room to seat anyone by the time the last printout came out of the printer, if it were possible to wait that long! How do I know? I played with the figures one day by grep'ing the directories based on known regulars like Jan H., to see how VAST a library they had written.
I don't regret it. Some JWs have likened me to the well intentioned but infamous Oppenheimer who created the first atom bomb, would you believe! (LOL!) The gist of what they were saying, is that I gave Jan H., Norm, Kent, Tallyman, Farkel and others a platform to air their "apostate" views that resulted in a permanent electronic "library" of their writings that could "stumble" JWs for years and years to come. This is like the JW version of the atom bomb or should we call it "apostate bomb." ;-)
(In anticipation of the blind rage to likely follow, I cannot state enough times that I don't take any credit for what they posted, or even claim to have stimulated all those posts! It could have been any forum. What I'm saying is that if I were into censorship, and I had the power to stop all these posts from happening, then why didn't I delete them. THEIR POSTS ARE ESCONSED FOR 'ETERNITY', SO TO SPEAK, BECAUSE (A) I LET THEM POST, AND (B) THEY ARE ARCHIVED ON CD!)
Now, in light of the fact this archive exists (and I have copies of the first 57 H2O libraries on my huge hard drive, quickly searchable), can anyone still say "Rick" and "censorship" in the same breath? I dare anyone to.
My experience has been no different from yours in its basics, and I expect no "fame" or "fortune" and would be a fool to even go for it in this venue. I did this out of love, and that is the only reason.
Anyone without even a faint feeling of "conscience" can claim I'm into censorship knowing the CD-ROM archives of H2O containing gigabytes of postings by the "regulars" here today, exists for anyone like you to see. (I'm sure someone here can direct you to Joseph Malik who can direct you to a web site where these archives exist, so you can see for yourself how true are my words.)
I funded those gigabytes of writing, and I could have removed posts from the archives to only reflect discussions on reform, but I left each and every post! All 320,000 of them! Does anyone dare to do the math on the drive space required for 320,000 individual files on a file server? I could have run a script to delete files by Farkel, Jan H., Norm, Kent, etc., if I had an "agenda." But I made them available for years as they piled up on the server, and they were spidered to every search engine there is. You would see a post by Kent on H2O pop up on search engines when searching for certain JW subject keywords, for many years in the late 1990's to early 2001.
I have no regrets. I take no credit. I made nothing. I gave everything in my time and funds. Should I put on sackcloth and grovel now? What a lovely vision that would be. I put on sackcloth, grovel, plead for forgiveness, only to look up and see angry Tina staring down at me. That would be the last thing I see, assuredly, as she stomps on my face with a high-heel. No, sackcloth ain't for me.
No groveling for me, Susie, I'm a sinner like the rest of humankind and no "saint." My baptism might have declared my love for God and Christ but it didn't inject inhuman humility in me to the point of groveling (which I'm sure you didn't literally mean). No teary-eyed pleads for forgiveness to those incapable of forgiveness.
You're more of a "saint" than I, based on your post, not expecting anyone to appreciate your efforts! Admittedly, that was my one weaknesses, and it made me feel sad to think all my efforts might have resulted in merely entertaining people like Tina and Farkel for a while. Until they grew tired. And they have long since. Now they consider H2O as a place that can similarly help no others. The kids have moved from one "arcade" in cyberspace to a bigger one.
Shall I bow out gracefully like Obed? Keep in mind that Witnesses.net was not a place for the kind of discussions now archived for H2O over the years. Would Witnesses.net survived if Jan H. had posted over a hundred megabytes of anti-Watchtower information and reasoning against everything JWs believe? Would Obed have left Jan H.'s writings on the server to pile up for 5 years, then encourage others like Joseph Malik to esconse these postings in archives so future generations of JWs might find them and be "stumbled"? I doubt it.
(Now, on que, it's time for Farkel to chide in again, as has frequently in the past, that I can take no credit for his years of contributions - duhhh? like I ever have; and that I lack appreciation for one of those who made H2O what it is today - no comment; and that I single-handedly turned H2O into a ghost town - totally untrue if anyone wishes to review the posts still on Coolboard.com until the 29th and the CD archives back to August 1996; and etc. The truth is there for those who care about the truth.)
Rick
