When I left the Jdubs my only friend (briefly) was Raymond Franz. But he was old and not well, so it was impossible to stay in touch. Time passed. Then a website called Discuss The Truth opened up. It was run by Apollos. He had a moderator called Meleti Vivlon, aka Eric. They both had different approaches on how to moderate.
Apollos was tolerant and allowed people great freedom to say what they wanted. The problem is if you let anyone say anything, then valuable comments get hidden beneath rubbish comments. Also you get people who are there to cause arguments and try to stumble you into one so that you lose it mentally.
Eric was more of a defender. His control was tighter but to some extent it stifled freedom of speech and spontaneity. But, let’s face it, if you set up a website, you are going to have your view and support it and be friendlier toward people who share your view. Its just the same on this website. This is Simon’s territory, we are just guests.
A little background that may not be general knowledge – I knew Eric’s first wife Reta. I liked her a lot.
I left the Jdubs before Apollos, Eric and Reta left. But of their group, Apollos was the first to wake up. He realized that there was something wrong with the date and months to do with 1914. He shared this information with Reta who promptly saw through Watchtower’s lies. It took Eric longer and Reta had to handle matters carefully because Eric was an elder and had firm views. However, in the end he listened to her and both of them left the Watchtower.