Oh, man! I just had to bring this one to everyones attention.
I pressume that this is Rick going off.
Hourglass2OutpostBronze Member
Posts: 32
Join Date: 05/15/2001
Date Posted: Jun/13/2001 9:00 PM
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Some frequently asked questions
Is H2O really intended for Jehovah's Witnesses as indicated in the first part of your byline?
Yes.
You mean baptized Jehovah's Witnesses in good standing?
Yes.
Just who are these so-called "other interested ones" in the last part of your byline?
These are people who are no longer Jehovah's Witnesses for whatever reasons, and are interested in dialog with those who are still faithful Jehovah's Witnesses.
Isn't what you just said a contradiction of terms, in that to remain "faithful" as a Jehovah's Witness one must not fellowship with those who abandoned their faith?
That's a loaded and complex question, because there is a large volume of material in the Watchtower publications alone that address many facets of fellowship versus interaction with the world. The Watchtower does not allow Jehovah's Witnesses to even speak with ex-Jehovah's Witnesses unless certain circumstances arise (such as the necessity to interact at work, where the Watchtower's counsel on fellowshiping with non-Jehovah's Witnesses often creates an extremely complicated social environment in the workplace between JWs and ex-JWs who's jobs require verbal interaction). It is obvious therefore that the Watchtower would not approve of baptized Jehovah's Witnesses participating on any discussion board where ex-Jehovah's Witnesses and "worldly people" were also allowed to interact.
Is it possible to run a discussion forum that the Watchtower would not disapprove?
I'll answer by giving you a rundown of an ideal Jehovah's Witness discussion forum from the Watchtower's likely perspective (even though the likelihood of such a forum is slim if non-existent in the near future).
(1) Such a forum would be on the Watchtower's web site and exist behind a secured server (where the URL to that forum would have the "https://" as its prefix, the "s" meaning "secured" the same as for online banking transactions). Theoretically the Watchtower could create such a secured forum for secured servers are now a free perk of many e-commerce high volume web sites.
(2) The forum would not allow outsiders to read it, but give read and write access only to registered users.
(3) The forum would require a registration pin that would likely require publishers to fill-out a Watchtower form applying for the pin (or code). This pin would be treated like any banking pin, requiring that suspected misuse by others of this code be reported immediately to the Watchtower.
(4) A separate department to run forums on the Watchtower's site would likely be required within the Watchtower headquarters, likely involving the use of cubicle workstations where Bethelite moderators would read each incoming post in 24 shifts, and approve or reject each post to appear on the forum within minutes of its posting.
(5) As volume increased these core moderators would likely accept volunteers from congregations around the world to assist them in approving posts quickly.
(6) Likely the software would be sophisticated and send out an automatikc form letter to the registrant if the post was rejected (and an automatic cc: to the elder(s) in that individual's congregation).
(7) With 6,000,000 JWs this type of forum could become the hottest JW site on the Internet especially for the millions of ex-JWs, with underground trafficking of publisher pins to trusted ex-JWs so they can keep tabs and even "infiltrate" and "subvert" discussions in ways that will slip through the moderators' fingers.
(8) Special server software to flag pins that are used simultaneously (when only a baptized publisher at one location should be using it), would likely be installed. Publishers whose pins were being used from Internet entry points outside their geographic area (and especially from other countries) would get called in by elders and interrogated, to find out if they gave their pin to "apostates." This would create a whole separate layer of judicial interactions between elders and publishers over time, as the forums matured and security software improved to catch pin trafficking or other abuses.
Of course, insiders trafficking pin numbers in a "black market" and other presently inconceivable abuses and exploits by ex-JWs would ultimately lead to the closure of such a forum.
Why was over 90% of H2O's traffic over the last several years the angry ex-JW crowd?
It has been most difficult to develop an understanding of what has transpired. The long and short of it is that baptized Jehovah's Witnesses in good standing found H2O on Yahoo and other search engines in the Jehovah's Witness section, came to H2O with high hopes of finding other likeminded brothers and sisters to fellowship with, lurked and read, and soon realized mostly ex-JWs were participating. As a result, few JWs got involved in discussions. Many lurkers hit the "Exclude" button in ex-JW postings so that their daily visits would yield a highly filtered display of other posts NOT by ex-JWs.
In March 2001, when H2O was still very active on Coolboard.com, I performed a little exercising. I pretended that I was new to the Internet as an active JW after I bought a new computer. I went online, found H2O on Yahoo's Jehovah's Witnesses section, and entered the International Open Forum. I pretended that I was one of our brothers who gave H2O the reasonable benefit of doubt, thereby assuming it's postings would statistically reflect the ratio of JWs to non-JWs in the world at large. Therefore, as I read the board along those lines, I did what was encouraged by H2O, and I started hitting "Exclude" inside of each post that immediately turned me off as a JW for whatever reason. My screen name created for this exercise accumulated excluded participants, and each day the board would go from very active to less and less active. Finally, there were only a few posts by You Know appearing. After You Know said a few things that would upset many faithful JWs, I hit exclude on his name. Day after day, there were no posts. The board appeared empty.
Thus, I realized for the first time that from the perspective of the very ones for whom H2O exists, that the International Open Forum had "died" on their screens for them. From their perspective, it would be no different than what is happening for real on H2O right now at our new location. Because they kept hitting exclude on posts that genuinely offered them NOTHING of value (because as many will remember, ex-JWs were at each other's throats and attacking the few faithful JWs that poked their heads out of the proverbial foxholes to introduce themselves in new postings). Eventually, everyone disappeared. Remember that when you hit exclude on someone, their post is invisible to you? Well, imagine over time, you hit exclude on one person after another, until the board appeared empty (even if it was choked with postings by ex-JWs)? If you try this exercise on other so-called JW forums (if they offer "Exclude" type buttons), by pretending you are a faithful JW who is new to the Internet, you will see this strange phenomenon occur!
Try it. Create a new screen name you use for lurking only, on Simon's site. Now pretend you are a faithful JW who has never been on the Internet or even owned a computer. For the very first time you are on the Internet, and find Simon's site. You give Simon the benefit of doubt, and very non-chalantly start hitting "Exclude" inside of posts that are "not upbuilding." Anyone who has ever gone through a time where they only think, breath, eat and sleep the Watchtower's materials -- without doing anything else (and this accounts for at least 5.5 million JWs if not close to the 6 million!) -- knows what I'm talking about! You would ONLY want to read posts that provoke thought, in other words, not that tear down your faith in God or hurl blind insults at the Watchtower!
So, to conclude the exercise, you keep hitting "Exclude" on Simon's board under that screen name you use for lurking only. Each day, you logon to that screen name, and look at the board. Viola! It keeps "shrinking" in the number of posts! Pretending you're in the overzealous JW mindset that consists of most JWs who are new to the Internet, you keep hitting "Exclude" very non-chalantly...hit Exclude when someone hurls an uncalled-for insult at the GB...hit Exclude when someone questions God's existence in a manner that doesn't infer they have an open mind but are set in atheistic beliefs...hit exclude when someone uses foul language you feel was uncalled for...and so forth.
Each day, you come back, and the board is smaller!
Keep this exercise going for a month, and suddenly the new JW is scratching his head, wondering "what happened to all the posts on Simon's board??" Because he/she was just hitting Exclude on posts that were not upbuilding, not on all the posts! What they didn't realize is that ALL the POSTERS who generate the high volume of posts are not upbuilding, and without realizing it, one day no posts appeared! Their profile blocked the posts because the user names that generated that huge volume of posts were EXCLUDED in the faithful JWs profile. He might not even realize this has happened, and simply think that everyone has left the discussion. Besides, his universe of posts consists ONLY of those that benefit him. What's left when he leaves? A group of very angry ex-JWs socializing, and a few make-believe-JWs to keep them on their toes.
Didn't those running H2O see the writing on the wall? If so, why didn't they face the fact that few cared about its purposes, and shut it down?
The truth is difficult to face when you work so hard to make something work. It's like trying to accomplish any worthwhile endeavor, and having people trample upon and completely trash your work. H2O never attained its true goals because almost everyone with a few exceptions USED IT to entertain themselves, or like Farkel said, to have "fun" with it. Nothing wrong with wanting fun, but H2O was never intended for just "fun"! H2O was created under the assumption that many ex-JWs genuinely wanted to communicate with faithful JWs who are new to the Internet technology, but realized that the only way this was possible -- with many faithful JWs viewing limited interaction with others modeled after the Kingdom Hall -- was for them to make a few sacrifices in posting. As in, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do"? Or, "when in Bethel, do as the Bethelites do"?
Communicating with others whose consciences are far stricter, and who are new and overly awed by the Internet technology itself, not knowing what to say or how to enter a discussion, requires effort on others part! It takes effort similar to learning the customs of others when in a foreign country, and showing some respect by learning their language. Someone has to bend, and faithful JWs new to the Internet have no incentive to alter their expectations for interacting with others in discussions! What really disappointed me the most, was to discover very few even cared about "bending" to allow themselves to be "heard" by faithful JWs whom our Australian friends had so painstakingly invited to the H2O table, through search engines and expensive listings that are now fading. Instead, most selfishly used H2O as if it was a local bar that was offering free drinks.
Worse, not only did they ignore the bar owners' requests for even a small donation for those "drinks" and the use of that facility, but they even ignored requests to donate something more precious: THEIR WILLINGNESS TO WORK WITHIN THE CONFINES OF THE FACILITY'S STATED PURPOSE AT THE DOOR! They walked right passed that stated purpose and USED the facility for their own selfish purposes, for years before abandoning it, leaving the owners with the feeling that they had been grossly taken advantage of. This feeling will never leave during the lifetimes of these owners, and no lame "how are you doing" postings from the worst offenders will ever make-up for the trashing of H2O's facilities.
Then in light of what you just said, where is H2O going?
First, we don't want this majority of people who trashed H2O over the years back. It is best to start from scratch, and try to fulfill H2O's original purposes. Part of the problem was my permissiveness in allowing those who trashed H2O to continue participating. Rather than trying to create a rule-based system so as to be perceived as uniformly "fair" by all, I should have simply done what most webmasters or board leaders in millions of forums do. I should have banned these people. Technology has improved in this area, allowing not only I.P. but entire email domains to get banned.
Ironically, many forums before H2O came into existence used banning to keep their forums on track. They would often block hotmail and other freebie email addresses from registering to force SERIOUS PEOPLE to register with REAL email addresses. It has worked from the time Internet forums began, and doesn't really compromise the privacy of people.
However, due to many misconceptions on privacy and fear the Watchtower Society would track people down and disfellowship as a result of their participation, we might have gone overboard on remaining anonymous. Over the years I'm now learning that due to privacy laws that are enforced in many countries, using one's regular STMP or POP email account to register for a discussion forum is perfectly safe. These addresses by law are maintained in privacy. Provided your email address itself doesn't reveal your identity, it's safe to use that to REGISTER. One can then use their anonymous hotmail or other web email for their posting profiles (so others can email them). Therefore, it's not unreasonable to ask people to use a REAL email account to register, but use an anonymous email account for their posting profile so others can contact them via email.
As all these realizations unravel as I gain years of experience on the Internet, coupled with those who started H2O getting grossly taken advantage of by so many who claimed they are better people for leaving JWs, we've decided to take a que from Simon himself. He simply runs his forum, doesn't mess around with a bunch of rules and freely bans troublemakers. There's supposedly no moderators, which everyone insists. Well, no OFFICIAL moderators is better put. H2O has OFFICIAL moderators so it's a true statement that H2O moderates, but Simon's board does not (because it "self moderates"). Nevermind that a few friends who "self-moderate" might help Simon to delete the posts?
What does this all mean for the FPP and H2O's direction?
I guess what it boils down to, is that the FPP is GONE, with a caveat. The principles expressed in the FPP are principles most webmasters and forum leaders use at their own discretion. Formalizing rules was a mistake. Will this make it better for those trashers of H2O who complained about official moderators and official rules? Not really. They're going to discover that adopting Simon's method, which is really a traditional method of running a forum without all the formal-democracy-nonsense that the English and other countries so loathe, is not tolerant to vandals and those who hold common standards of decency in contempt.
We're going to start over, no longer having official moderators. Rather, our friends will use the moderator tools inherent of any forum site to "self-moderate" at their own discretion. Because I consider those who are presently caring for H2O including our forum leader or Forum Director as my personal friends, I'll trust their good judgment in moderating fairly, honestly and with integrity -- just like any good forum should expect of those who are "self-moderating" it!
Those who trashed H2O in the past, at the discretion of our Forum Director and friends helping us moderate, should be banned at the first sign of trouble. I personally don't ever want to see them posting on H2O again. I was walked all over when instituting a 30 day ban, and was treated with contempt for trying to be fair (when most sites ban for life). Now I've decided to allow the moderators and Forum Director to decide when to unban then if ever, for I trust the judgment of these good friends as I'm sure Simon trusts the judgment of those who "self-moderate."
If these individuals start insulting newcomers or subtly using their manipulative ploys to drive them away, our friends might feel it's best in H2O's long-term interests and the interests of those for whom H2O was created, to BAN THEM WITHOUT NOTICE. If their alter-ego's return, we might try using email-domain banning, I.P. banning or a combination thereof. Although I'm sure Simon isn't so "vulgar" as to spell this out, we know through sources this sort of banning is something he has used at his discretion. So shall we.
Aside from cleaning up a mess that was started by trying to be more fair than the average forum leadership out there, I'll be personally working on bringing more JWs to our site and "other interested ones" who truly want to go "the extra mile" to communicate with them! If it doesn't work, then it's no different than when H2O originally started. It's just that due to trying to please everyone, I haven't been forced to "face the music" of discovering if there are any JWs out there who wish such an open forum to speak out more freely than they would in their Kingdom Halls. Now I have the courage to face that, and start developing a quality site with the quality and integrity akin to Freeminds.org that provides a good forum and perhaps a growing body of useful and reliable information the Watchtower might prefer we not be burdened with.
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H2O Administration
