Censure

[Roger Johnson]

Well, I finally was able to log on. Why did you have to go a stop letting guests start threads and post?  I went and viewed the registered users and almost all have fake names except a few..and sure they are valid emails...but that is easily created. So no one really knows who is posting anyway.  It appears we have a over active "leading administrator in our midst"? I am sure that our leading aministrator will now censure any individuals who do not sign up to what he feels as correct.

[al Hartman]

     Sure, anybody can give himself a phony name & address, but at least then there IS a name & address to which to respond.  Then, should someone respond to some mean-spirited post, and discover eventually that there is no one there to claim responsibility for the post(s), at least there will be some evidence that the poster lacks the courage to represent himself.

     Why would anyone need anonymity on this website?  Do you expect a horde of vengeful assemblyites to come thundering on horseback, clothed in robes and hoods, to burn an ictheus on your lawn?

     i have recently learned it is unwise to second-guess Brother Brent; wiser to simply ask him what his intentions are.  But i'll venture a guess that he doesn't intend to be heavy-handed about this, but simply wants us all to be able to see who's who and what's what-- a winnowing of the grain, as it were.  Or a separating of the goats from among the Lord's sheep.  Will you fault a man for being a faithful steward?

[editor]

Hi Roger

Yes, I am an over-active administrator.  Or am I standing by letting the whole thing get out-of-control?  

I am giving too much freedom, or am I being a BB Nazi?  It all depends on who you talk to!

I think raising your hand and speaking clearly in school was a good idea.  I also sign letters I write to people.

I'm probably just being paranoid, but it just seems like it is no big deal to use your real name.  I'm not telling you what to say, just put your name on it.  Now that I'm ex-assembly, I have become really unbalanced.  In the real world, no one uses their name, right?

Brent Tr0ckman---my real name

[wolverine]

A toast to the BB Nazi!!!!

No posting for YOU.......ONE YEAR!!!!

BBNaziFan

[hopeful]

I don't want to use my real name because, yes, I am a coward.  You people attack everyone and anyone who does not agree with you.  My nerves are already shattered over the last three months.  I'm hear to read, learn, maybe respond, ask some questions.  But heaven forbid if I state an opinion.  Sorry, I don't want to risk attack here.

still Hopeful,
for as long as Brent will allow

[editor]

Dear Hopeful

You are free to lurk about under your name, take PM's, etc.  But if you do post, you must use your name!

I am sorry for any attacks you have suffered.  If any have come from me, please let me know, and I'll try to make it right.

Brent

[hopeful]

I have not been attacked personally, but if I say the wrong thing there will be many who will jump all over me.  Nowhere else online do I have to use my real name.  There's a reason we don't have to.  It's not safe.  And as much as you'd like this to be safe here, sorry, but it isn't.  Some on here are wanting nothing less than total compliance with their own form of new-found liberty.  By everyone.  They have no tolerance for anything else.  I don't want to make trouble over a small thing like my real name or my Hopeful name.  It's your BB I guess, so I'll play fair.  I'll stop posting.

Hopeful, for the last time

[BenJapheth]

Hopeful,

There is a lot of consolation around here.  The folks who tend to get "attacked" are ones who arrive on the bulletin board attacking others, with a chip on their shoulder - slinging arrows, threats, and defensiveness.

That is the exception, rather than the rule...Most of the people here have struggled with the difficulties of being honest and hearing tough counsel.  So, I think you'll find some merciful people here if you hang around long enough...shouldn't take long.

Grace to you hopeful!

I don't want to use my real name because, yes, I am a coward.  You people attack everyone and anyone who does not agree with you.  My nerves are already shattered over the last three months.  I'm hear to read, learn, maybe respond, ask some questions.  But heaven forbid if I state an opinion.  Sorry, I don't want to risk attack here.

still Hopeful,
for as long as Brent will allow

[Nate Dogg]

Chuck,

  You're absolutely right. There are those of us on this site with vastly different theological opinions, and degrees of experience in and out of the assembly. I think there are a lot of people with a lot of repressed discontent about the assembly who now have a venue for it, and unfortunately end up attacking even people who they don't know personally or who disagree with them. I have actually been pleasantly suprised, given the somewhat contoversial nature of my posts, that more people have not flamed me.  It gives me a lot of hope that people are honestly searching after having been hurt very badly, to make sense of their beliefs. And it has led to a lot of refreshing honesty that has been lacking for so long.
 
                                        love,
                                             your nephew Nate

[Ken Fuller]

Brent --

is there a way guests can post, but having to first pass your "censureship"?

I know the point is to avoid flaming attacks that just insult or distract from the board (though we are getting plenty of those from certain registered users, one in particular)

But there may be valid reasons someone doesn't want yet to identify themselves, but has something worthwhile to say.

[editor]

is there a way guests can post, but having to first pass your "censureship"?

Why yes there is!  They can log register and log on.  

I know that online communities, many times allow anonymous guests to post.  We did it here, for months.  I prefer it, but we are dealing with Geftakysites, and they aren't like other folks.  (yes, I mean this)

While most of us are willing to have meaningful discussion, one or two of them went about irritating and annoying everyone by starting threads and engaging in useless, pointless, childish questions.

I think the time has come for us to change our tone, and get back to what this is supposed to be all about.  Getting our from under Geftakysism, and getting back into the Grace of our Lord!  Really, that is what is supposed to be.

I think the new, stricter rules will help this happen.

I know people are furious with me for doing it.
Other people were furious 2 months ago because I didn't do it!
People are mad because I don't censor, "hurtful," posts.
People are mad because I make them use their real name!

I know that I can't please all of you, and I am not concerned about it.
I do think that if we have something beneficial to say, we can sign it with our real names!

I am not afraid to use my name!

I am Brent A. Tr0ckman, and I am a poster on the GA.com BB!

[Kimberley Tobin]

I don't want to use my real name because, yes, I am a coward.  You people attack everyone and anyone who does not agree with you.  My nerves are already shattered over the last three months.  I'm hear to read, learn, maybe respond, ask some questions.  But heaven forbid if I state an opinion.  Sorry, I don't want to risk attack here.

still Hopeful,
for as long as Brent will allow

First, with what I say to you, dear Hopeful, I hope you will understand I am not attacking you.  Compassion is often difficult to convey with the written word.  So think of me speaking quitely to you as you read this, with outstretched hands pleading with you to hear "my heart", not just my words.  

"Heaven forbid if I state an opinion" - This is what you said.  We were not allowed to hold opinions in the assembly.  It was my "opinion" that verbally abusing my children was not what the Lord wanted.  I was entreated for it.  Told that I was bearing "bad fruit" for standing up to my husband and not allowing the verbal abuse to continue.  It is so trained in us, when we were in the assembly, that holding a different "opinion" was WRONG!  In the normal course of human relationships it is OK to have a different "opinion".  That is what dialogue is all about.  What I have experienced in the body of Christ, since leaving the assembly, is a wonderful sharing of OPINIONS.  It is not a belief, "I am right and you are wrong".  That is what the assembly teaches.  The sheep don't know what is "right".  They must constantly be brought into "submission" to the vision of the leading brothers, their wives, then the doorkeepers, etc.  

"Sorry, I don't want to risk attack here."  Dear Hopeful - we are not attacking you if we want to engage your mind to look at our "opinion".  This is the fallout of the assembly mentality.  You ARE ATTACKED if you state an "opinion" that is contrary to assembly teaching.  THIS IS WRONG!

Please enter into the fray of dialogue.  I think you will be happily surprised at the friends you make and the fruitful dialogue that can ensue.  Develop your critical thinking skills (not allowed in the assembly.)

We want you here.