Posted by Friend [Friend] on November 03, 1999 at 20:52:30 {eZOTANvCI6hxaL3hj3H2OgnjR4Br/g}:
In Reply to: ****Let's Cut to the Chase posted by Rick on November 03, 1999 at 20:17:35:
Rick
First of all, thanks for getting back to this thread so soon.
Hello Friend, I had not read the posts that I'm told people are "outraged" by. I came online to discover people calling Greg a "liar" without giving a source (so that I, the reader, could verify if their accusations were true). I reacted accordingly. My reason for this topic is simply that I want every accusation of a personal nature to have evidence, so H2O doesn't slide into an all-out libelous situation and it gets forced down in litigation. Trying to head it off at the pass, and the "yelling" is to get the attention of all concerned.
I appreciate your position and agree with it. Labeling someone a liar without evidence is, in my opinion, very much in violation of this sites FPP and should be deleted on the spot. Besides that the litigious position such actions could put this site in are enormous. I only wish people would be more sensitive to that modern reality. Most have no idea of the real expenses of litigation, they think only in terms of judgments and/or attorney’s fees.
By the way, Kristin has informed me that she has a script that daily ftp's all the posts to her computer, and might have copies of the posts in question (unless the files were deleted before her script started downloading). If she does (and I haven't heard back from her so I'm not optimistic), would putting them somewhere on H2O serve any useful purpose? I cannot see how, nor can I understand the anger of so many. I do know it is human to make mistakes, and wonder what is so terrible that could not be so easily forgiven?
Then I recommend putting those particular posts back up. This is not about forgiveness but H2O’s credibility. I see no reason that actions made cannot be forgiven. On the other hand they also can not be denied. They happened and to just erase them from the record is less than honest. One reason that I support this site in various ways is because here ideas and/or behavior stands or falls for what it is rather than what we would like it to be. H2O is about reality not predefined utopia. The moment H2O caves in to mistakes is the moment it is lost, regardless of who makes them. There is no one on this board that is not willing to forgive. You know that even the most ardent JW detractor on this site is willing to forgive.
I hope you and everyone else reading this, including Greg, understands that this is not about any sort of squabble, for I have none with Greg. Personally I agree with Greg’s conclusions in the matter he was debating with AF, but for different and simpler reasons. Personally I recommend his Second Edition of Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended. Personally I think Greg has good motivations. But, H2O, in my opinion, stands as the premier Internet site for hashing out issues important to Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is watched by Jehovah’s Witnesses at every level (please take my emphasis seriously). To effectively whitewash something such as happened here today is just not right and I can have no part in it. It is too reminiscent of things we all have come to loath. As for Greg, he has done nothing beyond repair. He is our fellowman and brother and he has committed no action that is worse than most of us have done at some time in our lives. He made a mistake, a bad one. But circumstances make that mistake critical to this site’s credibility. Mistakes can be remedied. Just how Greg remedies his own actions should be left up to him. Simple whitewashing his actions does him nor H2O any good service.
I appreciate that you were not personally responsible for deleting those threads in question. Regardless, it is my position that administrators of this site have every right to do as they see fit regardless of H2O’s FPP or not. On the other hand participants have the prerogative of participating or not. It is my desire to continue supporting H2O as it serves the interest of truth and the needs of people associating as Jehovah’s witnesses.
Friend