Posted by Rick [Rick] on November 15, 1999 at 20:28:48 {AS5l1tybL67ajbiu2wnkFMFBt36Xyc}:
In Reply to: Final Post -- Maybe posted by ros4GB on November 15, 1999 at 18:20:39:
You are always welcome to post in this forum. Our moderators will always strive to give you equal treatment in dealing with the typical attacks you can expect. Remember H2O exists in "cyberspace," in what amounts to a masked-ball or social gathering where the guests' identities are secret, held in the equivalent of a public square or park.
I suggest you get an anonymous email address (ask Ros how to setup one), accessible from the web. The free web-email service at http://www.netaddress.com/ (www.usa.net) is good because they don't delete your for several months of inactivity. That way, if necessary and things heat up, you can "lay low" for a while and not have to worry your email will eventually get deleted. (The box will fill-up after 10 megabytes or 10,000,000 bytes of free storage has been used, but they give lots of leeway there.) If the box fills-up then senders get their mail returned "mailbox of recipient is full" or similar error message. It's difficult to fill-up 10 megabytes of server space with email unless you're subscribed to a mailing list.
Getting on the Internet means cast-iron discipline. It means checking and rechecking your post before hitting send in case you mistakenly divulge your true identity or material information someone could use to track you down. It means "reading between the lines" and taking the motto "trust no one" somewhat seriously (at least leaning toward extreme caution about people's motives in contacting you). It means using your "gut instincts" to sniff out someone who is trying to trick you. For example, do you visit the web site of someone immediately when they ask you to? Then they could collect your I.P. Or, do you agree to take a look at the site in a reasonable period of time (say, a week or two)? That way your I.P. will be mixed with others, or better still, you'll have time to logon using PROXYMATE to cloak your I.P. (a service I highly recommend, along with The Anonymizer web service for hiding your web activities online. (Click on banner ad that says "over 50 million people are listening" at top of this board for further information.)
Unless you learn how to travel through the countryside in "secret" eventually someone could trip you up. Believe me, there are those lying in wait who will cleverly attempt to reel you in like the fish who nibbled too much on one piece of bait.
If you take time to learn these things, then you'll be in a good position to visit the internet forums incognito and arm yourself with information necessary to reform the organization. Take it one step at a time. Before stepping, ask yourself "why isn't there a mine there?" In other words, learn the web and tools of the trade through the Anonymizer and Proxymate links I gave you above. Eventually it will come as second-nature, and in a manner of speaking you'll become like the mysterious masked ninja warrior who can maneuver through even the darkness midevil passages with all the hidden traps that the internet has to offer! ;-)
Then and only then, can you work on the inside to bring positive changes to the organization. Like Jesus who on occasion dressed in disguise, you too can visit the villages (forums) of the internet where our brothers and sisters gather without anyone even suspecting who you are. It's the power of the truth you know, and your will to teach it, that is what matters most, and not your affiliation with the GB. People will admire you based on your knowledge and firm values and teaching skills. If they don't know to whom they're speaking, or the changes that you can help bring about, that doesn't matter. It's the ultimate outcome that should be the motivator, if that outcome is based on everything that is righteous and good.
My father is about your age and has eloquent communications skills. If he were posting you might think he were a young man in his 30's. Don't let anyone discourage you with tasteless age discrimination remarks. They fail to note that good grammar is timeless and often lacks the discernable style of those less gifted. Everyone with good grammar, punctuation and accurate typing abilities are the same person in their minds. Yes, ignorant ridiculers are born every minute (to paraphrase a famous line by P.T. Barnum). Statistically we get our share of them on this site.
Rick