Posted by N.H. on March 14, 1999 at 04:19:05 {MW9IiWp1hZTKA}:
In Reply to: **Excessive Quoting of Material posted by Rick on March 14, 1999 at 00:55:54:
Hi Rick,
:I'm sorry to see I failed to communicate some simple rules of quoting to help protect your rights to use quoting in backing your position. I had the mistaken notion those who claim they are superior in intellect to JWs would find it refreshing to avoid wasting bandwidth downloading large posts with nothing but quotes. I didn't say anything about not breaking down posts into more manageable chunks.
It is extremely rare that I post only quotes. It isn�t often that others do either, this can�t be much of a problem. I am still of the opinion that this is a smoke screen to hide yet another attempt of censorship. Time will show.
Massive quotations shows a gross lack of disrespect whether intended or not, for those with slow internet connections or expensive bandwidth charges. Methushael in Germany who used to post asked H2O to implement FTP downloading (which we did), because he was spending a lot of money in bandwidth downloading huge posts. His argument if I recall correctly (and if I didn't recall correctly I apologize in advance), and my argument in any case, is that why should those who *PAY* for bandwidth in some countries download quotes they have on their own Watchtower CD's? Why can't we just provide a citation to those quotes and allow the reader to lookup the quotes themselves? Certainly you don't believe JWs are so lazy or in such denial as to refuse to lookup citations in the Watchtower to your arguments?
I pay for my Internet connection by the minute too. If you really think about those with 300 baud modems, you shouldn�t have all those �bells and whistles� on this page at all, but keep it a strictly text only page. But it might be a good idea for some to upgrade their equipment to a faster modem or ISDN. When it comes to Jehovah's Witnesses�s being �lazy� I know that they are extremely reluctant to lookup any references given by me. But of course I would be very happy to post only references. As a matter of fact I will re-post one of my recent messages with a lot of quotes. I bet that this post will be deleted on sight anyway. Wonder what fancy imaginative �non� reason you will come up with then?
You seem to easily lose respect for those who don't further your agenda, I've observed. You use the board freely to promote your beliefs, most of your posts are allowed by moderators, but you repeatedly criticize myself and others running this site. If you would calm down and listen to reason, you would see that many JWs including myself are not out to put a muzzle on "apostates."
My �agenda�? You seem to live in a strange world where everyone must have and agenda. As you can see I usually post well researched and documented articles about the hopeless and extremely messy Watchtower ideology and I document the many contradictions in the Watchtower Society teachings. In other words, I simply provide accurate information for those who need it and want it. I criticize you when you let loose a bunch of so-called �moderators� which so obviously, to everyone but yourself, is totally out to lunch and are deleting messages east and west, according to some ever changing �rules� which you are constantly coming up with all the time.
You are also wrong that I'm in any way dishonest or hypocritical. The truth stands for itself. Remember the fable of the little boy in Holland who put his fingers the holes of the dike to stop the flow of water. That is a great analogy to anyone who tries to stop the flow of truth. If you perceive the moderators as trying to put their fingers in the dike to stop the flow of truth -- rather than to stop abusive speech -- each time they delete a post, then you should know very well their efforts would fail.
Well, sorry about that Rick. From where I stand you look like a hypocrite for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post. This is my opinion, you have every chance to prove me wrong. Of course no one can stop the flow of truth, but many of your moderators are really doing the best they can, and of course they will fail, but so far many of them have had a very energetic go at it. As you should know by now, no Watchtower �truth� can�t stand the sharp light of reality.
I also want to state emphatically that the guidelines in my post were not an effort at moderator apologetics, but a genuine and sincere attempt to help stabilize the situation.
The only thing that can stabilize the situation is for you to take a new look at the total erratic way your so-called �moderators� are exercising their �rights�. The assumedly �new� ones, has already shown themselves to be totally without any qualifications whatsoever for such a job. Surely you must understand that the fact that so many people on this site is reacting to the latest massacre of messages isn�t doing so for no reason at all. The other solution would be to make this a Jehovah's Witnesses only board, so you can all scratch each others backs and write the wallow in the ga ga stuff in the wonderful la la land, like they do on Obed�s site.
Why would I provide links to the deleted posts (see new links top of board), if I wanted to suppress what moderators are deleting? The sole purpose of deletions is to focus the board on its
intended purpose, which is to openly discuss issues impacting JWs and their future. You must not follow many of my posts lately, Norm, or you would know that I have been highly supportive of reform including the Liberal Elder's efforts to
bring doctrinal errors in the blood issue to the Society's attention.
Rick
I do read almost all of your post�s Rick, and it doesn�t help much. I am sorry to say I find them mostly wishy washy and beside the issue. All that said, I am grateful to you for having provided us with this forum for whatever purpose you originally had with it. Reading your occasional musings about how this site has developed during the time it has existed, I can�t help but getting the feeling that you are a bit �doubtful�, to say the least. I think that you probably saw straight away that there was something seriously wrong with the blood doctrine, but I bet you had never in your wildest dreams imagined that just about everything else was wrong with the Watchtower Society too. So join the club Rick, you have come a long way and have no doubt lost many of your favorite illusions. As far as I can see you suffer from the pain and sorrow we all felt when our illusions was shattered, but once you let them go it will get much better. My theory is that the latest rash of hopeless deletions we have seen is somehow a reflection of your attempt to make the world return to the good old days before you lost so many of your safe and comfortable illusions.
Norm.