Has Phatmass Changed, Or Have I?

[MIKolbe]

message received people..

 

I'll crank it up a notch....

[Lil Red]

As usual, i agree with everything Al says in this thread. Especially this post.

well sarcasm has been on phatmass for a long time, sometimes it does go overboard but sometimes we just need a thick skin towards it, and try not to let it rustle our jimmies. I understand how it can seem insulting, though to be honest sometimes, table, your posts were very difficult to understand and people were responding with humor simply because they didn't understand you, but your posts have gotten more readable lately.

I'm more interested in how we welcome non-Catholic opinions, along the lines of this quote by Pope Francis:

"When the Church is self-referential, inadvertently, she believes she has her own light; she ceases to be the mysterium lunae and gives way to that very serious evil, spiritual worldliness. It lives to give glory only to one another." -Pope Francis

IMO this is what makes phatmass boring, when it becomes a self-referential echo chamber... we need more people with different opinions than ours to be here.

anyway, I don't know to what in particular the OP or some of the other posts were referring... disagreements on the internet are generally annoying, but the few non-Catholics that we do have on here I'm happy to have here. I hope no one feels that I've jumped on anyone's ship here though, feel free to disagree with me! I generally try to be cordial to people... I might have some inklings of some of the things people might be annoyed about, there have been things I've been annoyed at too, perhaps you could PM me or another mod about things you're concerned about maybe, because you shouldn't really feel like you can't express your opinions freely here, either, of course

[dUSt]

I think what often happens on forums that have been around a really long time is people get lazy.
 
The first few years of the phorum had lots of great debates and discussions, and then those debates and discussions were made again, and then again, and again and again. Now, when a legitimate opportunity arises to engage and debate an important topic, people will generally go, "we've had this debate 100 times already, do a search" -- or worse, they think that in their heads so just reply with a one word response that does nothing but amuse themselves and about the five other long time members who get it.
 
I think it's wasted opportunity to build up the church, honestly. Can you imagine how many times priests and bishops get asked the same questions over and over again? What if they replied, "I've already answered this too many times already, go Google it."
 
That is the lazy way out, and does not benefit new members at all. Phatmass has way more readers than actual participants. I think if everyone understood the traffic and viewership of the threads, they might try to do a better job of building up the Church in their posts.
 
That is what I think.

[franciscanheart]

It's been dull for a long time. Everything ebbs and flows.

[franciscanheart]

I think what often happens on forums that have been around a really long time is people get lazy.

 

The first few years of the phorum had lots of great debates and discussions, and then those debates and discussions were made again, and then again, and again and again. Now, when a legitimate opportunity arises to engage and debate an important topic, people will generally go, "we've had this debate 100 times already, do a search" -- or worse, they think that in their heads so just reply with a one word response that does nothing but amuse themselves and about the five other long time members who get it.

 

I think it's wasted opportunity to build up the church, honestly. Can you imagine how many times priests and bishops get asked the same questions over and over again? What if they replied, "I've already answered this too many times already, go Google it."

 

That is the lazy way out, and does not benefit new members at all.

 

That is what I think.

Yeah, but the six of us really like those one word answers. Don't hate. :|

[dUSt]

Yeah, but the six of us really like those one word answers. Don't hate. :|

 
"It's not enough to be good; you need to show it. What would you say of a rose bush which produced only thorns?" - St Jose Maria Escriva

[franciscanheart]

 
"It's not enough to be good; you need to show it. What would you say of a rose bush which produced only thorns?" - St Jose Maria Escriva

Did you just call me prickly?

 

 

I love you.

[Anastasia13]

Maybe if this is such a cyclical things, and there is a lack of interest, sarcasm, etc., Phatmass needs Midol?

[CrossCuT]

[AccountDeleted]

I think what often happens on forums that have been around a really long time is people get lazy.
 
The first few years of the phorum had lots of great debates and discussions, and then those debates and discussions were made again, and then again, and again and again. Now, when a legitimate opportunity arises to engage and debate an important topic, people will generally go, "we've had this debate 100 times already, do a search" -- or worse, they think that in their heads so just reply with a one word response that does nothing but amuse themselves and about the five other long time members who get it.
 
I think it's wasted opportunity to build up the church, honestly. Can you imagine how many times priests and bishops get asked the same questions over and over again? What if they replied, "I've already answered this too many times already, go Google it."
 
That is the lazy way out, and does not benefit new members at all. Phatmass has way more readers than actual participants. I think if everyone understood the traffic and viewership of the threads, they might try to do a better job of building up the Church in their posts.
 
That is what I think.

 

 

This is spot on. Sometimes when I read a new thread that has been discussed many times over the years, I get a little lazy and bored and either post a redirect or just ignore the thread. I can see that it would be more helpful to post a redirect for further reading but also try to respond to the new thread with fresh ideas or even just an opinion to stimulate further discussion. thanks for the reminder dUSt. :)

[CatherineM]

I noticed the drop off in the forum when chat came along.

[CatholicsAreKewl]

Did you just call me prickly?

 

 

I love you.

 

I hope my prop gave you an extra endorphin rush!

[Spem in alium]

Old Phatmass vs. New Phatmass:

 

http://youtu.be/enb9WaYOBOU

It's definitely Bizzarowelt.
This is a lot more amusing in German. :)

 

[Apotheoun]

Phatmass used to have theological debates, which is what attracted me to the forum. Debates are harder to get going these days because people immediately take offense and often start calling their opponent a troll. The Debate Table has been particularly impacted over the course of the last few years.  

[Slappo]

I wonder how many hits we get off google when people google a Catholic question looking for replies.

 

Now that I think about it, I hit a LOT of forums with DIY searches to find info on house repairs, car repairs etc. I bet we get the same kind of one time visitors. My guess is there's a lot of non-Catholics with questions that would hit our forum. It'd be a sad story if they google something and just find bickering with no real meat to it when they open a thread.