Why is the Phorum Mostly Dead?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Lilllabettt said:

Did they really ban you 1000 years? I have to say I appreciate the dramatic flourish.  1,000 yrs is more beautiful than "perma ban."

  

 

 

Yes haha I first thought it was a 2 week ban or something. Then I tried logging back in a month later and still couldn't. Then finally saw the 3018 lol I don't really care. I still browse the site and find a lot of the discussions there interesting. And bizarre if I'm being honest.

I even opened a new account again after realising the until 3018 ban. And I couldn't resist getting immediately involved in a "Is there sex in Heaven" thread (started by another poster) and putting up quotes from Peter Kreeft insinuating there might be. And then again getting very combative with a poster who was 100% opposed to what I was saying and talking down to me like I was a 5 year old. So I was banned again for 1000 years and the additional reason given this time was for opening a second account.

I don't think banning someone without a warning for a 1000 years is a good idea. Especially on a Catholic site but then again I see how they want to keep the conversation there completely respectful and this is a great way to accomplish it. And it's not like I can't open another account and now I know if I'm going to dialogue there it has to be with no sarcasm or disrespecting of posters in anyway. And that's cool I get it.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Guest

[MIKolbe]

I'm not a Mediator of Meh anymore. That's why....

That and chump is filtered..

Mainly the foolish person thing, tho.

[Ice_nine]

Probably the people that left.

This place was always some strange enclave of internet Catholicism. We had discussions here that probably wouldn't fly on other Catholic phorums, and a lot of people who I think were willing to challenge the status quo but still hold fast to the faith. That was pretty dope to me. (Pardon the pun but I found phatmass searching the morality of marijuana usage and was a bit shocked and intrigued to find out that most people here didn't think it was the smoke of Satan).

I sometimes wonder where people have gone. I know it's a lot of the having families and being busy and all of that. There was some clique-ish stuff going on. I don't think I was ever cool enough to be a part of that, but I kind of wanted to be. I don't remember.

Anyhow, yeah the people left. This place didn't really attract new active members as often enough to compete with the well established community here. And because it was kind of insular and hard to penetrate, when those people left there was no influx of people to replace them. They are after all part of what made this place interesting.

So yeah, I wish some of the old members would poke around sometime, just so I know what they're up to. Who knows. It's weird cause like some of them could be dead or in prison or something and I'd be none the wiser. I've thought about irresponsibly using my Mediator of Meh powers to hunt some of them down, but alas I leave them to their peace.

 

[Seven77]

5 hours ago, Ice_nine said:

So yeah, I wish some of the old members would poke around sometime, just so I know what they're up to. Who knows. It's weird cause like some of them could be dead or in prison or something and I'd be none the wiser. I've thought about irresponsibly using my Mediator of Meh powers to hunt some of them down, but alas I leave them to their peace.

 

I think that it would be a good use of your mediator of meh superpowers to see what they are up to. Might inspire them to come back…

[tinytherese]

17 hours ago, Josh said:

I feel bad there are actual people who lost their faith because of Phatmass. But at the same time I can't help to also feel it's really lame. I'm lame in a lot of areas too so we're in the same boat. Whoever these people are will be included in my next Rosary and I pray their faith is restored.

Yea, it's no excuse, but it's understandable considering how hard it can be to feel unwelcome or like an outsider. It doesn't justify leaving though.

The Catholic Answers Forum is a weird place. I sometimes find myself on reading some threads though despite this. Banning people without any warning is rather extreme. If there's a problem, why not discuss it?

[little2add]

 the scandals involving sexual abuse by Catholic priests hasn't helped.   Being or talking about being catholic, hence the diminished attraction of this and other sites devoted to catholic faith, etc.

Edited December 7, 2018 by little2add

[Ice_nine]

On 12/5/2018 at 8:45 PM, Seven77 said:

I think that it would be a good use of your mediator of meh superpowers to see what they are up to. Might inspire them to come back…

My powers aren't that super. I can see their emails, but who knows if the email the registered with is what they even use.

[Lilllabettt]

On 12/5/2018 at 9:12 PM, tinytherese said:

Yea, it's no excuse, but it's understandable considering how hard it can be to feel unwelcome or like an outsider. It doesn't justify leaving though.

The Catholic Answers Forum is a weird place. I sometimes find myself on reading some threads though despite this. Banning people without any warning is rather extreme. If there's a problem, why not discuss it?

I would describe CA as "rigid".  Whereas, phatmass is/was a modem of dynamic orthodoxy. There was the "phishy" tag but other than that the members themselves argued down heterodox ideas.  

[Jack4]

When I joined, there were discussions. There were threads. When the phorum was more or less dead, I stopped visiting much.

 

[Ziggamafu]

Hello. I joined in...something like 2007? Earlier? Can’t remember. Brother Adam, PhatCatholic, St Olaf, Aloysius (?), uhhh... the hardcore Eastern Catholic whose username I can’t remember... I don’t know. I’d like to know where they all ended up. Here I am, logging in for the first time in nearly a decade... Don’t recognize anyone. 

On 12/1/2018 at 5:54 AM, cruciatacara said:

I know nunsense personally. She was basically kicked off the forum - dust told her the other posters had voted and they considered her to be a trouble maker. Naturally she felt unwelcome after that. You won't get her back here again. She's very happy in her life and doesn't need the validation of phatmass. I lurk here mainly, but the place really has gone downhill since I first joined. I think some people started taking things too seriously and wouldn't allow any dissenting opinions. Maybe that's not it, I don't know. But your comment was kind and I will pass it on to her if I see her.

Dust... 

https://goo.gl/images/25gNdx

Edited December 9, 2018 by Ziggamafu

[Jack4]

46 minutes ago, Ziggamafu said:

Hello. I joined in...something like 2007? Earlier? Can’t remember.

May 27, 2004 is your join date.

[Ziggamafu]

5 minutes ago, Jack4 said:

May 27, 2004 is your join date.

Makes sense...received my first Communion in Easter ‘05. Wild visiting this place again...and sort of sad.

I remember the Eastern guy: Apotheoun. 

[CountrySteve24]

I remember joining in 2013 or 2011. I lost my old account t, so had to make a new one. It is sad logging back in, and seeing most of the old people gone. That’s life, I suppose. Nothing is ever permanent. 

[Ash Wednesday]

On 12/5/2018 at 3:05 PM, Lilllabettt said:

On the other hand. Ive heard it said there are two sins. Giving scandal and being scandalized. Giving scandal is like murder, being scandalized is like suicide. Like you said. committing spiritual suicide because of a message board would seem to be seriously lame. One would think people value their relationship with Jesus more than that - if they were believers to begin with.

 

I tend to agree -- without excusing behavior on the boards or on social media for any Catholic, I think if people fall away because of something online, there was something seriously amiss and their faith was on shaky ground already. Naturally we are supposed to help more than hurt people in a vulnerable place, but I know a great deal of people who would leave the Church because of personal issues but they didn't really believe everything about Catholicism in the first place and it gave them an excuse to leave. I remember a girl in our college youth group left the church because she had some kind of awkward falling out with a guy she had a crush on. She stopped going to the campus mass and youth group altogether to avoid him and started attending another fellowship. More or less my memory isn't exact but I think I asked her why she wouldn't want to practice as a Catholic or go to mass, and the conversation led to her saying that "it doesn't matter." That was the underlying deeper problem -- to go to another church really just didn't make a lot of difference to her.

On the flip side, there are many saints that were poorly treated by many of their own in the Church, including their own superiors at times, but they endured with kindness and patience because their convictions just that strong. 

[dominicansoul]

you know a forum is dead when you see spam showing up as the top active threads...