Jump to content
The World News Media

JW Insider

Member
  • Posts

    7,835
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    463

Reputation Activity

  1. Thanks
    JW Insider reacted to TrueTomHarley in Forum participants we have known   
    Yes. I wish he would grow up. There is nothing wrong with upvotes. They show that other people think you’re hot stuff.
  2. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from Anna in Forum participants we have known   
    You have been aware for years that I state I have never banned anyone. You might not believe it of course, but you were aware of my position from previous discussions. Yet, you repeat here that I am showing favoritism to some and banning others. You imply that I am just making excuses for favoritism, and that this behavior with no evidence provided is becoming increasingly obvious -- and you repeat it claiming now that it is MULTIPLE people I have banned by adding -- "with each person you ban." 
    So I give you the benefit of the doubt and don't call it an insult yet, even though it clearly was:
    BTK insult #1: JWI is making excuses BTK insult #2: JWI is showing favoritism BTK insult #3: JWI is banning others making this behavior obvious with each person JWI bans I was guessing that you meant the "laughter" emoji at the reference to my funeral. Still, I guess this was also meant as an insult:
    BTK insult #4: JW upvotes dishonesty I began to respond:
    This was not an insult. Just a statement of clear fact. It can't be obvious that I have banned someone since I never have banned anyone. I still honestly don't know if I have the power to do so. 
    So far, BTK insults: 5.
    You responded with:
    So, now you go ahead and try to claim that I was lying via some kind of wordplay that I have never used, but which I have often seen used by others. 
    BTK insult #6: JWI is using wordplay manipulation to deceive  Anyway, I responded:
    Again, just a statement of fact. And to make it clear you weren't being insulted I made mention of how astute you are. 
    As an aside, I don't think it's an insult to point out that when I use certain descriptive words (like "astute') for the first time here almost all the "Allen-Smith-styled" accounts will return that word to me in some way, and I have often said this might be a form of echolalia. No one else does this, but Allen did it, Moise did it, Billy the Kid did it, and at least 20 other Allen-styled accounts. And guess what:
    I admit that the phenomenon of echolalia came up in a course I took many years ago. Otherwise I would not likely have noticed. I could give about 150 to 175 examples from the Allen-styled accounts.
    Aside completed.
    You had gone on next to say: 
    Another direct claim that I am lying.
    BTK insult #7: JWI will continue lying (claiming NOT to be the Librarian) because he will never publicly admit it.
    I assumed that this meant only a few out of hundreds of my posts have been true. Another insult that I am overwhelmingly a liar almost by default.
    BTK insult #8: JWI only posts a very small percentage of truth.
    At any rate, I don't think I have to spell out the next 20 or 30 micro-insults from you. They don't even make a difference. I'll continue to speak the truth. But I just wanted you to see why it seemed ridiculous for you to claim that other people insult you and you don't insult others. It seemed you had such an obvious double-standard. (Yes, that's an intentional form of me using echolalia. My own definition, not the same form you will see in a dictionary, but perhaps related.) 
  3. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from Anna in Forum participants we have known   
    I have to admit that I laughed out loud a bit when I saw your claim that Tom and I are the Librarian. It didn't make me laugh when Anna admitted that she had the same reaction. In fact, I cringed a bit realizing that you would take immediate offense and try to make a big deal out of it. 
    The problem is not that people are insulting you, but that you have indeed made ridiculous statements and claims. When people make ridiculous claims in public, they can expect ridicule. That's what ridiculous means. You can be glad that the form of ridicule you receive is merely a bit of laughter.
    I will again admit that this too made me laugh a bit. Not at you, but at the ridiculousness of the claim about who started insulting, and the fact that you gave yourself a score of 0 insults, which only highlighted your own double standard. Although I doubt this was on purpose;  i don't think you were aware of it.
    You probably aren't aware that claiming someone is not telling the truth is insulting, except of course when someone happens to make that claim about you. For example, look closely at the exchanges between you and me. Next post of mine:
     
  4. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from Miracle Pete in Forum participants we have known   
    And speaking of insults and negative criticism, you have always shown a keen interest in who upvotes and who downvotes others. Even in this very thread you have brought it up more than once. So, I'm sure you are aware that when a person adds a critical downvote with no explanation (no constructive criticism) that this is intended as a not-so-subtle insult. I don't think anyone here really has any remaining doubt about who controls a certain account which once only interacted positively with you and George88, and which only interacted negatively with accounts you and George88 also interacted with negatively. Watch how that account still spams upvotes and downvotes:
    These are just the last 10 in a row. As is typical, 100% of the downvotes are unexplained downvotes of my posts, and 100% of the upvotes are for you, BTK59. Previously, as expected, all the upvotes were shared between BTK59 and George88.

  5. Haha
    JW Insider reacted to ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    Sorry, I upvoted again!!
  6. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    Funny you should mention that. About 45 minutes earlier, 9 of my posts in this topic were upvoted by Comfortmypeople. I immediately thought: "Uh-oh, that has always made you react. I wonder if it will be a slew of downvotes for me or a slew of upvotes for you." This has happened so many times before that it was quite predictable. That's why I watched for it.
    I didn't remove anything though. I went to the Alphonse profile to see the Alphonse activity. https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/profile/20363-alphonse/ You can still go to the comfortmypeople profile to see his activity: https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/profile/10944-comfortmypeople/
    Nothing was ever removed. But voting activity disappears from the profile after a short time. I don't know for how long those links will display voting activity, but they will always show regular posting activity. 
    BTW, the unfounded and false claim that I had conveniently removed something was insulting. Downvotes without an explanation are also intended to be insulting. I don't feel insulted however because the lack of an explanation just shows that the downvoter likely has no real reasons to back up the negative criticism. Many people will see that the lack of reasons for a downvote is effectively a form of ad-hominem attack which usually strengthens the point being downvoted rather than weakening it. So rather than be insulted, I can just thank Alphonse for strengthening the point I was making.
  7. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    And speaking of insults and negative criticism, you have always shown a keen interest in who upvotes and who downvotes others. Even in this very thread you have brought it up more than once. So, I'm sure you are aware that when a person adds a critical downvote with no explanation (no constructive criticism) that this is intended as a not-so-subtle insult. I don't think anyone here really has any remaining doubt about who controls a certain account which once only interacted positively with you and George88, and which only interacted negatively with accounts you and George88 also interacted with negatively. Watch how that account still spams upvotes and downvotes:
    These are just the last 10 in a row. As is typical, 100% of the downvotes are unexplained downvotes of my posts, and 100% of the upvotes are for you, BTK59. Previously, as expected, all the upvotes were shared between BTK59 and George88.

  8. Downvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from Alphonse in Watchtower's 1914 Chronology - Ad Nauseum   
    I think Christ's negative criticism of the Pharisees was beneficial for others to consider.
    Sure. The answer to your question would be that Russell never really challenged this particular belief derived in large part from these "reverends" of Christendom. He claimed not to have had for himself a very good understanding of the chronology and admitted that he had just pretty much accepted Barbour's numbers that Barbour had partially derived from other leaders of Christendom. But we have no choice but to bring up some of the Bible Student issues that were still accepted long after many Bible Student individuals and groups began to go by the new name, Jehovah's Witnesses. Some of these doctrines partly derived from Christendom are still accepted today by most of us. 
    Some see it as Barbour refusing to return to his Adventist views, and ultimately giving up on any version of Adventist chronology while Russell went on to state that the Adventists were instrumental (from God) in giving us a workable God-ordained chronology but that persons like Barbour were like the foolish virgins who let their lamps go out just because the advent appeared to be delayed. Russell specifically accused those who stopped believing in Barbour's 1874 date as "foolish virgins."
    Russell many times claimed that the end of the world would occur in 1914, and then later offered a possibility of 1915, and later he said it could be within a few months, or even maybe a few years of 1914. What he didn't believe in was the burning of the world, one of the original Adventist views he rejected. But for many years he preached that 1914 would see the complete and final end of this world, meaning all the world's systems and governments and institutions. I don't refute WW1, but WW1 certainly refutes Russell.
  9. Downvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from Alphonse in Forum participants we have known   
    You just indicated that speaking the truth should not be considered insulting. Yet, now when I speak the truth about something you said, you seem to consider it insulting. That's what I meant about a double-standard. You only mean that when you claim another person is not telling the truth, you say it's not insulting to them. But when I know for a fact that what you are saying isn't true, and I state that true fact, you feel insulted.
    That's the other thing to consider about your claim. You can only guess at something and it turns out your guess was wrong. But you claim it's a fact, that you will never believe anything else, and yet you can never and therefore will never be able to provide even a tiny bit of evidence for your false claim. I'm the one who knows for a fact that I am not the Librarian, have never asked the Librarian or anyone else to ban anyone, have never asked Tom to ban anyone (and I doubt he could, the old rooster). And I have never banned anyone and don't even know if I could even if I tried. And I still have no intention of ever trying, except that you did get me curious about whether I have the ability or not. But I guess I'd rather not know so that I can't ever be accused of using such a function. 
    See what I mean? You think me telling the truth is insulting even if subtle. 
    Sounds OK. By the way, I never meant to imply that I haven't made others feel insulted. I was only pointing out the ridiculousness of a claim you made about making zero insults and waiting for others to join Anna to be first in some kind of insulting laughter. I was counting your own insults but didn't mean to imply that mine would always remain at zero, only that mine were still zero by the time you had already racked up a few against me.
    I know it's true that I can be insulting. Sometimes it feels like the appropriate response to a barrage of insults, and sometimes I feel like it's OK to counter a barrage of insults with just one or two subtle ones. But I'll take that as a mild rebuke. I will try to avoid even the slight ones. Starting now. I hope it doesn't take all the fun out of the forum for me.
    True. I tend to only speak about GB members who made a reputation for themselves, left a history of their words and actions, and are no longer alive on earth to be actually physically rebuked by any criticism. But letting the Bible rebuke their actions or their claims should still be a legitimate form of criticism.
    I agree.
    That doesn't make sense to me. Did you say it the way you meant to? You say that persons who are part of the problem are hesitant to make corrections of others? I have no problem trying to make corrections of others. But I'd guess that it can work both ways: persons who are part of the problem might also be too quick to make corrections of others.
    Are you really saying you think that you personally have no possession of the spiritual qualifications to be able to criticize an elder? Or did you mean no one else does? I've heard criticism from you of elders who have been on this forum: one on the forum in the past, one or two in the present. 
    From what I can tell, I think that this question is unrelated to the point or to anything either of us previously said. The closest is probably Luke 16:8,9 but I don't think it applies.
     
     
  10. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Watchtower's 1914 Chronology - Ad Nauseum   
    I think Christ's negative criticism of the Pharisees was beneficial for others to consider.
    Sure. The answer to your question would be that Russell never really challenged this particular belief derived in large part from these "reverends" of Christendom. He claimed not to have had for himself a very good understanding of the chronology and admitted that he had just pretty much accepted Barbour's numbers that Barbour had partially derived from other leaders of Christendom. But we have no choice but to bring up some of the Bible Student issues that were still accepted long after many Bible Student individuals and groups began to go by the new name, Jehovah's Witnesses. Some of these doctrines partly derived from Christendom are still accepted today by most of us. 
    Some see it as Barbour refusing to return to his Adventist views, and ultimately giving up on any version of Adventist chronology while Russell went on to state that the Adventists were instrumental (from God) in giving us a workable God-ordained chronology but that persons like Barbour were like the foolish virgins who let their lamps go out just because the advent appeared to be delayed. Russell specifically accused those who stopped believing in Barbour's 1874 date as "foolish virgins."
    Russell many times claimed that the end of the world would occur in 1914, and then later offered a possibility of 1915, and later he said it could be within a few months, or even maybe a few years of 1914. What he didn't believe in was the burning of the world, one of the original Adventist views he rejected. But for many years he preached that 1914 would see the complete and final end of this world, meaning all the world's systems and governments and institutions. I don't refute WW1, but WW1 certainly refutes Russell.
  11. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    You just indicated that speaking the truth should not be considered insulting. Yet, now when I speak the truth about something you said, you seem to consider it insulting. That's what I meant about a double-standard. You only mean that when you claim another person is not telling the truth, you say it's not insulting to them. But when I know for a fact that what you are saying isn't true, and I state that true fact, you feel insulted.
    That's the other thing to consider about your claim. You can only guess at something and it turns out your guess was wrong. But you claim it's a fact, that you will never believe anything else, and yet you can never and therefore will never be able to provide even a tiny bit of evidence for your false claim. I'm the one who knows for a fact that I am not the Librarian, have never asked the Librarian or anyone else to ban anyone, have never asked Tom to ban anyone (and I doubt he could, the old rooster). And I have never banned anyone and don't even know if I could even if I tried. And I still have no intention of ever trying, except that you did get me curious about whether I have the ability or not. But I guess I'd rather not know so that I can't ever be accused of using such a function. 
    See what I mean? You think me telling the truth is insulting even if subtle. 
    Sounds OK. By the way, I never meant to imply that I haven't made others feel insulted. I was only pointing out the ridiculousness of a claim you made about making zero insults and waiting for others to join Anna to be first in some kind of insulting laughter. I was counting your own insults but didn't mean to imply that mine would always remain at zero, only that mine were still zero by the time you had already racked up a few against me.
    I know it's true that I can be insulting. Sometimes it feels like the appropriate response to a barrage of insults, and sometimes I feel like it's OK to counter a barrage of insults with just one or two subtle ones. But I'll take that as a mild rebuke. I will try to avoid even the slight ones. Starting now. I hope it doesn't take all the fun out of the forum for me.
    True. I tend to only speak about GB members who made a reputation for themselves, left a history of their words and actions, and are no longer alive on earth to be actually physically rebuked by any criticism. But letting the Bible rebuke their actions or their claims should still be a legitimate form of criticism.
    I agree.
    That doesn't make sense to me. Did you say it the way you meant to? You say that persons who are part of the problem are hesitant to make corrections of others? I have no problem trying to make corrections of others. But I'd guess that it can work both ways: persons who are part of the problem might also be too quick to make corrections of others.
    Are you really saying you think that you personally have no possession of the spiritual qualifications to be able to criticize an elder? Or did you mean no one else does? I've heard criticism from you of elders who have been on this forum: one on the forum in the past, one or two in the present. 
    From what I can tell, I think that this question is unrelated to the point or to anything either of us previously said. The closest is probably Luke 16:8,9 but I don't think it applies.
     
     
  12. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Watchtower's 1914 Chronology - Ad Nauseum   
    This topic was created from posts moved from https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/topic/90947-forum-participants-we-have-known/
    When the topic of proofreading and mistakes and typos came up, I posted the following statement, which triggered a longer discussion about Russell/1914/Chronology and the like. 
     
    Mostly true. But what if Reverend E. B. Elliott made use of Reverend Christopher Bowen's chronology typo and it happened to fit Nelson Barbour's 1874 to 1914 chronology, and Russell, and Rutherford and Fred Franz all accepted it, not realizing it was based on a typo? Should anyone have pointed out to them that it started with a typo?
  13. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    Lack of conviction has never been one of my criterion for laughing at a post.
     Never thought about it that way. Never intend to, either. LOL. 
    Except when someone is speaking the truth about you. 
    I certainly didn't feel insulted, but I could easily tell that this was your intention. The problem of course is that you weren't speaking the truth. You were making an unsubstantiated claim based on either a hunch or a narrative necessary to your own view about yourself and others. It's hard for me to believe that, deep down, you even believe that I or Tom might be the Librarian. I am pretty sure you would already have read enough of the Librarian's posts to know this. 
    I have no objections to Biblically-supported disfellowshipping. Never have. Never shifted my opinion on that. 
    Never had a problem with "rebuking" either. I just think that we shouldn't be quick to rebuke brothers in high levels of responsibility. I won't rebuke any members of the Governing Body, for example. I won't rebuke anyone here either, even if I might think the Bible thoroughly disagrees with some of their content. I'll stick to discussing content, and only bring up the qualities and quirks of individuals if I believe there's an interesting enough connection between the person and their content. In most cases I won't know enough about the individual which is why I usually avoid those kinds of topics. 
    I didn't link them inadvertently. I said that the Bible says we should criticize elders if we have spiritual qualifications. We are therefore responsible to use our gifts or our talents. If I have zero spiritual qualifications I will not criticize an elder. But if I have gardening qualifications I will offer help and suggestions and criticisms about the plantings around the Hall. I will even offer to help with the new assembly hall being built not so far from me. If I have proofreading qualifications I will offer proofreading criticisms as my gift. Whether my qualifications are good or not will only be known by how people respond, and so far, so good. 
  14. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    You have been aware for years that I state I have never banned anyone. You might not believe it of course, but you were aware of my position from previous discussions. Yet, you repeat here that I am showing favoritism to some and banning others. You imply that I am just making excuses for favoritism, and that this behavior with no evidence provided is becoming increasingly obvious -- and you repeat it claiming now that it is MULTIPLE people I have banned by adding -- "with each person you ban." 
    So I give you the benefit of the doubt and don't call it an insult yet, even though it clearly was:
    BTK insult #1: JWI is making excuses BTK insult #2: JWI is showing favoritism BTK insult #3: JWI is banning others making this behavior obvious with each person JWI bans I was guessing that you meant the "laughter" emoji at the reference to my funeral. Still, I guess this was also meant as an insult:
    BTK insult #4: JW upvotes dishonesty I began to respond:
    This was not an insult. Just a statement of clear fact. It can't be obvious that I have banned someone since I never have banned anyone. I still honestly don't know if I have the power to do so. 
    So far, BTK insults: 5.
    You responded with:
    So, now you go ahead and try to claim that I was lying via some kind of wordplay that I have never used, but which I have often seen used by others. 
    BTK insult #6: JWI is using wordplay manipulation to deceive  Anyway, I responded:
    Again, just a statement of fact. And to make it clear you weren't being insulted I made mention of how astute you are. 
    As an aside, I don't think it's an insult to point out that when I use certain descriptive words (like "astute') for the first time here almost all the "Allen-Smith-styled" accounts will return that word to me in some way, and I have often said this might be a form of echolalia. No one else does this, but Allen did it, Moise did it, Billy the Kid did it, and at least 20 other Allen-styled accounts. And guess what:
    I admit that the phenomenon of echolalia came up in a course I took many years ago. Otherwise I would not likely have noticed. I could give about 150 to 175 examples from the Allen-styled accounts.
    Aside completed.
    You had gone on next to say: 
    Another direct claim that I am lying.
    BTK insult #7: JWI will continue lying (claiming NOT to be the Librarian) because he will never publicly admit it.
    I assumed that this meant only a few out of hundreds of my posts have been true. Another insult that I am overwhelmingly a liar almost by default.
    BTK insult #8: JWI only posts a very small percentage of truth.
    At any rate, I don't think I have to spell out the next 20 or 30 micro-insults from you. They don't even make a difference. I'll continue to speak the truth. But I just wanted you to see why it seemed ridiculous for you to claim that other people insult you and you don't insult others. It seemed you had such an obvious double-standard. (Yes, that's an intentional form of me using echolalia. My own definition, not the same form you will see in a dictionary, but perhaps related.) 
  15. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    I have to admit that I laughed out loud a bit when I saw your claim that Tom and I are the Librarian. It didn't make me laugh when Anna admitted that she had the same reaction. In fact, I cringed a bit realizing that you would take immediate offense and try to make a big deal out of it. 
    The problem is not that people are insulting you, but that you have indeed made ridiculous statements and claims. When people make ridiculous claims in public, they can expect ridicule. That's what ridiculous means. You can be glad that the form of ridicule you receive is merely a bit of laughter.
    I will again admit that this too made me laugh a bit. Not at you, but at the ridiculousness of the claim about who started insulting, and the fact that you gave yourself a score of 0 insults, which only highlighted your own double standard. Although I doubt this was on purpose;  i don't think you were aware of it.
    You probably aren't aware that claiming someone is not telling the truth is insulting, except of course when someone happens to make that claim about you. For example, look closely at the exchanges between you and me. Next post of mine:
     
  16. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    Yes. Thanks for asking. Up until yesterday, the Mobile app allowed you to look up the Meetings under Library and when you clicked on the Song it would stream either Meetings, Vocals, Instrumental, Children, or Chorus depending on what selections were available for that particular song. 
    Well, Tuesday you were able to select a Chorus version of Song 111, the last song for the midweek meeting. And of course some persons, in preparation for the meeting, will play the chorus version so that that they can practice the song with words. The Vocals version will often be a solo performer who might improvise a bit. The Chorus version will not improvise so often. The Chorus version of Song 111. (Our Reasons for Joy) starts out "Our reasons for joy are abundant." But the original chorus version, some might recall, sang it as "Our reasons for joy are abounding." It was originally written this way to sound better with the next line The joy in our heart is well-founded." So that a B-rhyme or "slant-rhyme" was implied between abounding and well-founded.
    But those words were awkward sounding, and the printed version changed abounding to abundant. But the mobile app still pointed to the old Chorus version. When reported it was removed and only the Meetings version (instrumental) and Vocals and Children version remain. Those ones are all correct. 
    So, my point was that some criticism gets commendation instead of condemnation. But what if I had questioned Psalm 45 for the same meeting? And what if I said that I don't think this is really the marriage of a king, but the marriage of a king's daughter (which may or may not have been to another king)? I might question such a point here on this forum, but it's nothing to call the Bethel Home about. But that's because I could easily be wrong and it's too trivial to worry about. Yet, if I study another issue that I feel is quite important, I might actually feel the need to call them up and question it. 
    In fact, I have questioned 4 potential errors in the NWT 2013 Edition, and 3 of these error/typos have been changed in the [latest] printed version. Only one of these got an acknowledgment, so I don't know if others had also reported the others. 
  17. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    Seems doubtful since I never believed it was always unethical, nor have I ever believed disfellowshipping itself was ever barbaric. That's not even a word I would use when the once-blind person that Jesus healed was disfellowshipped from the Sanhedrin. It was wrong, but not barbaric. The only types of uses that I consider barbaric are of the type that I mentioned. There are probably others but I was not privy to the details of that many other cases.
    My position is that none of us should be banned. We are almost all reprobates from my perspective. If this were a Christian congregation, I would be disfellowshipped too, because there are things I will say here "in the congregation of reprobates" that I would never think of saying in a Christian congregation, nor even to a closest friend, unless they could convince me that they were asking honestly and in good faith, and able to understand the consequences if they chose to agree with whatever understanding I admitted to having at the time.
     Not sure what you have in mind, but lies persist because people often lie. If someone says something that appears to be a lie, then we either ignore it or we ask them for evidence, or we defend against it, or we research the "lie" ourselves and decide whether we should keep our feelings about it to ourselves, or we wait and see if someone else will take up the mantle. I've seen several lies on here that I just didn't care enough about to be concerned. Too trivial. Or I knew that telling the truth would just create unnecessary trouble and attacks. We can't all be each other's keeper.
     If there are things to criticize or correct, some will feel the need to criticize or correct. And some won't. It's no big deal since this is not a Christian congregation. In effect, you are criticizing the GB for being here when the GB have recommended that we not be here. So am I.
    Not all criticism is worthy of condemnation though. If one has spiritual qualifications they should criticize an elder under some circumstances, according to the Bible. If one has proofreading qualifications, they probably should criticize the publications under some circumstances. I criticized a mistake on the website yesterday, and it was fixed the same day in time for the Wednesday mid-week meeting. I got an acknowledgement of appreciation for my criticism. It's no big deal. 
  18. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from ComfortMyPeople in Forum participants we have known   
    I am most certainly not the librarian. And knowing the kind of wordplay I've seen some of you guys use I am also not "The librarian" or "The Librarian" or "the Librarian" or "THE LIBRARIAN" or any combination of letters referring to "The Librarian" account. I am as certain as I can be that Tom, TTH, TrueTomHarley, etc., also is not the Librarian. 
    Must not have been that obvious, if even such an astute person such as yourself got it wrong.
    I would never claim to be. But I will publicly admit that I have never manipulated anyone's posts. I have taken a couple down, but they were repeats like when someone accidentally posts the same post 3 times. I have also moved posts to new topics many times, and in a couple of cases I have removed the posts that requested the move, or thanked me for making the move, because these make no sense after the move is completed. But even for these, I would only do that for persons who wouldn't be prone to complain or wouldn't get paranoid about a post being taken down. If I thought the person might wonder about a lost post I will announce what I'm doing in a post, and if there are no complaints within a day or so I will also take down my announcement post. 
    If you know of any posts that were manipulated, point it out immediately and the admin(s) should be able to find an edit history so they can know who did it. I don't have access to an edit history but I assume that every such event is logged in the db. Not just admins, but moderators do have the ability to edit another person's post because I was once asked to edit a typo in a post where the author had passed the time limit for editing and I could still edit it for them. That's happened only about three times in 10 years.
    I don't know what comments you refer to. Not the one from Tom, although I can guess, nor the one from Pudgy. I almost never interact with Pudgy, and even with JTR many of my "subtly offensive" posts to him were just hints that I didn't like a lot of his incessantly off-topic cartoons. in fact, the only recent time I recall interacting with Pudgy was to complain that his cartoon was completely off-topic and he responded that it was supposed to be obvious satire intended to lighten the mood from such a serious topic. But I also like some of his humor, too, I just don't respond to much of it.
    You might be referring to a specific comment of George's that I didn't see. There is no specific post referred to in the "Reports" section which I can see. And there are times when an admin or moderator(or Librarian?) will hide an ostensibly offensive post, and that gives it a pinkish border to a moderator like me, while others can't see it at all. I have seen these, but I see no such offending post in George's case. If someone requoted that post, then maybe I can go back and see it, but I didn't completely read this topic yet.
    I have no reason to defend my position. Just stating how I feel about banning, etc. I could be wrong about it, and I don't mind being corrected if I am. 
    OK. Maybe I understand a bit better what you meant. I didn't know George used abusive language in his post about Tom's dishonesty. I didn't know Tom had been dishonest about something. I thought this was between J.R. and George88. Banning someone could potentially be justified, although I would never do it. And I have only one account/name/title here. I wouldn't do it under any account/name/title even if I had more than one. I don't think it's my place. I was never offered the authority and I think it's better to deal with content a person posts more than worry about the people behind them. It's sometimes funny and/or revealing when people use sock puppets for manipulation or satire or use them to build up a vote-reputation, so that's fair game for discussion. But not to attack people, and not to ban them. If the rules said only one account and no sock puppets that would be a different matter to the admins/owners, but not something I would worry about.  
    If Tom was dishonest, or Pudgy was abusive I wouldn't defend it, but just like with you I wouldn't want to see them banned. And if someone thought it was absolutely necessary (which I doubt) then just like with George, I wouldn't want to see the content banned. I thought George had spent a good deal of time on the site rebuilding a better reputation and had also posted a ton of interesting content that had nothing to do with whatever happened here. I found it tedious to go through this last exchange with J.R., especially since I didn't agree with J.R. on the basic point. If someone wants to be a zealous OT-prophet-styled vigilante for truth and justice, who are we to try to stop him. Gamaliel could have told us that. 
    Sort of right. I'm guessing that I do have the power to ban. Perhaps you have control of an old account that you don't think you will ever use again. If you give me permission I can give it a try and let you know if I was able to ban it. I suspect a strong possibility that I can only report it, and then another person has to approve the ban. I truly don't know for sure, but I was wrong to say "I will never use it even if I can." Because I'd like to know and if someone gives me an account to try, and permission to ban it, I will try to ban it. 
     
  19. Haha
    JW Insider reacted to BTK59 in Forum participants we have known   
    Did you know that when Tom assumes the character of Vic the Parrot and speaks to himself, he becomes rather abusive? It's quite amusing!
  20. Upvote
    JW Insider reacted to BTK59 in Forum participants we have known   
    Hey, that was the same interesting topic in the study article that addressed it. It highlights the significance of God's intervention in Peter's behalf and emphasizes the vital role of God's Holy Spirit in correcting individuals. Given the greater responsibility borne by Elders, their judgment naturally carries a weightier spiritual impact.
    So by all means, if you happen to spot a typo in one of the Watchtower publications, please get in touch with the writing department to ensure it is corrected. It is important to note, however, that this has no bearing on how Elders interact with each other or how concerns are addressed within the congregation or territory.
  21. Haha
    JW Insider reacted to TrueTomHarley in Forum participants we have known   
    One more outrageous claim like that and it is off to Worm City for him.
    And, what’s with the angel that was able to spring Peter from prison, opening doors right and left, but was not able to spring the one at Mary’s home, leaving Peter knocking in the street. Have him write Bethel about that.
  22. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from Anna in Forum participants we have known   
    Must not be as obvious as you think because I've never banned anyone. I don't even know if I have the power to ban anyone. It's possible I do, but when I was offered moderator powers it was to help keep some order in some otherwise chaotic threads that kept going off-topic, and most specifically it was offered to me at a time when Allen Smith appeared to be responding to nearly all my posts with an extra dose of vitriol. I was told that I could use my new moderator powers to remove excessively spiteful posts from Allen. As you are well aware, I never did, but left them all just exactly as awful as he wanted to express himself. Then someone came along and deleted several versions of Allen along with all his past posts in many cases. This removed the foundation of my own responses to him which makes it difficult to make sense of those threads if anyone were go back and try to read them. 
    I may never know if I actually have the power to ban anyone because I will never use it even if I can.
  23. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from Anna in Forum participants we have known   
    I don't think disfellowshipping is always unethical. The Christian congregation needs this authority for cases of exceptional wrongdoing, gangrene-like heresy and apostasy, and times when accepting association by someone reprehensible would give the appearance of condoning that person's conduct. But it can be implemented in a "barbaric" manner. I've watched this happen. I worked with Governing Body member, Brother Bert Schroeder, when his practice was to threaten to disfellowshipping persons unless they "snitched" on private conversations they had with friends who were closer to Bert's "political" target at the time. Then the person who snitched was allowed to just walk away unscathed. 
    I've seen it used to break apart families where a (young -but-just-over-18) baptized person still lived at home with mental conditions that made it nearly impossible for her to safely live on her own, and yet she was kicked out of the home.
    I've seen the threat used on my own sister if she were to tell the truth to hospital personnel that her ministerial servant husband had given her the injuries through a beating. 
    I've seen the threat used against a registered nurse, a good friend of my brother, who was told (by Brother James Pellechia of the Writing Department) that she could no longer voluntarily care for a 90-year-old nearly invalid wheelchair-bound brother in a second/third floor apartment in Brooklyn who was disfellowshipped for apostasy, mostly over some negative remarks about Rutherford that he wouldn't recant. (He had been a colporteur under Russell and Rutherford.) The nurse asked my brother (a Bethelite at the time) for help and my wife and I were able to sneak in (partly disguised) to help the disfellowshipped person several times a week, along with another sister who took the other days. He literally would have died without the help.
    I agree that you have often spoken truth here. However, this is not a congregation. It's a nearly random collection of persons who take an interest in discussing JW-related topics: some controversial, some innocuous. Every one of us who is here is here against the wishes of the Governing Body and we know it. There is therefore no reason to ban/disfellowship over any issue, with the exception of deliberate or targeted abusive behavior intended to hurt or bring harm to someone. But as we are mostly Witnesses here, we have learned to take such abuse in stride. We expect it. And if we happen to doubt or even reject a doctrine or two that most JWs accept, we understand quite well that we should expect to take some "abuse" for it. That's the only kind of abusive behavior I've gotten from the Allen-Smith-persona-like accounts.
    I expect it now and then, and don't agree with JR that such a vigilante-styled zealous one needs to identify himself.
    I especially don't like the fact that all the innocuous posts from the same individual get lost in the process. That's overkill over and above what's already overkill. 
  24. Haha
    JW Insider reacted to Anna in Forum participants we have known   
    Yay! 
  25. Upvote
    JW Insider got a reaction from Anna in Forum participants we have known   
    I did my one-month penance away from this site, and I'm ready for another 10 years here. LOL.
    I hadn't realized that Pudgy also stopped posting the same day. Also, there are dozens of post from George88 that are quoted by others here but when I go back to find the original, they are missing. Looks like JR invoked some of the rules of the forum which may have raised a flag to a moderator. What's left of his requoted comments tells me I probably would not have been much encouraged by the exchanges anyway.
    But banning someone like George does almost nothing to remove that kind of vitriol and divisiveness. He still has other active accounts on here anyway. There are times when I think it just makes it worse when old accounts are "reincarnated." Anyone remember these names? 
    1 Abusive Behaviour
    Moise Racette was warned   March 18, 2023
    Not Yet Acknowledged   1 Abusive Behaviour
    Chioke Lin was warned  July 15, 2022
     Acknowledged   15 Abusive Behaviour
    César Chávez was warned   May 13, 2021
     Acknowledged 1 Abusive Behaviour
    Leander H. McNelly was warned  March 8, 2020
     Acknowledged 1 Abusive Behaviour
    DefenderOTT was warned  October 24, 2019
    Not Yet Acknowledged   1 Abusive Behaviour
    Sean Migos was warned  October 24, 2019
     Acknowledged 1 Abusive Behaviour
    Allen_Smith was warned   October 23, 2019
    Not Yet Acknowledged   1 Spamming
    divergenceKO was warned  October 23, 2019
    Not Yet Acknowledged 1 Abusive Behaviour
    Foreigner was warned October 23, 2019
    Not Yet Acknowledged 5 Abusive Behaviour
    AllenSmith was warned   July 2, 2018
     Acknowledged  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Service Confirmation Terms of Use Privacy Policy Guidelines We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.