Prax is correct: the ability to read PM's doesn't come built into vBulletin. However, anyone who knows what they're doing and WANTS to can install a mod and have access to all PM's. Of course, not all mods/admins have enough access or knowledge to do that. If you're savvy with code, mods, apps, etc., then yes...you can read PM's. The average forum/owner/admin/moderator isn't going to read PM's because they don't know how to create access, (or have they have no inclination to do so) but it can be done. The more important issue at hand here is the implication that Prax was being dishonest when he gave his answer. If he was, another admin could easily step up and call him on it, so why would he bother?
As for missing admins--I'm one of them. I peek into this forum every now and then when I have time and I find absolutely trash threads like the one Charnock posted, I Am Glad I Left the UPC, and all the vitriol that followed. I admit--I don't want to stick around and deal with that. We're still in the UPC, and YES, I am aware that the organization contains imperfect people and people who abuse their authority, but that is NOT the common thread in our organization. My negative experience was at the hands of an independent church, and yes, it made me gun-shy, but I don't go around talking about all independent churches as if they're all guilty of my negative experience. That would be ignorance speaking, painting with a broad brush. That logic, on principle, is what causes racism and bias and hatred and even wars. IMO, when those types of thoughts pop into your head, they should be squelched as the irrational, biased, unfounded thoughts that they are and replaced with reality. Back to what I was saying...
I confess: I have been avoiding this forum like the plague. I don't like the fighting...over any topic. It used to be discussion--a long time ago, when this place was the FCF. It has failed to remain that and the hatred I feel pointed in my general direction when I read posts here is worse than anything I've ever encountered in real life. Charnock, in particular, has shocked me with hostility pointed at me personally that I never thought I warranted, in addition to pointing hostility toward an entire group of people--of whom he only personally knows a small handful. And yet he wants to be the one to sit in a seat of superiority and point the finger at all the horrible people in the UPC? If he was speaking with kindness and in a godly manner, and only about particular people and particular situations, I could accept his opinions, but as they stand, they are the epitome of hypocrisy. I have difficulty stomaching it.
You guys discuss "abuse" at the hands of the UPC and I can come here and experience "abuse" at the hands of people who hate the UPC. The irony is rich. FTR, I've never felt that from ILG or Dichotomy Girl, and I do believe there's some benefit in analyzing issues and problems and not sweeping things under the proverbial rug. At the same time, there's not a lot of benefit from living in pain, and dwelling in past hurts is precisely that.
Both ILG and DG have presented some of the most difficult topics that I have ever considered, but they almost always do it with kindness and reason, and I appreciate that. That's respectful dialogue. Some people USE threads like theirs to express their hostility and they DO lump everyone together and it's hurtful. Others use every thread as an opportunity to mock, condescend and feel superior to Christians or conservative Apostolics. The trend that I see (judging from the narrow slice in this forum) is that people who have left the UPC end up being hateful, bitter, rude, dismissive, superior jerks, and it's very difficult for ME not to broad brush right back. The only thing that keeps me in check on that point is knowing that my thoughts aren't always rational and I have to continue to address people as individuals. ILG and DG are two of the people who remind me that not everyone is the same, not everyone is unpleasant, not everyone is filled with hate.
It's extremely frustrating, and BTW, this is not just a response to this thread, but to Charnock's recently closed thread as well.
I feel for Prax, trying to moderate by himself at times, and I admit that sometimes I am a coward about dealing with you people. I do wonder sometimes if you realize (or care) that you are hurting good people just as much as you claim to have been hurt. What, do you think we all deserve it simply because there's an acronym on our church sign?
I harbor no hostility toward you. I just don't respect the way you often defend the indefensible. The thread I started about the UPC was a tongue-in-cheek response to Praxeas' overreaction to anything and everything anyone ever posts even slightly unflattering about the org.
Like you, I rarely post here. It has little to do with the content.
Mostly, I've moved on, but I logged on for the first time in weeks and saw that ILG was being abused by Prax, again, and responded.
I am very sorry that you have such a low opinion of me but, like you, I don't want to pretend interest in someone who obviously despises my presence.
I wish you nothing but good, and every happiness.
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I'm (sic) not cynical, I just haven't been around long enough to be Jedi mind-tricked by politics as usual. Alas, maybe in a few years I'll be beaten back into the herd. tstew
I harbor no hostility toward you. I just don't respect the way you often defend the indefensible. The thread I started about the UPC was a tongue-in-cheek response to Praxeas' overreaction to anything and everything anyone ever posts even slightly unflattering about the org.
I'm curious as to what indefensible thing I've defended. And what you posted wasn't "slightly unflattering." It was harsh and polarizing, which has been your modus operandi ever since you moved on.
Beyond that, you come in here every now and then with guns blazing shooting down everything that moves the wrong direction, and your harsh attitude undermines your credibility. It's quite the contradiction to oppose murder while mowing down people with a machine gun.
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"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
I don't know what they are right offhand and I would like to read them.
Linear Mode
