Forums to be closed

[HomeschoolDad]

Peeps:

Sadly, online forums are dinosaurs equivalent to rotary phones, record players, tape recorders, VHS, etc.

Things I still have and occasionally use. Save the rotary phone. (Though I know HOW to use one)

Ditto here. I have a vast collection of VHS tapes and am not keen to get rid of them. Also vinyl from years before you were even born, and my son wanted a cassette tape recorder both for the novelty factor and to play the mass-manufactured “mixtapes” from Guardians of the Galaxy. I also have some videos from Europe and a couple of my VCRs are multisystem (PAL/SECAM/NTSC), as are a couple of my DVD players (easy to region-hack, and that is neither illegal nor unethical). Curiously, one of my HDTVs also supports PAL. You never see that in the United States — I discovered the feature by accident!

 

[CilladeRoma]

I am on Catholic Common Sense.
My name there is Oneofthewomen

 

[Anicette]

one of the only reservation is that with only paid members we will not have new people who come only to ask a question. These people is what keep some news topics and interest on the forum. They are vital on the long run.
It aslo select people by money.

But I prefer this solution to a close down that is just a catastrophe for apologetic and for the growing in faith and socialization of many of the members.

 

[Lunam_Meam]

On Thursday December 31 at 5pm PT, Catholic Answers will close the Catholic Answers Forums (CAF).

Praise God, because the censorship, and unnecessary banning of accounts is uncharitable.

 

[AlNg]

one of the only reservation is that with only paid members we will not have new people who come only to ask a question.

That is easily solved by allowing a trial period of two weeks.

 

[EnglishTeacher]

This is actually really sad. I think I have been a member of these forums for over 10 years now, and while I haven’t been able to post as much in recent months as I once did, I will miss many of the posters and the good discussions. People say that no one ever changes their mind because of a discussion on the internet, but I think that is not true. I have at times come to see a matter in a different light because of the perspectives of some of the more balanced people here. I don’t know of any other place to be able to talk about interesting topics with other Catholics from many different backgrounds, especially now that the pandemic has made it hard to get together with people in real life.

I would be willing to pay a modest amount if they change their minds and keep the forums open.

 

[JanR]

Peeps, unfortunately, with nearly everyone glued to a cell phone and texting instead of interacting personally, the whole friendship thing has changed from what it used to be. Now, “friends” are people added to a superficial roster on Facebook and other social media, and dropped like hot potatoes just as soon as they disagree with their “friender”. Folks have lost sight of what real friendship is.

Add to that the fact that our society is ruder and less tolerant today, and a lot of people are simply stuck-up elitists who don’t feel they need to take the time to be polite or sincerely interested in others whom they consider “beneath” them, and making physical friends is next to impossible.

I predict a day of reckoning is coming when we’ll all be forced to depend on one another for our basic survival, and then we’ll understand what real friendship is all about.

 

[JanR]

Jen7:

Facebook, Twitter, etc. I have zero interest using those meeting places to connect and share my heart. They don’t lend themselves to conversation anyway - just to self-expression.

I use facebook regularly, but I think that’s a neat summation of their limitation - they don’t lead to conversation, but to self-expression. The plus side is that they assist us to keep in contact with relatives and friends, as they post their various personal “news”. However, while that was the original intent back in ~2007 over the years most of my “friends” have become people I’ve never met, and political “expression” has come to dominate over personal news.

I choose to keep in contact with relatives and friends via four ways: e-mail, land line phone, written cards and letters, and, occasionally, the personal visit.

Don’t need (un)social media to stay in touch.

 

[JanR]

I think this will be beneficial for souls, albeit perhaps occasionally less so for intellects.

The human soul includes the intellect.

 

[BornInMarch]

I have to admit, I find this news to be sad.

I’ve been on this forum since I was a teenager, and the people here have taught me about my Church and her traditions. Discussions here were usually intellectually stimulating and educational, and getting to interact with different people was great (even if it was over text on a screen).

I want to thank the people who answered my questions, who I had interesting discussions with, and even the people whom I disagreed with. I especially want to thank the people who were patient when I lost my temper or had bad days.

 

[Peeps]

Peeps:

Sadly, online forums are dinosaurs equivalent to rotary phones, record players, tape recorders, VHS, etc.

Things I still have and occasionally use. Save the rotary phone. (Though I know HOW to use one)

My husband collects and rehabs typewriters. He has around 115 now. We hope to build a home to retire in, and I keep saying we need to plan a huge “museum” room!

 

[Kit15]

sealabeag:

On the other hand, I have encountered a small but sincere number of truly knowledgeable, respectful and helpful users, who have helped me to understand Church teaching on important issues, and to become a more well formed Catholic.

I miss Brother JR for this reason.

That was EasterJoy for me. I wanted to be like her when I grew up.

 

[Gorgias]

Xarto:

Why didn’t they open up moderation to the users?

It wasn’t entirely clear; however, it was implied that they didn’t want to spend time monitoring them. I don’t think they were happy with their previous user moderators either…

I thought that there was user moderation here. Wasn’t that the whole point of moving to the new platform?

 

[Gorgias]

This is annoying. There is a lot of useful information in the forums, and a complete removal loses all of it.

Would it really be particularly expensive to keep them available in read-only form? I don’t know anything about costs of webhosting but I have to imagine it would cut down the cost significantly.

There would be the same cost in resources to keep it up on the web as there is to host it now, right? (Albeit without user participation, so the only savings would be in employee salary.)

 

[Cruciferi]

I thought that there was user moderation here.

Do you mean Flagging? That technically wasn’t Moderation. It just allowed them to reduce the number of staff monitoring the forum.

Wasn’t that the whole point of moving to the new platform?

These were the reasons given:

• Decrease cost
• Decrease maintenance
• Increase security
• Make it mobile friendly
• Bring moderation back under the apostolate’s control

They only discussed this maybe twice. I believe everything got deleted along with SiteFeedback.

 

[Mary888]

Oh.
But I want to thank you all then. CAF has been the only social media for a while. Lately I felt less inspired to post. Maybe I am growing wise enough to realize I know nothing.
Anyway, thank you all members and moderators on CAF, for me it has been a wonderful spiritual experience discussing the Catholic faith as well as other religions here. Even the arguments made sense and at times of great sadness I received small signs here from CAF posts.
Christ is truly in our midst here sometimes He really is. Other times He stays in the back while we quarell … about Him.
Hope everyone stays healthy and ends the year in good humor.

 

[Shasta-Rose]

Yes. I was thinking that I would be okay with supporting a fee-only site, but only if we don’t get banned. In the past several years, I was suspended twice for two weeks for saying something “offensive,” without anybody enlightening me as to what I was being banned for. I categorically deny that I have ever said anything offensive on this or any other forum (and not much in real life, either). So, I actually did toy with the idea of becoming a patron, but then I thought that I would get really angry if I got thrown off after contributing.

I think there might have been more thought about the fact that we always have people going around–(I’m offended–I’m offended)–just looking for things to complain about. But if one of them stated that you said something “offensive,” then you get suspended with no recourse. I had written to the moderators last time that I apologized but I didn’t think what I said was offensive but got no answer from them and no lifting of suspension. So, that did not leave me eager to send them money.

 

[Shasta-Rose]

I know what you mean. Many of us are still not getting out much, what with the figures on the virus “spiking.” I will so miss the posts here, especially those from some of my favorites over the years.

(And last March, right at the beginning of “the bad year,” our diocese Catholic newsletter shut down. Didn’t even tell the reporters and columnists till that day that they were out of work.)

Just really feeling pretty isolated.

 

[phil3]

I didn’t look into the patron until right before the announcement. I decided not to do a patron because it appeared they would sell my info and I would start getting mailing from others asking for money.

There is more to it than just money. But if they were making money off the forum, they wouldn’t close it.

But it is what it is, there are many site out there so in the long run, thing come and go,

 

[JimR-OCDS]

If you saw why I was banned, you would’ve been shocked as others were.

I was considered a liberal and got banned just before the 2008 election, the 2012 election and the 2016 election, not for breaking any rule, but because some one was offended by my post. This election, I stayed out of CAF so I wouldn’t get banned.

Posting this will probably get me banned, but so what ?