I'm still mad about CAF closing down

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NevermoreLenore

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It may be silly to be mad about this, but I can’t help but feel like CA just abandoned the forums without really attempting to find an alternative solution. I would’ve been willing to pay a nominal monthly fee to pay for a moderator. It’s not going to change anything, but I do feel let down. I did not realise how much I appreciated and turned to CAF for support and fellowship, especially through 2020. It seems a harder blow to lose CAF during this pandemic wherein many of our contact with other Catholics has only been online.

I want to thank those who have faithfully remembered my family and especially my girl in prayer, especially @Peonies. I truly believe she’s still here because of the consistent prayer and knocking on heaven’s door.

To those with whom I agreed, those iron posters who sharpened my iron, those who disagreed with me–I love you all and will miss our discussions. I know other forums are available but none will be the same.
 
It is a great shame the forums are closing down! I haven’t been on here long at all but I’ve found the forums & the members immensely helpful, with many very kind, patient & in-depth responses in simple, easy to follow terms. I appreciate this as a non Catholic visitor especially since I’m sure my questions may be obvious & probably get asked a lot.

I would be happy to pay a monthly fee also, as you describe but mostly I just wish I’d found CAF sooner!!

Peace & Blessings to all!!
 
I will still continue to pray throughout the day for the health of your precious daughter even after CAF closes.
 
I feel the same. That Caf had abondonned us, and in the worst moment in history for that. It will miss something for Catholics on the web.

Where people will turn to ask their questions on Catholicism? To discuss? to try to make online friends?

Hopefully, the small consolation is that we had been awared 1 month in advance, so creating to us the possibility to plan the after.
 
Check out some other threads in the Catholic Living sub forum. There are links to other public Catholic and Christian forums. None of them compare to CAF, but it’s better than nothing. Also there were some mentions of private forums started by members. That’s not for me but it might be another option for those interested.
 
I am glad it is, its outlived any chance of posts not following popular opinion and is now full of disinformation and internet conspiracy theories.
 
The storage of what, exactly? All the old threads going back year after year? If that’s the trouble, there’s an easy soluton. The years and years of history are a superfluous luxury. They could simply clear out everything earlier than, say, January 1, 2019, and then keep on doing the same thing again, a year at a time.
 
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BartholomewB said:
The storage of what, exactly? All the old threads going back year after year? If that’s the trouble, there’s an easy soluton. The years and years of history are a superfluous luxury. They could simply clear out everything earlier than, say, January 1, 2019, and then keep on doing the same thing again, a year at a time.
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I don’t know if CAF uses managed hosting, but if it does then the price partially depends on page views, which, for CAF, would be very high.
 
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I regret I never did become a patron. in fairness to CAF they went through a rough year, like others. I think they depend partly on conferences, their own and appearance by their staff at local or regional conferences, for speaker fees, book and media sales, donations.

2020 likely wiped out their reserves.
 
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Try Ave Maria Radio Forums, and Catholic Community Forums. And when you sign up, in your first post, say that you’ve come over from CAF because there are other refugees over at those places - but also make it a point to get to know everybody. The important thing is that there are still forums for Catholics to meet online.

Reddit also has a Catholicism subreddit (actually several Catholic related subreddits) if that appeals to you. Reddit can be a good experience but there is way more influence from the secular world in Reddit as a whole, some of which may seep into the subreddits. It pays to set your account to filter out the over 18, NSFW stuff, which is probably not an issue if you just go to the Catholic subreddits, but would be if you also want to browse other places.
 
Agree that on some level the forums do nothing to bring anyone into the church. I almost wonder if some catholics have either left the faith because they were called out for something, or if some went off into sedevacantism or the SSPX or if converts who were interested thought our faith was too toxic or divided. In some ways I feel like Satan has wormed his way into spaces like these and has made even devout Catholics hate each other.
 
Even the most dedicated, core band of friends find their hobbies to be truly expensive as time goes forward, if only for the requirements of diversity and expansive thought.

If this forum could do nothing then this forum could do nothing harmful, even closed and called to minister someplace else.

If it helps to draw upon science fiction idiom, this one time a single Borg Cube was chosen to take over the entire Federation of humans using only the phrase “Why, God, why?” It was quite successful being gone but now forgotten.

Similarly, a single Lord Cure was able to take over the entire production of money with a similar phrase. Far easier for a Borg Cube to rename itself Lord Cure as a way to keep hope alive.
 
Good call! It was a very bad influence on me for a long time. I would prefer never to have come here to begin with. To quote the Back to the Future movies, it’s caused nothing but disaster (except possibly for the fact that I learned to avoid things like this).

Still, I feel called to be here for its last week…
 
I spoke to my spiritual director about the issue. He said I was wrong about that—as I explained to him, it wasn’t just the Presbyterian pastor, I was also inferring it from certain quotes from the Doctors of the Church. In fact, he got me into the classics, saying that in order to be supernatural, we must be very human. It’s been a huge help in my life. He also said that the saints have to be understood in the context of their intended audiences, rather than quoted to prove points like that.

Consider this my formal retraction. I never said I was not part of that bad influence. If I have led anyone to make a mistake, I apologize. It demonstrates perfectly how easy it is to (intentionally or not) misuse this board and why putting it out to pasture is the only moral course of action (which is part of why CA is doing so).
 
I found it helpful for my spiritual needs and growth. I’ll miss it. It’s the perfect cherry on top for the year 2020.
 
The OLD CAF was great. Never had any problems with the mods. I learned a great deal about my faith. This was in 2013. The new CAF wasn’t as good. The new mods seemed more concerned about traditional /conservative VS the more liberal members. That was just one man’s view. It took a while, but I eventually began to lose interest in the new CAF.

Still, it was a good place for newbies to come and find out more about the faith or get feedback on important issues. It was also an easy forum to find for new people. It is for those people I feel bad. This kind of thing cannot be measured by people in a conference room. They made the switch to this format to save money. This is a Catholic ministry, even an outreach ministry, but that isn’t easy ministry to measure amongst a pile of reports and figures.
This was a good place to pray for those who came here needing it, and now it will be harder for them to find a big audience for that. So I bid all of the members here goodbye and may the peace of Christ be with you.
 
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BartholomewB said:
The storage of what, exactly? All the old threads going back year after year? If that’s the trouble, there’s an easy soluton. The years and years of history are a superfluous luxury. They could simply clear out everything earlier than, say, January 1, 2019, and then keep on doing the same thing again, a year at a time.
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To me, that would be getting rid of what I found most useful about Catholic Answers Forums: How just far back the archive went. So many times when trying to find information on something, sometimes quite obscure things, I was able to find it in the forums via searching because someone mentioned it years ago. The most useful thing for the forums (to me) is not even present-day discussion, but rather all of the past discussion that was available. It is why I really hope they will at least preserve some kind of an archive for the forums.
 
Happy Trails!

Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.

It’s the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here’s a happy one for you.

Happy trails to you,
Until we meet again.
Happy trails to you,
Keep smiling until then.

Who cares about the clouds when we’re together?
Just sing a song, and bring the sunny weather.

Happy trails to you,
Until we meet again.
 
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