Our cast of "characters"

[Pastor Gary]

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,…
William Shakespeare - "As You Like IT"

Lately I have been wrestling with a series of very long, detailed, emails of complaint. They pretty much center on one subject: a perception that I show great favoritism toward certain posters. Okay ONE poster: Gerald Creasy.

Perhaps I need to get philosophical.

Anybody here ever watch wrestling? They have a cast of characters including good guys, bad guys, showboats, gimmicks, etc. It is not the athletic competition of "rasslin" that draws a crowd, but the interaction of the cast of characters, including the ones you like to BOO.

Message boards are much the same, IMHO. The internet is littered with the ghosts of happy-talk boards and "everybody-always-be-sweet" forums. Here's a sad truth; none of really enjoy those kinds of boards longer than a few days. We LIKE a little give-and-take. We enjoy loosely controlled confrontation. We keep coming back for more when the taste of blood is in the water. Think what you will -- that it is our base nature, that it shouldn't be that way -- but that is the truth.

The reason Jude2 has survived and grown while others have withered and died is because we have allowed heroes and villians, sweet people and grouches, the gentle and the abrupt. At various times in my tenure here I have had similar series of complaints about other regulars... villains come and go, heroes rise and fall.

Tell me what you think.

[Dr. Ron]

Since I have no other experience in this sort of thing I thought this was the norm.
I love it............then I am the arrogant-self-promoting- dr of what- bitter- hatefull resentful and downright irratiting one. Can I have a rasslin name like DR. Dread!? Yeah that's it. People "dread" seeing my name next to their thread!

I love Gerald Creasy! Cut him some slack. He is, after all, a Creasy. He didn't ask for those genes. I've known that family for 3 generations. He is good people.

Thanks Gary for letting people be themselves. Besides if in a relationship every one always agrees, at least some of them are not necessary. Keep 'em comin' Gerald!

[jdavis]

As long as no one threatens to come to my house with a baseball bat I am fine. The heated discussions provide me with info that I would not otherwise have known and after being here for almost two years, I genuinely like all of the characters .

[Linda]

Gary,

I love this board the way it is...we are all different...we think differently...we all have different styles of posting, but it has taken all these posts to make this board so successful. I have been taught to have an open mind to different ideas and thoughts, something I didn't have before. I really enjoy all the posts here...the good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly...that's what makes this board so interesting. We have the freedom to speak what's on our mind on this board, where we are not allowed to do that on other boards. It's even brought me out of my shy stage and I'm posting more.

Love all you guys at J2!

[TW]

I enjoy this board, and for the most part the people who gather here. Now comes the big word --- "however," just two request. Please use spell check or something, I lost my decoder ring a long time ago. And when a thread should die, don't worry about having the last word.


TW

[ImaPK]

BAN GERALD? ...I thought the Bible says if you have a problem with a brother to pray for him, go to him and try to work your problems out, and then if you still have a problem get the jawbone of an ass and kill him?...wait a minute I'm combining scriptures ...some of you know that I've had problems with one or two on here(even Gerald once or twice ) but ban him?...Nah...keep him around...he's fun to pick on ...people need to keep one thing in mind...while PG is a COGOP minister and the majority of the people on this board are COGOP, this is not, in the strictest sense, a COGOP endorsed board...if you think this is a "liberal" place(anything goes)visit a Yahoo Chat Room sometime

[dolfan]

I like 'em hot & spicy. Everything and everyone is fine. And, if they're not, too bad!!! Don't know who's complaining about Gerald or about anyone else, really, but anything less than letting everyone be themselves would be a loss. Hey, there's a lot of times when Gerald is at his most acerbic that he is at his best, from this reader's standpoint. Plus, if he said it and I think it, most of the time I won't echo a post with "I agree" b/c it just takes up room ... but it happens. Same goes for other guys like Centrist. Nice guy, draws a lot of ire and fire, completely different way of expressing himself, but I think about what he says ... sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. So, big deal. I would ask whoever is complaining to just rest, relax and take a nice, deep breath. It'll be okay. Noli fratribus iniurias pati. (Don't let the brother get you down.)

My suspicion is that, although I don't really know Gerald except from what interaction I've had with him here (in fact, I can say that the only regular J2'er I've known personally ... to my knowledge... is DeWayne --->shout out!), I'm sure Gerald probably thinks a lot of things that others say that just aren't his personality to express that way. I think we can all find a little Gerald Creasy in ourselves. Or, if not, at least I do.

[Pastor Gary]

Gary, why did you bring this up? Did you want some more blood in the water?

No. Far from it. I am on here less now than before. I scan the RSS feed recent posts but do not read every post on every thread. The complaints I have received (this round) have been from one person, and have all been directed in a single direction. My initial response was that it was an over-reaction, but when I got follow-up complaints and follow-ups to the follow-ups I started to question my initial reaction. Was I blowing off a real problem and not seeing something? Was I being partial to someone I have met over someone I have yet to meet? Do I play favorites?

I am sure some of that may be true, and I wanted to take the pulse of the board to see if the person lodging the complaint represented the feelings of many participants, or was just one person having issues with one other person.

It is an unscientific poll, but an honest attempt to solicit your views and the views of others here.

[scooter]

Ban all complainers!

[Billy n NC]

I voted .. okay with me. There are some people here I can't stand, but that's life

But I would like to modify it to say...

okay with me. There are some people here who bore me with novels, (I am a readers digest kind of guy), and I ignore, but that's life

[RamboPreacher]

As far as heroes and villians go, this board is…

Yours.
Bottom line.

You make the rules. I understant that you want some feedback and this is a great way to do it. My feedback is that you should run the forum the way you want to run it as administrator.

If my feedback would be "taken under advisement" and not just left out here as a post, then I will offer my personal opinions:
1. speel chuckers aint needed (as long as the post is otherwise readable tna the point is able to be made without misinformation)

2. grammer checked - see #1

3. About the ONLY thing that has to do with the typing skills that I would like to see enforced is that folks use paragraph breaks. Some of teh huge long posts that get posted here are all one paragraph and Sorry, but I just can't read that on my screen.

4. This is not a "public" forum. What I mean is that I believe that it may be directed at and for COGOP (unoficially?) folks, but I assume you wouldn't let the "tolls" from say a pagan forum, come over here and start whaylaying on Christianity. then running away, waiting for teh "ire's" to be rustled up.

With that in mind, and assuming we are a "Christian" forum, I am surprised at teh way that some get away with the personal attacks, and name calling; whether the attacked are folks on this forum, or people that represent other ministries.

I just don't get it, especially when we know, or can assume based on lack of response to asking about it - that Biblical "due process" was never even attempted.

I suggest that this be addressed in a rule. name-calling in a negative fashion that is obviously not intended to be humorous, should not be allowed. However, after that due-process has been attempted, then bringing issues to witnesses for discussion is another issue (though name calling, is still a lack of maturity, as far as I am concerned).

Again, your forum. I do wish there was a way to "ignore" someone though. allowing there posts to be "censored" out of view and a link to click if the user decided to view a certain post of the user that is being ignored.

so there you have it. My opinions. none of them should be taken personally, other than expression of my personal opinion. If I didn't like it here, I wouldn't be here.

[Paully_44]

I have never met him, don't know him or his family. Gerald is exactly what this board needs. Someone who is not afraid to gloss over a subject or beat around the bush. I don't agree with everything he posts, but that is my perogative. The great thing about the internet...... diversity.

I would hate a vanilla board. History shows us on that other board what happens when diversity is eliminated or banned... the tumbleweeds blow in to town.

[DeWayneTN]

in fact, I can say that the only regular J2'er I've known personally ... to my knowledge... is DeWayne --->shout out!).

HOLLA' BACK!!!

[Mike Vande]

The only things people here argue about is stuff I am sick to death of arguing about, or couldn't care much less about if I tried. IT's BORING...

Will TCOG, COGOP and COG reunite and become one super demonination? WHO CARES?

Should divorced and remarried people be allowed to join COGOP? NO! SEND 'EM SOMEWHERE THEY ARE GOING TO BE LOVED BY EVERYBODY IN THE GROUP, NOT JUST THE ONES WHO KNOW THEY ARE DEBTORS TO GRACE THEMSELVES!!

Should Gerald be banned? Only if you ban me, scooter, Tim, and half a dozen others....

[justsam]

Should Gerald be banned? Only if you ban me, scooter, Tim, and half a dozen others....

Correct me if I'm wrong here, PG, but you're not asking if we think Gerald should be banned are you? I thought the question was whether or not it's time to institute some more standards to govern our interaction (oops!).

God Bless You- Sam Smith