modcat5

11 days to go

Your history in TWI is fair game, as is DWBH's. We implore you both to keep real names out of it. Your marriage history is not fair game. References have been deleted. By the way: It's no longer a secret in these parts, but Modcat5=Raf. I try not to moderate conversations when I am a participant, generally, but I felt safe intervening here.

I'm not comfortable with disclosing the personal histories of posters unless THEY choose to disclose them. Same goes for real names. Please be discrete with people's personal information.

Fixed

I took Pawtucket at his word here when he said he was shutting down. But I should not be the one making public announcements about it. I will refrain from further comment until he announces what will be happening with this site. My apologies to all involved. See you soon.

That is correct. read my last clue carefully. I dropped a major hint in it. Raf

I just realized we did this show... not recently, but very few POSTS between them and now. It's how I met your mother.

sorry. lost track. "Haaave you met Ted?"

Maggie Smith won an Oscar for playing an actress who loses an Oscar. In the play, her character says she Hope's the award is presented by Michael Caine because he's so classy. In the movie, her husband is played by Michael Caine, so the reference is changed to David Niven.

yes!

For what it's worth: As you all (probably) know, moderators have two accounts: one as a moderator, and one as our normal selves. For a long time, the moderators' identities were secret. Many were outed a few years ago, but not all. If you don't know by now that I am Raf, you probably don't care. Whatever, I am Raf. It is not my place to disclose the identities of other moderators, with the exception of pawtucket, who owns the site but rarely posts. Two mods have mostly been monitoring things here day to day. Modgellan is the other one. I will not disclose Modgellan's identity. And I will not disclose Modwildcat's ID either. If he/she chooses to, that's up to him/her. Personally, I think this moderator's faith journey would be fascinating if he/she would disclose his/her identity. Finding out that modwildcat returned to Catholicism is ... not terribly interesting to me. I mean, who is modwildcat? But finding out THIS PERSON returned to Catholicism is surprising, to say the least. So, I invite modwildcat to post under his/her original screen name and continue this fascinating conversation. Hit me up with a PM if you can't find your login credentials. And wow.

Vince has been teaching that you could lose your salvation for at least 20 years. --Raf posting.

And you will again.

It was funnier when you were serious.

Parody is fair use. You can't sue over it. I'd be curious to know if anyone has the information and can tell whether the original artists were credited. Signed, Raf

This topic is not distasteful. The song is. And it's a part of TWI history that is fair game. It's no more political than discussing VPW's lie about being invited to Reagan's inauguration or LCM's bloodlust for stockpiling nuclear weapons. Certain topics that are About The Way will occasionally border on politics. Some may even cross the border. But this one, I think, doesn't. Feel free to disagree.

Thank you. No one took me up on the offer anyway. And, for what it's worth, I think that's terrible news. :( Signed, Raf

He's apparently planning a teaching this evening. PM me if you want details. 4/4/2018 Signed, Raf

Best wishes, Mr. Lynn. I hope your trust in holistic medicine is not misplaced. May your struggle be brief and your life long.

Welcome, Sastian.

I don't see where he wants to "take over" GSC. I will therefore chastise Rocky in a manner proportionate to his infraction by making him read this post until the very end. Let that be a lesson to you.

Ok, here's the deal: I just spent WAY more time than I wanted to reviewing this thread and watching the videos. I commend everyone on the amount of restraint you have shown in replying to this utter nonsense. I am obliged to ask you all to please restrict your comments to the argument, and not say things like "it's hard to take so-and-so seriously," which may not be namecalling, but resides in the same zip code. It is fair game to call the topic of this thread B.S. It is not fair game to call the person who posted it a.... an artist. I did not watch the full freemasonry video because I just had lunch. If someone would like to draw a link between the existence of freemasons and his or her own propensity to believe and promote nonsense, feel free to do so. No one is compelled to read it. No one is compelled to take it seriously. No one is compelled to respond to it. Each of us is free to discern the quality of a post or argument. That is not namecalling and is not a personal attack. As moderators, we are not going to take action against threads or topics just because we find them laughably preposterous on their face. The slippery slope, if we were to adopt such a policy, would be way too real.

I've finally lost track of everything but Flash. Will have to catch up in two months on Netflix. Pity. {Oops. Forgot to put my Raf hat back on}.

I am trying to take as much of a hands off approach as possible. Modgellan and I both have lives. There is a difference between attacking someone's position and attacking the person. If you don't know where the line is, take a few steps back until you know for a fact you haven't crossed it. I just deleted a string of comments that began with a flagrant example of namecalling. That does not mean we have examined everything or signed off on other violations in other posts. Frankly, we're waiting for the grown-up gene to kick in so that we have to intervene as little as possible. I don't know that we've had to deal with a conspiracy theory type of thread in the past, and I'm pretty sure there's no rule governing them, so the mods have to discuss whether to intervene and, if so, how. For the record: There is no pedopjhile ring being run out of a pizza shop in D.C. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. This planet it a sphere (not perfectly spherical, but as distinguished from being a flat disk covered by a dome). Vaccines don't cause autism. Obama was born in Hawaii. To an American citizen. And is Christian (nominally). 9/11 was not an inside job. Burning jet fuel does not need to melt steel to compromise the structural integrity of a building. A plane crashed into the Pentagon. There were people on it. They are dead now. Show some respect. If you want to post a conspiracy theory, people are entitled to laugh at you. It comes with the territory. There's a fine line between attacking a person and attacking the absolute nonsense that the person believes and promotes. But calling it absolute nonsense is not a personal attack. For those who have forgotten, I am in the media in south Florida. I do not have time to police your squabbles. I spent Wednesday afternoon trying to describe the heartbreak on the faces of a dozen or more family members who came face to face for the first time with the maniac who decided to shatter their lives by gunning down schoolchildren on Valentine's Day. THEY are hurting. You guys are irritated by a pest whose face you may never see. And for what? I apologize for playing the dead kids card, but this squabble has overtaken GSC and has jumped across multiple threads. If you can't play nice, take a break. If you think the OTHER guy is not playing nice, take a break. Put him on ignore. It's not hard. But stop derailing threads, and stop participating in threads whose content you find ridiculous. End rant.

It's a fine line between moderating and micromanaging. I'd like to keep Ruffles up just for the sake of an example we can all see. Speaking for myself, apologies aren't necessary, I don't think. But I'm confident my fellow active mods (hahahahahahahahaha I used the plural, as if, hahahahha) are reading along. If they felt an apology was in order the post would be gone. That leaves GS to accept if he (assuming he) is so inclined. Be excellent to each other.