Forum Venues

[OutWest]

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Internet forums have given many of Christ's obscure followers a convenient pulpit for sharing their time-won knowledge and experience with a worldwide audience. For the world's sake, I highly recommend making an effort to compose legible posts; neatly arranged, sensible, and tidy because forums get a lot of visitors.

Shouting with king-size bold letters, scribbly italics, lack of adequate paragraphing, twitter spelling, unnecessary emogies, horrible grammar, and a confusing mixture of fonts, sizes, and colors, makes for tiresome clutter and annoying forum graffiti that leave a bad impression.

I rather suspect that some people regard forums as a canvas for painting their comments instead of composing them. Well; that might be okay for outsiders, they can be as messy as they want because it doesn't matter. But for those of us who honestly believe ourselves to be representing God's son; it's unacceptable.

● Phil 1:27 . . Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
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[Jeff K]

It's a good reminder that we are ambassadors of Jesus Christ and that includes our words and actions through the web. Having a solid testimony for Jesus is important in all aspects of our life.

 

[mattfivefour]

It's a good reminder that we are ambassadors of Jesus Christ and that includes our words and actions through the web. Having a solid testimony for Jesus is important in all aspects of our life.

Yes, indeed!

 

[Andy C]

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Internet forums have given many of Christ's obscure followers a convenient pulpit for sharing their time-won knowledge and experience with a worldwide audience. For the world's sake, I highly recommend making an effort to compose legible posts; neatly arranged, sensible, and tidy because forums get a lot of visitors.

Shouting with king-size bold letters, scribbly italics, lack of adequate paragraphing, twitter spelling, unnecessary emogies, horrible grammar, and a confusing mixture of fonts, sizes, and colors, makes for tiresome clutter and annoying forum graffiti that leave a bad impression.

I rather suspect that some people regard forums as a canvas for painting their comments instead of composing them. Well; that might be okay for outsiders, they can be as messy as they want because it doesn't matter. But for those of us who honestly believe ourselves to be representing God's son; it's unacceptable.

● Phil 1:27 . . Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
_

All valid points. More importantly, having good Theology is a must. Not all who post have a solid biblical foundation in their beliefs. However, we all learn from each other, so even those who are still babes in Christ can and will learn on this excellent forum, and hopefully, contribute to the many conversations.

 

[Everlasting Life]

I agree very much with Philippians 1:27 and it's an excellent lens through which to post (and live by) along with asking for God's help in posts so as to reflect Him. Especially for good theology.

I agree with you OutWest with the idea of being thoughtful of what we are saying and how we are communicating as representatives of Christ. There are certain decorums one must try to aim for. It is important to be aware of this. I also think that part of conducting myself worthy of the Gospel is extending love and patient graciousness to those who may not be as sophisticated as others in forums, typing, communicating or perhaps to a poor soul that's struggling and trying to reach out for help. For in God's eyes they are just as loved and precious as others no matter how well they are able to communicate.

I notice that while this forum does have a desire to have good theology, this forum also is a platform that lends to growth and help for others which may be a bit messy looking sometimes. I know that there are those here who really are unfamiliar with computers or even how to move about in a forum, but I sure don't want them to feel inhibited to ask for much needed help or engage in spiritual growth for fear they don't come across well in composing their posts.

I say this because, believe it or not.....I once felt very afraid to post. However, when I reached out in desperate need for some biblical guidance on something, I was so grateful that there were those who kindly reached out and helped. In looking back on my posts during that time....well, it was a bit all over the place in communicating. But, despite that, what shone through like Jesus Christ for me was not only the good teaching shared with me but the kindness and graciousness shown. Despite probably some long run on sentences, commas in wrong places and perhaps too many paragraphs.

Another reason for my thinking on this is experience with working with people, new Christians or Christians to be, and how relieved they were at learning that they didn't have to be perfect or walking theologians to learn and grow in Christ. Once that was communicated to them, there was a sense of relief, safety and comfort in being able to participate, ask questions and ask for help, knowing that they will not feel looked down upon for doing so. That's where I've seen the best growth in people.

So, I just posted here, not to put you on the spot OutWest, but to let any person out there who needs to ask for help about something on their mind not to feel afraid about how they form their sentences or paragraphs. That's something we all can grow in gradually. But the spiritual need is important.

Internet forums have given many of Christ's obscure followers a convenient pulpit for sharing their time-won knowledge and experience with a worldwide audience.

Of this I've been so grateful for.

 

[OutWest]

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A fellow I encountered some years ago on another forum posted his remarks entirely in caps and very little paragraphing. His posts looked more like corn fields rather than compositions and were very difficult to read.

Although he and I were posting in the same language, his all-caps were as much a language barrier as if he were speaking in Mandarin, and I in Swahili. It's not that I couldn't follow his line of thought, it's just that it was such an effort to do so.

I once heard a cute aphorism along that line that went sort of like this:

"If you want the kiddies to help themselves to the cookies; put the jar on a bottom shelf where they can reach it."

Solomon, in all his wisdom, couldn't have said it better.
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[Almost Heaven]

Great post EL. It must be kept in mind that RF is global. Many of our beloved members first language is not English. Many of our members are elderly and not especially tech savvy. I would hesitate to complain about anyone's English usage or grammar skills making things difficult for me to understand.

 

[Andy C]

Great post EL. It must be kept in mind that RF is global. Many of our beloved members first language is not English. Many of our members are elderly and not especially tech savvy. I would hesitate to complain about anyone's English usage or grammar skills making things difficult for me to understand.

If good grammar was a requirement, Chris would’ve banned me years ago.

It truly is a blessing learning from all on this forum. It can be intimidating at first when joining, but overall, I think the core group on this forum does a good job in welcoming folks from all over the globe, babes in Christ, or life long Christians, it does not matter as we are all one big family. And like any family, we may have a few disagreements, but at the end of the day, we all share the same Father, who loves us all just as we are.

 

[Kaatje]

Great post EL. It must be kept in mind that RF is global. Many of our beloved members first language is not English. Many of our members are elderly and not especially tech savvy. I would hesitate to complain about anyone's English usage or grammar skills making things difficult for me to understand.

Yes, I agree.
Wisdom is better than eloquency (proverbs 32:14)

 

[Everlasting Life]

A fellow I encountered some years ago on another forum posted his remarks entirely in caps and very little paragraphing. His posts looked more like corn fields rather than compositions and were very difficult to read.

Yes, that would be challenging to wade through. Sounds like you were very kind and made as much effort to understand as you were able to.

 

[SonSeeker]

If good grammar was a requirement, Chris would’ve banned me years ago.

Do you think he regrets it now?

Just so long as they don't ban "Laurel and Hardy" we should be good. I believe a sense of humor is a God-given gift. Everyone has it, even though some keep it well-hidden. I truly hope our good-natured banter is appealing to nearly everyone here, as humor has the ability to win souls for Christ just as much as a well thought out, perfectly punctuated, but very dry, essay. Just my 2 cents.

 

[JSTyler]

This is a bit like the coats and ties are a must for church thread, kind of sort of. I mean no disrespect at all but not everyone wears ties, coats, etc. to church.

What I'm getting at is that there's a unique person with a God given, unique personality behind every member here (at least that's my assumption). The avatars, the signatures and posting styles all add up to something that in my mind points to God's marvelous wisdom in creating differences in different people.

So, I'm not arguing with the main point of the thread but trying to bear in mind that some of the teaching behind James 2 1-7 applies here. We need to be careful about how we judge and make distinctions. To his dying day my father knew, absolutely knew that his favorite color was lellow and that the replublicins was better than the democrats. If he posted, that's representative of what is online persona would be.

We all have diverse backgrounds, educational experience, cultures and means of expression. The question I try and ask myself is "Does this (what I post) honor God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit?". Or, "Does that persons post express the with that same spirit?".

 

[Judy4Jesus]

Do you think he regrets it now?

Just so long as they don't ban "Laurel and Hardy" we should be good. I believe a sense of humor is a God-given gift. Everyone has it, even though some keep it well-hidden. I truly hope our good-natured banter is appealing to nearly everyone here, as humor has the ability to win souls for Christ just as much as a well thought out, perfectly punctuated, but very dry, essay. Just my 2 cents.

I, for one, love and appreciate your sense of humor, brother! Keep on keeping on!

 

[athenasius]

I like emojis, I think they help with this written form of internet communicating.

I don't really care if people have a hard time spelling, use caps, multi colour fonts, use twitter spelling or have trouble with grammar.

I'm basically just happy to hear from them. And I don't give a flying fig if they aren't perfect. Neither am I.

And then there are English as a second language folks, like my husband who grew up in 2 languages never fully comfortable in either. His 2 languages are Russian and English, and 2 alphabets make things worse. When he writes, he has serious problems with spelling and grammar and his sentences are missing bits. He doesn't talk like that except when he is very tired, but written communication is very hard for him.

Or the dyslexics. That's another biggie in our family.

The internet has been a great tool for people with limited literacy skills to get into the conversation and talk with others. Maybe learn to be more fluent with their communication skills, or not. Maybe they'll enjoy learning more nuanced English, or not. But they can be a part of the conversations.

I'd hate to be giving out the message that you need to be good at writing before you can talk with others online, share a thought, pray for someone, ask for prayer.

Sometimes it's very hard to decipher what someone is trying to say. I make mistakes figuring out what I think people are saying and I'm so wrong even when they can write really well. And yeah it's harder still with unusual spelling etc but that's life (C'est la vie as we say in the other side of Canada with a nice big shoulder shrug for emphasis).

It's just the nature of this kind of communicating.

I do agree with the OP from the point of view, that if you CAN do better, by all means do, but I don't want to make assumptions about what someone else is capable of, because I don't know them well enough.

I'll keep trying as long as others are patient with me as I puzzle thru and I would rather be loving and patient with others too than worry about fonts.

 

[Goodboy]

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Internet forums have given many of Christ's obscure followers a convenient pulpit for sharing their time-won knowledge and experience with a worldwide audience. For the world's sake, I highly recommend making an effort to compose legible posts; neatly arranged, sensible, and tidy because forums get a lot of visitors.

Shouting with king-size bold letters, scribbly italics, lack of adequate paragraphing, twitter spelling, unnecessary emogies, horrible grammar, and a confusing mixture of fonts, sizes, and colors, makes for tiresome clutter and annoying forum graffiti that leave a bad impression.

I rather suspect that some people regard forums as a canvas for painting their comments instead of composing them. Well; that might be okay for outsiders, they can be as messy as they want because it doesn't matter. But for those of us who honestly believe ourselves to be representing God's son; it's unacceptable.

● Phil 1:27 . . Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
_

I respectfully have to disagree with you, though I do understand that your intent is genuine.

I assume that this site is for "whosoever will". If that is true, there are all different types of people from different backgrounds who will post here. There is a good list of very fair rules that they must abide by, which keeps the forum on track. To add requirements as to how they post, I believe is too restrictive. If they have to worry about how they post, they just may not post at all.

I actually realize that some of my posts are not for everyone. They may be too long, have incorrect grammar, bad spelling or whatever. If they don't have these flaws, it is only by the Grace of God as to how I was raised. Actually if you go to a ghetto speaking with proper grammar and all that, they may not get the point of what you are saying. Also, what you have stated is probably easy for you, but may be difficult for others.

Salvation the most precious and important thing we do in our life is easy. God made it that way so that any and everyone could be saved. It is my opinion that this site should be the same way, very easy to use and as few rules a reasonably possible, which I believe it is.

Again, I respect and appreciate where you are coming from and I hope you respect my right to disagree.

Now I would not be opposed to having a post, section or something with "Helpful Communications Tips".

 

[Everlasting Life]

Now I would not be opposed to having a post, section or something with "Helpful Communications Tips".

Actually, I think that's a really good idea!!