Faithlife: Need for Help at ChristianDiscourse

I second that

www.ChristianDiscourse.com  seems to be down again.  It was slowly slipping for a few days and seems down for good now with various errors--503 being most common.

Gao Lu said:

www.ChristianDiscourse.com  seems to be down again.  It was slowly slipping for a few days and seems down for good now with various errors--503 being most common.

Oh, boy! Does that mean I can start cracking on Arminians and Liberals again on the Forums? [;)]

I don't think FL is shutting it down.  Looks to me more like an amateurish DDoS attack.  Hopefully not.  The site is quite diverse and I think it has some value. Some books get sold because of it and some people learn a lot about the other side of the fence. I think some wise moderation would help make it much more useful.  My idea would be to see it mature into a place where scholars and students could share together.  

Oh, you guys. CD is bad-boy corner.

Forum rule-breaking is fine, as long as the theological discussion is comfortably .... well, you know. Else I'll get CD'd.

CD can't shut down! If it shuts down then whenever someone brings up a contentious issue they can't be told to take it to CD where it will die of boredom. :_D

Bill Coley said:

Perhaps your participation will bring life to the bored board. 

I have never, in all my Logos years, been to that forum.  It is a shame really, as I do not shy away from some iron sharpening.  But it sounds like it is broken down, so... I will keep my eyes open for updates.  Thanks for this thread, as I really was unaware of it- except the occasional "That is not for this forum- take it to the CD" line.

-Michael

I was only a sporadic participant in the CD forum, but it definitely is a loss.

I've got a powerful server, I'm confident to be able to create a forum with "sign in via Logos" functionality, so please get in touch with me if you're interested in setting up a CD successor!

It can't hurt to start researching. If FL revives CD - good. If not, I'll be prepared to launch a new forum.

That would be great Jan. I believe CD was as near perfect as you can get. The strong points were free speech presented to all, whether we liked it or not (no compartmentalization). And doctrinal and political debate open to public view and response.  

Hi,

why is there a reason to use the faithlife authorization system ?  Anyone wanting to participate can make their own account, whether they desire to use the same login name & password or create a different one should not matter at all ...
I doubt very much that FL will accept an outside application to have access to their authorization system.

 I wish FL would get their system up and going but it has been unreliable and unmaintained for a very long time and now it is totally down--again, as you know.   I wish I could help, but don't have the know-how for what you are asking.  I just want to say that I appreciate what you are doing. 

Dave L said:

Why not launch your site anyway?

Let's give FL just a bit more time to decide on the future of the official CD forum. That would really be preferable, since people already know it and it contains all the previos dicussion threads.

Also, if some FL coding crack spots the error in my configuration, and points me to it, that could possibly cause some issue with the forum if it's already set up using standalone accounts, and people having singed up with a different email address than the one they use in their FL account. That might end up in a big hassle with duplicate user accounts...

Thanks! I take from this response that the old CD forum is not coming back...?

Unfortunately, the OAuth help is no good news. OAuth1 is not supported out of the box. Seems it's also not downward compatible with v2 [:(]

I'll do a bit more research before launching. It would be better to get this bit set up correctly in the first place.

Anyway, www.christiandiscourse.net is secured, and will launch in the next few days.

Thanks Jan! CD.net looks great and I'm looking forward to joining in. I hope we can edit or delete our posts once published. Sometimes things don't come out as intended and it's good to be able to go back and make refinements.[:)] 

What was great about CD was that Logos sells to a broad swath of christendom. And to censor any is to censor customers.

On the other hand, if someone who is bound by conscience to uphold their "version of the truth", moderates the forum, little if any open dialog between contributors will exist. 

As far as moderation is concerned, I would think that the forum owner (here, Jan Krohn) sort of by default as the Admin is also "head moderator", as some moderation is definitely needed as there may be times when "technical" problems or items come up that need attention requiring server access, etc.  In regards to moderation relating to topics, contents of posts, etc., I would suggest to post some guidelines (perhaps the ones that were part of the original CD forums?) that should be adhered to by forum members and participants. 

Other than that, participants on a forum such as this are not forced to read all posts nor are they forced to reply, etc.   Each participant is free to write and actively participate in an exchange or else refrain from doing so and either just be a silent "read along" member or else not read certain posts or topics etc.

I have not looked at the new forum site to see what technical possibilities there are for creation of topics, categories, etc .... but it could be a good idea, if Jan could set up a basic "category / topics" framework for orientation (maybe similar to the categories previously?) so participants can have a starting place where to put their questions/posts when they start writing posts.

Just some ideas ... from experience over years with a Bible study forum (mostly in German language) on my own BibelCenter website (Note: there is not much going on in terms of discussion on the English language side)

I didn't follow CD much, but I like the idea of self-moderating forums. Where users can up/down vote individual posts. Posts below a certain threshold get hidden, still in the thread and still expandable to read, but collapsed for normal viewing. And a reputation system where votes elevate/reward users with higher ranks so it's easy for new users to recognize those who to listen to a little more closely. I was trying to remember a forum that had up/downvoting and hidden posts that I used to visit, but I can't recall at the moment so I don't know which forum software it used.

I'm not aware that any cencorship was going on on CD, but my view is that dialogue is more important than "guidance towards the truth". There are already enugh Christian forums out there, where controversial topics can't be discussed. We don't need another one.

The only exception really is SPAM, which must be censored out mercilessly.

Does anyone still have a copy of the CD forum rules, and a categories list?

I guess I can launch it then later today, once I have set up the categories.

I'm still trying to get a Single Sign On module for "Logging in with Faithlife", so when you register, please use the same email address to avoid a big disaster when SSO comes into place.

Randy W. Sims said:

I didn't follow CD much, but I like the idea of self-moderating forums. Where users can up/down vote individual posts. Posts below a certain threshold get hidden, still in the thread and still expandable to read, but collapsed for normal viewing. And a reputation system where votes elevate/reward users with higher ranks so it's easy for new users to recognize those who to listen to a little more closely. I was trying to remember a forum that had up/downvoting and hidden posts that I used to visit, but I can't recall at the moment so I don't know which forum software it used.

Actually, the Reddit software is one of the options I looked at. In the end I dropped the idea because it no longer is open source, and it uses a different technology (Python) than all the other projects that I host (PHP).

Next to the same technology, the second criterion I used is the size and reputation of the platform. There needs to be a sizable community involved in development and support, and a large number of sites that use the platform, so that one can be reasonably certain that the project will still be around in 5 or 10 years or longer into the future.

I looked at three platforms in detail: phpBB, Vanilla and SMF2. All of them have their pros and cons - none of them has all the same featurs as the Discourse platform (which uses yet another technology Ruby on Rails).

As for the "Login with Faithlife" module, I will probably pay a developer to code that. Therefore, I'll place a small amount of Google ads into the forum to recover some of the cost (one in the footer, and for discussions with three or more postings, one additional ad in the middle). I hope that's okay and not too intrusive.

Dave L said:

Jan, thanks for your work on this project.

I found this list of categories from the CD forum (Archived):

Checking the internet archive is actually an excellent idea. Here are the original forum rules [:D]

<h1>What is Christian Discourse?</h1>

<p>This is your go-to place for respectful online theological discussion. Feel free to pose Bible questions, spark theological discourse, and connect with people all over the world who are passionate about the Word.</p>

<p>Christian Discourse is a hub for biblical learning, growth, and community. Please keep your questions and comments respectful and polite. Treat others in this forum like you would treat your neighbor at church—don’t be afraid to voice your opinion, but do it with love and kindness.</p>

<h3>This Is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion</h3>

<p>Please treat others with the same love, courtesy, respect, and kindness that you would if you were having a conversation in a church. Use these guidelines to keep this a clean, well-lighted place for civilized public discussion.</p>

<h3>Improve the Discussion</h3>

<p>Leave every thread better than you found it. With each new post, work to improve the quality of the discussion. </p>

<p>We care deeply about the topics discussed here. Be respectful about them and the people discussing them, even if you disagree.</p>

<p>Browse for a few minutes before you post a new thread to help us keep things tidy. You may find that someone has already started a thread about the same subject to which you can contribute. Use this forum’s tools to limit clutter—rather than commenting “+1” or “Amen,” use the “like” button. Rather than signing your posts, fill out your profile information and post an avatar.</p>

<h3>Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree</h3>

<p>You may wish to voice a contradictory opinion. That’s fine, but remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:<br>- Name-calling<br>- Ad hominem attacks<br>- Reacting to a post’s tone rather than responding to its content</p>

<h3>If You See a Problem, Flag It</h3>

<p>It’s everyone’s job to make this forum a healthy, happy place for discourse. When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. A reply consumes energy and draws more attention to the offending post. Just flag it. When enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by a moderator.</p>

Question to FL: May I use these community rules (copyright-wise)?

Question to the previous moderators: Do you want to resume your role? [:D] I'd be more comfortable as technical admin rather than (head) moderator.

Your new site looks great!

I am wondering if it would be possible to request the addition of discourse/discussion categories like:

Textual Criticism and Biblical literary analysis  

Bible Translations and interpretation

Probably too soon, but I am unable to post or even edit my profile so far.  Maybe just need approved?

The mail was in my spam box.  Thanks for helping me think of that.