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Legacy LDS Message Board Members


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Back in the early 1990's I participated (way too much) on an LDS message board hosted on CompuServe. I don't even recall the name, but it required that I dial in to CompuServe with my 14.4 modem (eventually getting up to 56k .... screaming fast haha). This was in my young, fiery, "defend the faith" days. I was always quick to share my view or the official church view with the anti or the critic. But I came to realize that for all the time I spent trying to help people see, I'm not sure I had any influence at all other than to keep a discussion alive. 

Anyway, I'm just wondering if any remember this message board and/or participated on it. Might be fun to reminisce. 

P.S. Apologies if this might be better suited for the Social Hall.

Edited by a_little_taller
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5 hours ago, a_little_taller said:

Back in the early 1990's I participated (way too much) on an LDS message board hosted on CompuServe. I don't even recall the name, but it required that I dial in to CompuServe with my 14.4 modem (eventually getting up to 56k .... screaming fast haha). This was in my young, fiery, "defend the faith" days. I was always quick to share my view or the official church view with the anti or the critic. But I came to realize that for all the time I spent trying to help people see, I'm not sure I had any influence at all other than to keep a discussion alive. 

Anyway, I'm just wondering if any remember this message board and/or participated on it. Might be fun to reminisce. 

P.S. Apologies if this might be better suited for the Social Hall.

I remember one poster who was kind of the leader of the pack named- I think- Sally0115 Or something like that.

It was either compuserve or AOL but I think Compuserve now that I think of it

I can't remember what name I used- but probably my own or some close variation. 

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21 minutes ago, USU78 said:

I started on alt.religion.mormon in 1993.

Me too, although I didn't post much and have few memories of those usenet groups.

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Don't know about that but I was on the original Mormon-L back when it was at BYU in the early 90's. I also was on Morm-Ant and Erying-L mailing lists and eventually even ran them for a while until the late 90's. There were some great discussions then with most of the big names of the era on them. I also was occasionally on the Mormon list on USENET back in the day, although even then that was mainly just stupid anti-Mormon stuff most of the time.

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11 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

I started my online defense of the faith on the Dr. Laura board, of all places, in the ‘90s.

I remember that board!  It was actively moderated, with ever-changing auto-filters.  The mods kept updating the filters to remove offensive or mean things, and the posters kept right on rolling over the top of them with new filter skipping techniques. 

I lurked through ZLMB.  I remember one time when various veteran critics and veteran defenders decided to take a week and switch sides, just to see what happened.  It was truly inspiring to see the genuine attempts of critics to find things to defend, and apologists to highlight and push the weakest parts.  I ended up learning a lot about myself by lurking through that thread.

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Heh - I also remember various mormon chat-based things on Yahoo and MSN.  In fact... [searching...]

Here we go:

Quote

------------------------------------------------------------

Muer-mahhn (9:49:40 AM): oed, the Christian faith dates back to the first humans, Adam and Eve.
Muer-mahhn (9:49:52 AM): There is much you don't know about our faith, apparently.
oedipus38 (9:50:02 AM): wrong
oedipus38 (9:50:07 AM): buddism is older
oedipus38 (9:50:11 AM): muslim older
oedipus38 (9:50:27 AM): they are the oldest civilizations
Muer-mahhn (9:52:01 AM): How can Islam be older than christ if Mohhamed and the Koran didn't exist before 600 ad?
oedipus38 (9:53:08 AM): if adam and eve were real we would all be hadicapped
Muer-mahhn (9:53:12 AM): How can Islam be older than christ if Mohhamed and the Koran didn't exist before 600 ad?
oedipus38 (9:53:14 AM): the gene pool
oedipus38 (9:53:19 AM): u are mislead
oedipus38 (9:53:28 AM): i have masters in religion
Muer-mahhn (9:53:41 AM): Okay, Mr. Masters in Religion, answer my question. How can Islam be older than christ if Mohhamed and the Koran didn't exist before 600 ad?
oedipus38 (9:54:06 AM): budda has been around longer than koran, jesus
Muer-mahhn (9:54:23 AM): <-- notices you are not answering my question...
oedipus38 (9:54:38 AM): they did exist
oedipus38 (9:54:43 AM): who says they didnt
oedipus38 (9:55:05 AM): what i am saying is. dont u have questions
oedipus38 (9:55:25 AM): u actually believe there are levels of heaven

------------------------------------------------------------

anskelll (3/17/03 8:27:26 PM): I CHALLENGE THOSE WHO INTERVIEW THE SMART FAMILY, THOSE WHO WILL ONE DAY INTERVIEW ELIZABETH SMART, BRIAN DAVID MITCHELL, AND WANDA EILEEN BARZEE TO QUESTION THEM ABOUT THEIR MORMON FAITH AND THE ROLE THAT IT PLAYED IN THESE EVENTS. I CHALLENGE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THOSE IN THE LEGAL COMMUNITY THAT HANDLE THIS CASE TO UNDERSTAND THE ROLE THAT MORMONISM PLAYED. WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND THE MORMON CULT, YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THE ELIZABETH SMART CASE! I love you and care about you so much. My goal today is to not only expose the "lie" of Mormonism, but to encourage you in your daily walk with the God of the Bible, with the Jesus of the Bible. Mormonism and other cults are growing fast as Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 3 said would happen in the days before Christ returns. 
skooterpie97 (8:28:04 PM): lol teh role mormonism played
Muer-mahhn (8:28:06 PM): lol anskell. We all know that mormons get kidnapped more than other religions.
skooterpie97 (8:28:11 PM): hahahaha
skooterpie97 (8:28:13 PM): like this is an lds thing
rhonrush (8:28:15 PM): bye anskell welcome to iggyland
jlcf80 (8:28:19 PM): someone has been smoking somethign
exmormontracey (8:28:20 PM): well the Mormons did a hell of a job trying to find her
ldsdon2001 (8:28:21 PM): Anskelll your in the wrong place to make the challenge

--------------------------------------------------------------

Exerpts from an article appearing in _The Ghanian Chronicle On The
Web_, Volume 12, No. 57 - Thursday, November 20, 2003   http://www.ghanaian-chronicle.com/231120/page2b.htm

According to Krakauer, "The Strengthening Committee is the KGB of the Mormon Church," and that "To gain an ID card to get into the temple, which is considered the entrance to heaven from earth, you will be called in for investigation. They check you pay your 10% tithe and are not having extra-marital or pre-marital sex. God forbid that you are gay. Then they will ask about you at the bookshop. "What has he been buying lately?" 

Krakauer says, "Because Mormons believe there is a fixed number of souls and that by giving birth, you give them life, there is huge emphasis on having as many children as possible. The birth rate in Utah-the headquarters of the Mormon Church is higher than in Bangladesh. But boys and girls aren't allowed to meet, let alone flirt, so there is a lot of sex between siblings. There is also a lot of father-daughter sex. When sex is repressed, it erupts." 
 

lol good times.

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2 hours ago, LoudmouthMormon said:

I remember that board!  It was actively moderated, with ever-changing auto-filters.  The mods kept updating the filters to remove offensive or mean things, and the posters kept right on rolling over the top of them with new filter skipping techniques. 

I lurked through ZLMB.  I remember one time when various veteran critics and veteran defenders decided to take a week and switch sides, just to see what happened.  It was truly inspiring to see the genuine attempts of critics to find things to defend, and apologists to highlight and push the weakest parts.  I ended up learning a lot about myself by lurking through that thread.

That was about the time I got fed up with the board. I didn't like the games.

Edited by Scott Lloyd
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IIRC correctly Deseret Books had some kind of a message board or blog or something, I posted on there occasionally. That was 2004 ish? I remember they had this option that you could sell your old Church books and I bought a ton from that and you could also advertise what you wanted and if someone had it they could sell it to you, without any fee or anything from DB

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6 hours ago, Duncan said:

IIRC correctly Deseret Books had some kind of a message board or blog or something, I posted on there occasionally. That was 2004 ish? I remember they had this option that you could sell your old Church books and I bought a ton from that and you could also advertise what you wanted and if someone had it they could sell it to you, without any fee or anything from DB

Yes, I vaguely recall that Deseret Book at one time had a used books department.

By the way, it's not "Deseret Books." It's Deseret Book, a shortened form of Deseret Book Company.

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15 hours ago, clarkgoble said:

Don't know about that but I was on the original Mormon-L back when it was at BYU in the early 90's. I also was on Morm-Ant and Erying-L mailing lists and eventually even ran them for a while until the late 90's. There were some great discussions then with most of the big names of the era on them. I also was occasionally on the Mormon list on USENET back in the day, although even then that was mainly just stupid anti-Mormon stuff most of the time.

I was on Eyring-L for a time.  It was well after you were there, I suppose -- I'm pretty sure this would have been after the beginning of the 2nd Iraq War, because it was an intense topic of discussion for a time.  There was a particular list member that some of the other denizens seemed to like to give great reverence to.  I don't remember his name, or handle, but he once declared that the discovery of Flores Man (Homo floresiensis) was the most wonderful discovery of his lifetime.  I stopped participating, because it seemed like the primary purpose of the list had gone from discussing science in connection with LDS theology to being politically correct.  Much later, I thought to check back to see what had been happening in my absence, but the list was gone.

 

 

Edited by Stargazer
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I started on an email list (Zion's-something-something) in 1994 and then was on alt.religion.mormon a few months later. Dang, I feel really old. I'm not sure how I ended up on the FAIR board, which evolved into this one, but I think it was around 2002-2003. It is kind of fun to look at my old a.r.m. posts to see that earnest young high priest taking on the antis. Good times. 

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6 hours ago, Stargazer said:

I was on Eyring-L for a time.  It was well after you were there, I suppose -- I'm pretty sure this would have been after the beginning of the 2nd Iraq War, because it was an intense topic of discussion for a time.

Yeah I was long gone by then. The arguments had all become the same and far too many participants were a bit too much on the not exactly mainstream believing Mormon side of things (IMO). I can't recall when I'd left but I think it was by '99. I didn't know it persisted as long as you suggest. 

I am still on LDS-Phil which had been started by Dennis Potter back when he was still a faithful member. Best list I'd ever been on. It still gets some occasional activity but has mostly been dead the past few years. It's heyday was in the naughts and I credit it for getting me interested in philosophy again. (While it may not appear as such, I'd actually come to take a rather dim view of philosophy and still tend to think it frequently questionable in value)

When LDS-Phil was dying then LDS-Herm started up with more of a focus on hermeneutics and continental philosophy. It really only died after Adam Miller and Joe Spencer became too busy to contribute anymore. It's still the most active of the old Mormon lists I'm still on but that means a few posts every couple of weeks. Still lots of big names on it. Just that there's not that crucial number of people wanting ongoing discussions to keep it fresh.

On 9/19/2018 at 8:54 PM, USU78 said:

I started on alt.religion.mormon in 1993.

I was on it in the 80's - back when as a teen I had access to the internet when even few students did. I also remember contributing regularly to alt.tv.twin-peaks or something like that in the early 90's as well. 

 

Edited by clarkgoble
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6 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

I remember him well. As I recall, he taught at BYU for a while. 

I've seen him popping up here or there. Doing a search of T&S he's commented there within the last few years. I think he may be a professor at the University of Alaska at Anchorage. I'm not sure if it's the same guy but that David Bowie had done a bunch of analysis of old conference recordings and had also taught at BYU. 

Edited by clarkgoble
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5 minutes ago, clarkgoble said:

I've seen him popping up here or there. Doing a search of T&S he's commented there within the last few years. I think he may be a professor at the University of Alaska at Anchorage. I'm not sure if it's the same guy but that David Bowie had done a bunch of analysis of old conference recordings and had also taught at BYU. 

Yep, that's him. Still has the spiky hair. 

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Ok, I am a dinosaur. Used to get on early Mormon boards with my Apple II E and dialup modem, then ZLMB, FAIR, and now this one. What a trip!

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I was on the old AOL LDS Chat board - spent way too much time there in the late 90's and very early 00's.

I remember a (supposed) former member who always complained that he wanted his tithing money back, he was never going to get married and everytime the going got too tough for him he had to sign off because his plane was taking off - he'd make that claim 5 or 6 times a week.. 

Edited by mnn727
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I was on the beliefnet forums which I think was on AOL, alt.religion.mormon, ZLMB(did pacumeni ever write a book?), View from the Foyer, Folks on the Fringe, Further Light and Knowledge, the FAIR boards.  Currently I only participate on here, Mormon Discussions, and reddit.  This timeline represents over 20 years and various stages of belief.  

 

Phaedrus 

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