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| What This Forum Means To Me.; Your thoughts please. | |
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| Topic Started: Monday, 1. January 2007, 00:44 (544 Views) | |
| Alan | Monday, 1. January 2007, 00:44 Post #1 |
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We all participate in fora for our own reasons. The Moderators of this Forum would like to have your reasons for participating in our forum. We would further like to know how we can expand our membership so as to enable us to broaden our discussions. You will find that the Moderators will not add their views for a couple of days as we have no desire to influence your thoughts. |
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God Bless all who visit this forum, Alan. Add Catholic CyberForum to your favourites | |
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| Derekap | Monday, 1. January 2007, 11:50 Post #2 |
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We learn from the to and fro of opinions. We may be unsure as to we should view events, for example, like the recent execution of Saddam Hussein. Some members like to know the experiences of older members. We learn from those who have a more specialised knowledge and experience in topics. In this respect I find it very instructive and constructive. It is also a social activity with prayers being requested. There is also some teasing and good natured bantering, not forgetting the occasional joke. For people who are for some reason less mobile for social activity it is a social link with people not only in this country but abroad. At the moment I can't think of any way of attracting new members without risking the possibility of acrimonious and sometimes prejudiced debate seen elsewhere. |
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| PJD | Monday, 1. January 2007, 11:59 Post #3 |
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I cannot think of a single extra line to add to what Derek has put so well. PJD |
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| Karin | Monday, 1. January 2007, 15:29 Post #4 |
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What I can add is that building forums takes time. We can tell our friends or parish members to let them know what a great place the Cyber Forum is. We have the best repartee of any of the fora on line, I feel. I think we are pretty much ourselves here and can ask questions and discuss things we might be chided for somewhere else (or worse!). So it feels much like home or a group of friends who can discuss any topic. And we watch out for one other as well. We genuinely care about each other and I think maybe that's why we may be small, but those who join and post on a regular basis, become very attached to our forum. We ask excellent questions and have the best information from the members. So yes, this will take time but it's so worth the effort! |
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Karin Hvaljen Isus i Marija. Kraljica Mira, moli za nas. "Praised be Jesus and Mary. Queen of Peace, Pray for Us." | |
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| Gerard | Tuesday, 2. January 2007, 18:01 Post #5 |
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I come here for Catholic Fellowship. By that I mean friendship based on our Catholicism where we support each other, affirm each others faith and build each other up to return to the world more able to live our catholic lives which are counter to the world. Gerry |
| "The institutional and charismatic aspects are quasi coessential to the Church's constitution" (Pope John Paul II, 1998). | |
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| CARLO | Tuesday, 2. January 2007, 22:09 Post #6 |
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This is a very friendly place. When I come here I unbuckle my armour, put my sword down, light my (metaphorical) pipe and get out the holiday snaps to show around. Pax CARLO |
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| Emee | Tuesday, 2. January 2007, 22:20 Post #7 |
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I enjoy the debates. They remind me of my degree days - over 20 years ago...  (I'm not clever - I only got a 2:2!!).Plus I can't have a proper discussion about my faith with my family... :( |
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| nelly k | Wednesday, 3. January 2007, 23:06 Post #8 |
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Everyone who has so far commented ... I agree, to add, that for me, there is safeness about this forum and there seems to be more patience, Iam not the brightest on the block and here Ican say things which are obvious to some, without feeling foolish or that Imay be ridiculed just simply for trying to work things out. Ican even disagree ... Publicaly I can say on here how gratefull I am to Rose... for what ever reason in my early days on the "lower house" I choose to pick on Rose to help me through my Berevement with my Mum, I had had a couple of years of intense looking after her as well and was all over the place, at this time of support no one else on the forum knew my history, I must have done her head in, but she was always there, Rose you are a very remarkable Women Patrick has the Patience of a Saint, he spent a lot of time helping me to work the computor I hope neither minds my public comments, nelly |
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| Michael | Saturday, 6. January 2007, 12:29 Post #9 |
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to me this forum is like an extension of my parish with online friends with useful advice and help especially rose, i also enjoy reading the discussions and sometimes it is helpful in helping you understand the faith with answers to questions you should know but sometimes a little embarrassed to ask face to face, i am sure this forum can only go from strength to strength thanks to all the moderators and posters |
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| Rose of York | Saturday, 6. January 2007, 12:36 Post #10 |
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Thank you all. I must pray for the gift of humility, my head has visibly swollen after reading Michael's post. Dog to walk now, in God's lovely rain. I think the time has come for the Admins to add their own input. Mine will be on here sometime over the weekend. May God bless this forum and all who post in her |
  Catholic and proud of it! Talk to God before Mass. Talk to each other afterwards | |
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| denis | Saturday, 6. January 2007, 14:50 Post #11 |
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Me Well I really like this forum although I do'nt post now often as I use to. It's good to read how other members live and act their faith, and in someways it brings us closer together. |
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| Emee | Saturday, 6. January 2007, 20:11 Post #12 |
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Also I would like to add that I really like the pace of this forum - other forums move on so quickly you only need to go on a break for a day and you lose all track of what's being discussed!! I think I will stay HERE and only visit other forums occasionally... :) Thanks again to Rose for introducing me to CyberForum. God Bless you all Emee x. |
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| Rose of York | Saturday, 6. January 2007, 22:16 Post #13 |
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I cannot remember why Patrick and I exchanged email addresses. That must have been early 2006. We saw a gap in Catholic Forum Land. Some forums were dominated by people of, er, what can I politely call them? Special Interest Groups. One would have a strong Traditional angle, another would have a lot of input from Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Some forums are huge, with tens of thousands of members, and that can rob them of the personal touch. So, what was the gap? We felt the need for a sort of Cyberparish, made up, like a Planet Earth parish, of people of all (am I allowed to say social classes?), educational levels, ages and interests. A lot of people have no opportunity for personal Catholic contact other than Sunday Mass. There are many who have no inclination to join societies, that is not necessarily selfish. Who knows what service they are giving in secular society? The aim was to provide a parish-like community using modern technology. We hope we have succeeded. Judging by the monthly posting figures, we have. Most of the credit goes to the members. If there was just me and Patrick we would have closed down within weeks. Our numbers are small, but so what? We are a happy bunch. To my knowledge we have at least three members who ardently desire the ready availability of Tridentine Mass, and three people involved in Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Between us we have many shades of opinion about confession, the roles of laity during Mass, the duties which are rightly allocated to the clergy, what should rightly be done by laity. Nobody falls out about it. Perhaps that is the greatest achievment of this forum. One thing I want to stress is that we do not set out to compete. The major UK Catholic forum is a very good one, and was the first to offer such a facility in this country. I personally have never wavered in my loyalty to that forum, and am happy to recommend our members to join it (so long as they call in here on the way home). It is just that we are "different", I would say perhaps we are less theological, and more inclined to talk about the things people talk about in parish halls. Catholic Cyberforum is, and always will be, steadfast in loyalty to His Holiness the Pope, and Holy Mother Church. Now I must thank the members for their loyalty to Catholic Cyberforum, which goes from strength. When I get around to it, I will publish the monthly posting figures so you can all see how we have, as a group, progressed. |
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Catholic and proud of it! Talk to God before Mass. Talk to each other afterwards | |
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| Rose of York | Saturday, 6. January 2007, 22:24 Post #14 |
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Now for my personal reasons for liking it here. I have no means of contact with fellow parishioners of my Planet Earth parish mid week. It is good to discuss Catholic matters here, and exchange opinions. From time to time people have problems, they can come on here and ask other members for advice. I have done that. I enjoy talking to others about our fine Catholic architectural heritage, and having a good moan, with my friends on here, about silly priests who vandalise lovely churches, taking no account of the love that was poured into what appear, to some, to be mere objects. The chances are somebody's Granddad donated that statue, and thousands may have knelt before it in private prayer. It should be left alone. On occasions, my prayer requests have been shared with members, often using pseudonyms to protect the identity of the person who is sick or has died. Making personal friends, and sharing private messages, means a lot to me. Sometimes we have a laugh. I love good Catholic jokes, in which we Catholics laugh about ourselves. Other people are not allowed to laugh AT us. Thats about it from me. |
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Catholic and proud of it! Talk to God before Mass. Talk to each other afterwards | |
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| Patrick | Wednesday, 10. January 2007, 04:46 Post #15 |
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I guess I'd better say something now!  Rose, you and I started exchanging emails mid-2005 (yes, that long ago!) and the original Catholic CyberForum was launched on June 30th of that year. What made me decide to launch Catholic CyberForum?! Apart from what Rose has already said about a 'gap' in the Catholic forum 'market', it was because the two UK fora I had registered and contributed to were discussing exactly the same things, and the same things were being said by the same people. I got bored, I guess. When Catholic CyberForum was first launched, we had an unwritten 'policy' to try and not discuss stuff that was doing the rounds elsewhere. We did well to achieve that and keep it that way for some time. Eventually, and quite naturally I guess, the discussions touched some of the stuff being discussed in the 'Lower House' (PJD, it's your fault all this 'Lower House' business!  ) and in another UK forum. Another thing we did was to tap into the US 'market' and gain some American Catholic perspective - something which had not yet been done on a UK Catholic forum (to the best of my knowledge.)So, what does the forum mean to me, exactly? Well, mainly, it's about contact, learning and friendship. Contact with fellow Catholics that I just don't have in my every day-to-day life. Learning about how other Catholics live their Faith, and practise it. Friendships - I have more Catholic friends on this forum than I have around me, in my life. Like Emee, I have no family to discuss the Faith with - they're either seriously-lapsed Catholics or Anglicans - and neither like discussing religion! I had little time to go out and socialise, so this forum was a God-send inasmuch that I could escape my life/work and socialise without leaving the building. I especially like the CyberForum prayer group and related threads - I'm a firm believer in the power of prayer and it's great when we hear that 'so-and-so is on the mend' and that 'they send their thanks to the members of Catholic CyberForum for their prayers!' As others have said, we can have a good laugh on here, and the banter is great. Occasionally the Wind-up Merchant among us will provide us with one of his gems, too. All part and parcel of a good community of Catholics who share their Faith, seriously and with some great humour to boot. Nelly, I have the patience of a saint? No Nelly, I haven't but I'm getting there! Patience is something else I have learned, through this forum, to have with people. I have also found that not having patience with somebody is usually counter-productive. I enjoy the atmosphere in this forum. We all get on rather well together, too. There are not many Catholic fora that can claim such diversity among its members yet with such harmony. It's a rare occurrence - unless the forum is dedicated to one 'branch' of the Faith. I'd like to say a big 'thank you' to those who post here and contribute to the discussions - without members, forums cannot thrive. I am happy with the way the forum has progressed, and indeed it has, since June 2005. The day the old place went down, and as the days passed, I was panicking. However, not one for being beaten, I consulted with the other members of the Admin team and we decided to relaunch Catholic CyberForum with a different provider. We issued a challenge to members to rebuild our Cyberparish and the response was marvellous! Privately, I was overwhelmed. I thank all our members for the loyalty they have shown to Catholic CyberForum. Last, but by no means least, I'd like to say a big 'thank you' to Rose, Alan and Eve and the work they put in, the hours and the committment they give to the forum. That's all for now. I'm off to bed! |
  
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4:11 AM Nov 25