The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Obsolete: Forum will be read-only from March onwards

Evangelical Universalism
#21

Well, Dave, you can view a list of 10 top hosting services at webhostingbest10.com/best-shared-web-hosting-services. Much depends on the bandwidth that is being used. Although there might be much stored data on this forum…I don’t see that many participants - in an active thread. Of course, you need to also run analytics - like Google Analytics, And AWSTATS, which is a great tool - for reading the web server logs.

I did run a self hosting website once - for a client. Most servers are run using LAMP (i.e. Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP). Which is all open source. And you can install a self hosted WordPress. Which is a great tool for creating articles. But the same self hosting service, can run things like PHPBB. And it wasn’t that expensive. Even in self hosting services, they do backups and restores for you. But you usually have to fix data base problems (i.e. MySQ) yourself. If you created the database record.

#22

I guess I just did not know that this forum was that expensive. JP is the only remaining mod as far as I can tell - where are the others?
Like I said, FB is not for me, I’ll have to find another Forum - any suggestions?

Yes thenarrowpath.com Steve Gregg the host is the best bible teacher i’ve ever heard. He usually is pleasant but recently he was over the top in an exchange with Paidion over the topic of God’s character. He also has a daily radio show and topical lectures on the website.

#23

On Facebook groups can people have long, in-depth, serious discussions as on a message board? Or is everything swiftly shunted aside by the latest thing?

#24

On Facebook groups can people have long, in-depth, serious discussions as on a message board? Or is everything swiftly shunted aside by the latest thing?

I’m on FB and as far as i know you can. I don’t know about all the separate threads.

#25

It has been a pleasure and I will miss it. Grace and peace Y’all!

#26

Thanks for all the feedback! Some good points have been raised here (particularly the drawbacks of Facebook) and on a Facebook post about the changes. So I’m now discussing some possible alternative ways forward… (e.g. BBpress) but nothing has been decided yet :slight_smile:

#27

I used to be on facebook. But when some people with whom I had excellent exchanges on a Christian forum, also posted on facebook, they were very rude in their behaviour. Many other people posted only small talk. I can’t stand small talk. So I managed to get off facebook.

I have posted for years on “The Narrow Path” hosted by Steve Gregg. But recently Steve’s disagreement with me concerning the character of God took a bad turn. I felt personally attacked and ridiculed. So I stopped posting on that forum.

So unless there’s “some possible alternative” as Alex indicated, it appears that I won’t on any forum. For I doubt that I will find another Christian forum where the quality of posting matches either “The Evangelical Universalism” forum or “The Narrow Path” forum.

#28

I haven’t posted in ages but after mention of this on another site, I have to let everyone involved with this project know how much EU has meant to me in my growth in so many ways.

I’d like to mention @Sobornost, @Pog, @Jason, and @Alex especially but there are so many others who have commented here that I’ve learned from. The format here which allowed longform posts and thoughtful responses and conversations is something I really miss. When I think about it, this forum was crucial in my intellectual and spiritual journey and I will always remember that.

I am saddened by the thought that all this wonderful discussion, thought, and even battles might no longer exist for me or others to see in the near future. Shoot, I would even pay to have a CD with the archives on it and try and figure out what to do with that given that CDs deteriorate. I suspect this nostalgia and appreciation for historical records comes from recent reading of Samuel Pepys diary. :slight_smile:

In any event, kudos to all involved in this and God Bless. The site has been more influential than I think any of us will ever know. (And don’t forget the CD archive idea)

Steve

#29

I realize that I’m a bit of a Luddite when it comes to ‘social media’ - I don’t like it much. This is the only Forum I felt comfortable with, and I don’t tweet or FB or insta-anything, as every experience I’ve had with those things was fast-paced, shallow, insignificant - compared to the more leisurely, deeper and more significant exchanges here.
And I think EU is a significant topic that should be treated as such - as well as the other topics here, including cats. :slight_smile:

I saddens me to think that a topic as necessary as this one will be losing its foremost platform, and the thought of all the accumulated insights that will be lost, from the past and into the future, is really a shock.

Participation has slowed down for the nonce, and for some reason most of the mods have given up - perhaps time constraints - and some of those who stimulated us with their take on the arts, or fantasy and other types of fiction, music etc. have gone away as well, so the forum is not as well-rounded as it once was - and that is a shame. I wish those folks would come back and make contributions. Plant some seeds. Get things rolling again.

But if wishes were horses, all thieves would ride. I’m not real sure what that means though… :slight_smile:

#30

I am deeply grateful for those who did most of the heavy lifting that has made this forum possible. Of course, being able to regularly offer a relevant link to one of my papers posted here has also left me indebted to this site.

As one on board from the beginning, my participation ebbed and flowed, sometimes feeling questions explored earlier were repeatedly revisited, or topics of little personal interest were pursued. But I resonate with feeling that most social media doesn’t encourage the kind of safe forum where there is likely to be serious and sustained engagement with topics that have been explored on this one. And on FB forums, I’ve already heard a number who have moved on from the EU site express angst over this news in recognizing that many of their closest friends in such other venues were originally found when they were on this forum.

I enjoy other forums such as Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed, and Roger Olson’s blog, but am aware of nothing that facilitates the kind of engagement and relationships that this forum has fostered. And I will feel the sense of loss in losing it that others have expressed.

All the best to my past and present conversation partners here,
Bob Wilson

#31

Gabe:

The reason I post anonymously is that I could potentially face negative real world repercussions for my theological views which, through anonymity, are easily avoided. Why take the risk?

Also, you want to look into the argumentum ad hominem fallacy, lol :slight_smile: I can be a total dirtbag and yet my argument, point or post could be totally correct - regardless of how evil or hypocritical I am. :slight_smile: But that said, I totally understand where you’re coming from and would prefer, myself, to not feel pressured to be anonymous.

#33

In my ltd experience FB doesn’t suit serious, long discussions very well.

#34

They’re around – they help check the spamcatcher for example – but their time and energy goes to FB nowadays, mostly.

The cost isn’t an issue (I’ve been paying the cost, or helping with it, for years; as have other ad/mods) – although the cost to pay someone to migrate us to another forum engine is three to six times what we pay a year for ‘rent’. (I’ve forgotten exactly how much but over a thousand dollars.) So rather than pay that we’re doing the migration ourselves.

We can’t promise that the new system will be such as to allow all members to create new threads (although comment function should easily continue), so that’s why we’re pointing to FB group communities (starting with the one first created by administrators some time ago, but that will lead to other ones), just to be safe. Pseudonyms work fine there for those who want them, and you aren’t required to fill in a bunch of true personal information for public (or even private) consumption. I assure you, the CIA and the NSA (and apparently the Chinese, and the Commonwealth side of the Five Eyes team :wink: ), are going to track what you’re saying and doing, even if you’re posting here or at the new forum/blog/whatever. :mrgreen:

Please note: WE AREN’T SIMPLY NUKING THE SITE! The landlord is going to knock down the house to build a new one, so we’re looking for a new house and trying to figure out what to pack and what not.

Since it’s possible our plans will fail, we’re giving an early alert for anyone wanting to make sure whatever material they care about is archived.

#35

I’m also very sad to see this forum go as it had many fine contributors and i’ll miss it a lot. FB to my knowledge isn’t a platform for a forum with Topical threads although if this migrates there i’ll certainly check it out. I first found out about this forum from Paidion when he was on thenarrowpath.com

If continuing this has anything to do with financial issues i would be happy to contribute.

#36

To help with migrating the forum material, and/or for public or private archiving, I have created a new thread here:

Or if that doesn’t work you can try clicking this link.

Members can upload pdfs of your forum material to this thread – I’ve attached my extended (but still far from complete) ExCom notes as an example there in the first post.

I can’t guarantee we’ll take everything posted there over, but it could help us a lot; and it will also give members a chance to pick up collections of your work for private archiving if they want to.

#37

Where do the mods/admins hang out? Is there a facebook page that is a good representative of the extent of thought that is shown here? Are there any familiar faces out there who left here and are now congregating somewhere? Is there a secret handshake?
I know that sometime ago there was an invitation-only site that some people here set up - I forget how I heard about it, the invite was not extended to me but that’s no problem - is that the nesting place for the birds that have flown the coop?

#38

Because dear friends would stop talking to me. :wink:

#39

Here are some Facebook universalism groups. They can be tricky to find, so I wanted to provide you with URLs. For many of them, you’ll need to request permission to join. They’re closed groups. That means that no one may read the group who is not a member. This protects members from the sort of things some are concerned about–that friends, family members, etc. might shun them if it was known that they believe God is actually good. :wink: You don’t have to use a real name, but if you don’t, moderators may question you as to your motives when you request permission to join. You might also get questions if your account is brand new. That’s because trolls often open fresh accounts in order to get into groups from which they’ve been banned. If you give credible reasons and are honest with the mods, they’ll generally respect your privacy and allow you to join.

Evangelical Universalism Invitation & Debate
facebook.com/groups/invitaiontoeu/

Is Christian Universalism True?
facebook.com/groups/universalrestoration/

The Inescapable Love of God
facebook.com/groups/608766472556325/

The End of us All
facebook.com/groups/Bareknuckleforever/

Jesus is Even Better than you Think
facebook.com/groups/733216460124911/

It can be tricky to find FB groups, so I thought this list might be helpful to folks.

Blessings, Cindy

#40

Actually, the admins have been promoting two or three of the FB groups for a year or so on the announcement banner of the index page; those being the longest-running groups set up by forum members and from which other groups could be most likely found.

I don’t know how much less secret they could be. I also don’t know of any secret invitation-only sites; but public FB groups are often loosely “closed” in the FB sense of trying to make sure spammers don’t randomly join groups. The first two listed by Cindy (which have been promoted on the index page for a year or so) are not marked as “closed” at all. The second two are, but you basically just have to ask to join, I think.

#41

Sure, I’ve seen them mentioned for the past year - I ‘assumed’ it was for those that preferred FB, not a prelude to current actions. And noone said :Hey I’m moving outta here as a mod and going to a FB site because (fill in the blank).

But of course “It’s all good” - our cheese is always being moved in some area or another of our life. Life is moving cheese!

I’m thankful for what you, JP , and the others have provided. A lot of work and thought and some cash too.