The Tale Of Two Foyers

From KolobCafe

Contents 1 Al Gore 2 The Responses 3 The Death Of The View From The Foyer 4 The Rebirth Of The View From The Foyer 5 Further Light And Knowledge

[edit] Al Gore

On August 20th, 2006, Bob McCue, also known by the psuedonym "philo", started a thread on The View From The Foyer entitled, "Al Gore: Prophet, Seer and Revelator ... An Inconvenient Truth". In this thread, he discussed Al Gore's recent movie about global warming, and pondered the question, "if you had to choose a prophet regarding the crucially important environmental issues we now face, would you choose Gordon Hinckley, or Al Gore?"

The thread turned into a relatively civil, but politically-charged discussion regarding whether Al Gore was a hypocrite, and whether the movie accurate portrayed the current climate situation. After about two days of discussion, Archimedes (the creator and primary moderator of The View From The Foyer, along with Gracie) posted the following message and locked the thread:

Thread closed, in part due to high political content. But mostly because Al Gore is a megalomaniac and a pathological liar. Not to mention a bad loser.

What the fuck are you people thinking anyway? It would cost the US billions to implement the strictures of the Kyoto Treaty, for at best minimal possible gains on this global warming thing. The Kyoto Treaty is nothing more than an international wealth redistribution scheme. You'd be better off investing your time and money figuring out how to put scrubbers on the active volcanoes on the planet.

Now knock off the political crap.

[edit] The Responses

Mr-Brightside started another thread entitled, Arch, nice parting shot with the following text:

Way to lock a thread with your own inflammatory political statement so people don't even get the chance to debate it with you. I'm not saying you don't have a right to your own opinion and the right to express it, but clubbing people over the head with it and not giving them a chance to respond isn't the best way to engender a free exchange of ideas on a messageboard.

Arch responded:

Just consider it "equal time." Besides, politics are off limits here on the Foyer.

Thanks and have a great day.

and to another poster who felt that an apology was called for:

Me, owe you an apology?? Whoever brought up the idea of Al Gore being a True Prophet owes ME an apology. What a bunch of bullshit. I suppose some of the (respectful, useful and productive?!?) contributors to that thread would only be happy if the US gave all its wealth to the Third World and adopted the failed socialistic policies that have kept other nations (yea, I'm talking about Europe and Canada) in the backwaters.

No, I don't owe anybody a fucking apology for stating my own fucking opinions on this board.

Archimedes then closed that thread as well.

Mr-Brightside started another thread entitled "Apologies Apologies" with his response:

But you do owe us an apology for breaking your own fucking rules.

Others, such as KingM, agreed:

With all due respect, Arch, you didn't just state your opinion. You stated your opinion and then locked the thread to prevent anyone else from stating their own, contrary opinion. I think you also nipped in the bud a promising and respectful conversation about whether or not the behavior of the messenger affects the reception and/or veracity of the message. That seems to me to be extremely germane to the subject at hand, e.g. Mormonism and the lies of its leadership.

Archimedes responded again by posting a message and locking the thread:

Right. So people can bring their bullshit liberal politics here, despite a long-standing board rule against it, and I'm not allowed to say a word. Nice.

I'm sick of this fucking place and the bitchers and whiners that inhabit it.

Have a nice day.

Archimedes then posted the following announcement:

Per my previous posts, I'm pretty much sick of this place. I've invested a lot of time and energy into it, and it's become a place that doesn't give anything back, at least for me.

So you all can do whatever the fuck you want. Go hang out on Cherry with the other Hate Bush groupies, or wimp away on the NOM board, or whatever.

The Foyer goes offline in 24 hours. That should give everyone plenty of time to copy shit off of here if they would like.

No matter who you are, don't e-mail me, don't PM me, don't post any messages regarding this. I'm done.

[edit] The Death Of The View From The Foyer

Those who were online at this time were considerably upset. halom started a thread entitled, "No More FOYER? Then it's goodbye?" that became somewhat of a "Farewell, Foyer" thread. hank rearden started a thread entitled, Has anyone stepped up to start a new board to replace The Foyer? Solistics then decided to register the domain name "TheFoyer.org" and, within two hours of Archimedes' original post, had a new forum with an identical name and color scheme (but different software) up and running. He posted a link to the new forum on the Aimoo View From The Foyer (including an alternate URL to use until the newly-registered domain name had time to propagate through DNS), and within the first few hours, approximately two dozen users had registered and began posting.

Meanwhile, melodica created a thread on a sister forum, New Order Mormons, entitled "Foyer is going offline tomorrow", letting people know in case they wanted to copy some of their old posts before the board disappeared. Solistics also posted the link to the new "View From The Foyer" on that thread, saying:

I'm working on a migratory solution at the moment ... I'll keep everyone posted. I'm also archiving what I can.

It's a sad day for the DAMU.

At about 10:44 PM PST, approximately four hours after Archimedes' announcement that he was planning to shut down the View From The Foyer, the Aimoo forum was shut down. Many people had strong reactions to the disappearance of the Aimoo forum, as recorded in the thread ummm, did the foyer just die? on the new "View From The Foyer". Archimedes posted his reasoning for shutting down the board early on the "Foyer is going offline tomorrow" thread on NOM:

Well, since you people are so quick to set up another shop, go ahead and have at it. Foyer's off line as of now.

One thing, though, I object very strongly to the use of "The Foyer" or "The View from the Foyer" in any of your new little adventures. Those titles were created by other people far more creative than you'll ever be, and it would be unworthy of their memory for you to appropriate those titles.

You can do whatever the hell you want, I don't care. But for goodness sake, at least have the self-respect to come up with your own stuff and not rip off other people's ideas.

For the next twelve hours, the Aimoo View From The Foyer was gone.

[edit] The Rebirth Of The View From The Foyer

At 10:00 AM PST, Gracie managed to get Archimedes' password from him and re-opened the Aimoo board (albeit with a new color scheme). The View From The Foyer was back! Solistics responded in a thread called The Old Foyer is back up!:

Oh hallelujah!

I'm more than happy to take this board down so there won't be any confusion, or if Gracie wants to take over this board, I'm happy to pass the administrator keys over to her.

I'm just so glad it's back! *sniff, sniff*

carnegis started a poll on the new "View From The Foyer" entitled, "Old Board vs. New Board", asking whether people preferred the new software or the old software. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of the new software (50 to 1); Solistics also started a similar poll on the old "View From The Foyer", since those who would prefer the old board would be less likely to vote on the new board, possibly losing the voice of some community members. The results of the poll were also overwhelmingly in favor of the new board, with 43 votes for the new board, 10 votes for the old board, and 6 for "other".

Solistics then PM'd Gracie, asking if she'd like to take the administrator keys to the new board, or if she'd prefer that he shut down the new board and encourage everyone move back to Aimoo. Gracie responded saying that she didn't want the administrator keys to the new board, but that she also didn't want him to shut down the new board. Later, she posted a public thread entitled "I've made an interim Big Decision", in which she stated:

I am going to keep [the Aimoo View From The Foyer] open as long as the money holds, so that people can access the archives. You don't need to spend a ton of time archiving. If we decided eventually to shut down, I promise I will give two weeks' notice. So no worries there.

Second, I want to retain the name "The View from the Foyer" for this original board. It was my baby, my creation, along with our dear departed leader. I really, really think the new board should have a new name. I do not object to its having a similar name, but I have strong feelings that this board should retain the original name.

Solistics then changed the name of the new forum to simply "The Foyer", both to match the URL, and since many of the posters liked the name and Gracie approved.

[edit] Further Light And Knowledge

Archimedes still was not happy that the name "The Foyer" was so similar to his original "The View From The Foyer", so Solistics began a poll thread entitled, "The Foyer: Should We Change Our Name?" His original plan was to leave the poll up for two weeks, gather votes, and then if the community decided as a whole to change the name of the site, another poll would go up to do the actual choosing of the name. Although most posters were happy with the name "The Foyer," the following post by hank rearden seemed to typify the general feeling:

The last thing I want Arch bitching about is that we kept the name. I don't want anyone to think that this is his place. That might be the only thing I agree with him on regarding the whole kerfuckle.

Time for a fresh start, folks. Can we please move on?

Before Solistics' "Should We Change Our Name?" thread, there were already threads asking for suggestions for a new name, as well as polls quizzing people on their favorite new name. Several other polls popped up after Solistics' thread, so before the week was even over, most people were tired of the discussion. Hüffenhardt started a poll entitled, "Tired of polls? Want name settled on now?" The results of that poll were resounding in that two weeks was too long, and most people felt that the moderators should just pick a name and be done with it. Solistics replied:

I originally wanted a "mandate from the people" (of Judea's Front?) to change the name of the board. So far all I've got is I know that 22 out of the 200 registered members of this board want a name change. That's a George Bush-y kind of mandate. (How's that for a political statement!)

But, now that that seems unlikely, how about this plan: rather than two weeks (which I agree seems like an awful long time), I'll start collecting the favorite names right now and narrow it down, probably just by picking one since people don't seem to like the Proliferation of Polls. Then, by this Sunday, if the majority vote is still to change the name, I will then apply the New Name (and hopefully new logo, favicon, etc.) at the same time. Your waiting will be over in four days.

How does that sound?

Nobody objected, so Solistics began the arduous process of selecting a New Name. His criteria were simple:

1) it should be mild enough that NOM can link to us without a problem

2) it should be benign enough that people can read the board at work (e.g. in Utah) without instantly being interrogated

I would also prefer it if:

1) it represents the mission of the board, namely: a place for those who are just now in the process of leaving the church, who need a safe place where they can share their experiences about Mormonism, and their trials with friends and family who are shunning them because of their changes in belief--a place where they can get the support and love they need

2) ideally have several layers of meaning

3) ideally be short, or at least have a "short and simple" version, preferably with an available domain name

4) unique enough a phrase to get a decent google ranking

This cut the list of over a hundred candidates down to a more manageable size of only seventy or so. This was quickly winnowed down to a list of ten or so front-runners.

After the four days were over, Solistics revealed the new domain name, the new name, and the new logo (graciously designed by Uncle Green):

The name, "Further Light And Knowledge", was originally suggested by oaxaca (along with "Little Couplets" and "Third Endowment"), although tolworthy may have been prescient when he posted, several days earlier:

All you have to do is follow the ten steps of repentance.

...

10. Endure to the end. If I think of anything else you can do I will tell you. Await further light and knowledge. Remember you are still a sinner and God hates you, but if you sacrifice and sacrifice some more maybe he will be just a tiny bit less disgusted with you eventually. But don't bet on it.

Solistics also took several of the other suggested names and incorporated them into the new board:

1. The primary forum for Mormon-related discussion was renamed "The Foyer"
2. The "off-topic" forum was renamed "The Countercultural Hall"
3. A blog aggregator for DAMU blogs was christened "Outer Lightness"

This is the current state of affairs (as of May 2007). TheFoyer.org (also accessible via FurtherLightAndKnowledge.org) continues to grow and thrive. The Aimoo View From The Foyer still exists, and still gets a few posts a day, but TheFoyer.org, affectionately known as "FLAK", is where the vast majority of the Mormon-related discussion now takes place.