Meet the members

[grand_puba]

After moderating the posts for some time now, I have come to the realization that forums often mask the humanity of the participants. In other words, people act like they have forgotten that they are really talking to other people. There is not a cold, heartless, meaningless computer on the other end of the "Submit" button. A real person is reading the responses, who has a soul that is just as valuable as mine or your own.

To help restore some balance, I am opening up this locked category to also include a post for each forum member. In each member's thread, titled after his or her userid, the member will have the opportunity to introduce himself or herself. Please do not share personal information. No one is looking for your full name, much less your social security number. Please respect your own privacy. Instead of divulging sensitive information, please share information that will be helpful in these discussions, like:

• Where did you grow up?
• How did you come to be interested in spiritual things?
• Do you have any affiliation to a particular church, person, document, etc.?
• What spiritual topics are the current focus of your thoughts and studies?
• For what are you looking on the forums? Why are you here?
• Do you have personal goals you wish to accomplish on the forums? Do you have any topics that you consider important, which you wish to discuss with others?
• etc...

The first post in the thread should contain all the pertinent information to understand the angle from which each member is coming. It is his or her opportunity to explain their general perspective on things.

Don't forget that you can edit your post, which help you keep it up to date. This is important in case your perspective changes, or in case you discover a better way to explain your background, etc.

Please keep in mind that other members will be able to ask questions and start discussion on subsequent posts in your thread.

Before you create your own thread, you should examine some other member's threads. That will give you some good ideas about what to do and what not to do.

[grand_puba]

Here is a template that you can copy and paste into your introductory post. The stuff in brackets is called "BBCode" (Bulletin Board Code), and it controls stuf like bold text, italics, list formatting, etc. Normally, it does not show up, which prevents you from copying the BBCode tags, but I checked "Disable BBCode in this post", so they would be displayed, enabling you to copy them for your introductory posts.

[list][*][b]Where did you grow up?[/b] replace text here

[*][b]How did you come to be interested in spiritual things?[/b] replace text here

[*][b]Do you have any affiliation to a particular church, person, document, etc.?[/b] replace text here

[*][b]What spiritual topics are the current focus of your thoughts and studies?[/b] replace text here

[*][b]For what are you looking on the forums? Why are you here?[/b] replace text here

[*][b]Do you have personal goals you wish to accomplish on the forums? Do you have any topics that you consider important, which you wish to discuss with others?[/b] replace text here

[*][b]etc... - replace this heading text[/b] - replace this text too[/list]