Bear with me; this does have a point that affects all of you here.
Please read this entire post, important information is sprinkled throughout. Thank you.
In June of 1996, I was baptised as a JW after about 3 months of studying. Even before that occurred, I had begun to doubt my decision to do so. After baptism, the doubts became stronger and stronger until November of 1997 when I disassociated myself. That same month, I decided to start this website. The reason was simple. I had found many websites helping people out of the Watchtower, arguing doctrine, making wonderful points, and so on, but I really wanted to find a site that was devoted to simply associating with other folks like myself who had come out of that religion. So, frankly, I started it to make friends. I didn't have any expectations for this site, and would have been happy for just one person to stop by. But soon, it became the bustling group that we see here today. I am so thankful for you all taking the time out of your lives to share, support, fight, cry, and laugh with me and everyone else here. You are all a really great bunch.
But, every now and then, I find myself asking, "Tishie, how much longer are you going to do this?" The answer is always, "Not forever, but a while longer." But I asked myself this question again a little over a week ago, and the answer was, "No more."
You see, I no longer have a great enough interest in XJW issues to be the proper person to run this site. I do not desire to run it anymore, and it obviously would be beneficial for all involved if the person running a site such as this were more interested in XJW issues.
Quite soon, this entire website, board and all, will be shut down (
but it will not be gone, please keep reading).
I know that the reaction to this could range from anger to sadness to neutrality to relief to happiness. To those of you who might be upset by this news, I apologize. I hope you can understand that I just can't do this anymore. However, you will not be deprived of this community, as I will explain in the following paragraph. Therefore, while I will no longer be the owner, nothing will essentially change for all of you.
I discussed my decision to shut the entire site down with the moderators last week, and the feeling was that having the website and board disappear would be a shame. No one wanted our community here to dissipate into the wind. I said that I was probably just going to post a two week notice to everyone before trashing the whole shebang, and this created a tad bit of a panic at the moderator board. Thankfully, one of the moderators, Randy Schultz, decided to step up to the plate to try to keep this nice thing going. Utilizing his passion (which I have lost) for the subject, he will also breathe new life into the entire website.
So, Randy has decided to buy the www.support4xjws.org domain and space from me, and he will put up what will be a wonderful, very helpful website. It will not be the same website you see today at that URL, simply because I cannot bring myself to hand over all of the work I have done. My reasons for this are many, the main one being that I do not wish to have any emotional investment in this site anymore beyond my friendships, and I know that would not be possible if I were witnessing someone else tinker with my little love-child here. I trust that Randy will do a wonderful job, and it is no reflection upon him, but I endeavor to be honest with myself, and that is my decision. Selfish, yes, but I frankly don't care to discuss it, nor do I feel much of a need to defend myself on this point.
But, all is not lost; Randy may be contacting those who have stories/bios/etc on my site for permission to include them on his site. Plus, he has some awesome, fresh ideas for the new site, and I encourage you all to look forward to the implementation of those. Also, the Long Lost board will remain intact, as I cannot bear to delete all of those searching posts.
Randy also recognizes that this board is the heart of the Support Group for Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, and therefore does not want it to die, so he has started one to continue on where we leave off here. Because I, without forsight, created this board with my own login which I use in various other places, and I don't desire to give my login over to anyone (and Network54 does not provide any means of transferring ownership of a forum), the board will change to a new url, which is as follows:
network54.com/Hide/Forum/128637
Please bookmark this URL! It is the new Support Board!
So,
on Sunday, June 10th, this board will no longer accept new posts or replies, and all activity must take place at the new location. Until that time, you may feel free to finish up any threads here,
but I strongly suggest that NO NEW THREADS be started here, but rather at the new board. This board will not disappear, but it will not accept new posts. It will serve as a sort of archive.
Randy has advised me that the new board will be the same as this one in spirit, with just a few new features and changes. One of his neat ideas is a Screechin' Post board which will house posts that might otherwise be deleted. This will serve to get the "I'm going to crap all over the board" posts off of the main forum without actually censoring them. Also, to prevent people doing impersonations and to cut down on spammers, all posters will be required to have a Network54 login (which is simple to get and any information you submit can be completely private, including your email address if you choose). He has also posted a new intro (with instructions on getting a login ID) which can be viewed at his new board by clicking on the link in the prologue at the top of the page. I will let Randy welcome you and tell you anything else he wishes for you to know. He may do this here or at his new board or both.
As for the fate of the www.support4xjws.org website, this is what will occur. When Randy is ready with an introductory main page to the site, I will go to my server and domain registrar and request that ownership and access be transferred over to him. So, quite soon, the main site will come down, but will be reconstructed -- better than ever.
If you care to email me from now on,
please delete the address tishie@support4xjws.org from your address books (as anything sent to ______@support4xjws.org will shortly go to Randy) and
use instead tishie73@yahoo.com.
Thank you all again so much for contributing to this site, and please continue to do so under the new management.
Love to all,
Tishie