(Login Tishie73) Friends from IP address 63.15.127.244
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:
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
This message has been edited by Tishie73 from IP address 4.54.80.220 on Dec 17, 2001 2:59 AM This message has been edited by Tishie73 from IP address 63.28.209.196 on Jun 10, 2001 8:39 PM
I'm not going to say, "oh no, say it isn't so!".... because I know you're tired of it all and I understand why. I'll email ya privately, Tishie.
I'll be seeing you in Idaho in a few months, I talked with Wolfgang about it. Good luck in whatever you do, but I know we'll be talking between now and then.
On when he gets his visa interview. Probably not till after school starts. Darn it! Jaime's baby is due Sept 16, so I have to stick around MO until at least the end of Sept. But we can make arrangements for Christmas or Spring vacation or something, how's that?
that's cool. You are welcome to come during school, I just fear I wouldn't have the time and energy for you I'd like to have. I love ya and everything, but I can't sacrifice my 4.0 for you, sorry. So, yes, let's make plans for a break.. I have like 4 weeks at xmas time and then a week for spring break, then months for summer again. As soon as you know more, we'll make solid plans so ya can't back out.
August would a good time for me to hop over there for a day or so. Lucy's father lives in the state, the chances are good. I could bring Paul a new rocket, finally
I can understand your wanting to move on from JW issues. I went into the borg after over a year of study (in 1991) and stayed in for about 6 years. This site has been very helpful to me, and I just wanted to thank you for making and running it.
for all you have done and also for what you have put up with. You have always done your utmost to make this place a safe haven for anyone who chose to plunk themselves down in your cyber house! I will always cherish my memories of this board.
Because of finding this board way back when, my life has LITERALLY been changed for the better. I found others who were understanding and supportive and fun and friendly when I finally decided that maybe I should try to talk about some of my exjw issues instead of just trying to pretend like they didn't exist. It has only been in the last year or so(after a long while on the board) that I have actually admitted to people in real life that I am an exjw. I still don't tell very many people, but being on this board for a while was what helped me shed many of the borg issues that kept me from talking about it in real life. I met my husband here, and that is probably my most sentimental attachment to this place. I have shed some serious tears thinking that the place we met will soon be no more. But at the same time, I completely understand your reasons for deciding to give it up.
So, as my completely final post to the board I have grown to love almost irrationally, I want to say I love you, and I thank you. You have done more for people than I'm sure will ever be widely known.
I am not an old timer but I do consider myself a regular and I have to say I have so much enjoyed and appreciated this board. I don't know what it takes to establish and run a board like this. I do appreciate the work you have gone to to make this place possible for me and others. I have been supported, challenged, amused, and outraged here. And I have grown from the support and advise of some of the people here. A HUGE HUG to you!!!!
Nothing has helped me through the darkest days of my post-JW hangover than this support board. It may have quite possibly saved me from suicide. It gave me the strength to walk away and start a new life, which is getting better and better. It was the encouragement I got from the Support group that gave me courage to try going to college. I'm close to a 4.0 average, certainly exceeding my expectations. I certainly can identify with the time and mind-power you need to excel in college. So, more power to you! Randy is the perfect one to pick up the torch. I'm not quite ready to put it all behind me yet. 28 years in LaLa Land leaves an impression. If nothing else, I like to keep up with the Society's amusing miseries, and still have most of my friends here. I won't say goodbye, but will give a last high "V" and pronounce the Vulcan benediction one last time to you and yours...Live long and prosper!
I haven't been around, so this a surprise to me. Thank you Tishie for starting this and keeping it going as long as you have. It has been said before, but you've probably saved many people's sanity with this little thing, not to mention a life or two.
Tishie, the amount of work you have put into this site is exhausting. I know, having been webmaster of A Common Bond - San Francisco for the past several years. I have considered passing the baton to someone else also, especially last year when I experienced three deaths back to back and got very depressed. I am still suffering from a degree of burnout and hope that someone will volunteer to pick up the slack for me as well eventually.
Mean time, Tishie, I hope that the new webmaster will take the time to build a page on this site expressly for you. The work you have done for the ex-JW community has not gone unnoticed. The many, many people out there you have helped since the existence of this site continue to pay you silent gratitude by not being filled with feelings of guilt and remorse for not returning to the J.W.'s. When I was disfellowshipped 21 years ago, no such support network existed. It would have made my journey into recovery so much easier if you had been around back then. Thank you again for all you've done.
I started thinking about this last night, rethought it this morning in light of Tishie’s announcement and decided to go ahead and say it.
We have an opportunity to communicate that is unprecedented in human history. I live in Seattle. Via message boards, e-mail, and IM; I talk regularly to people in Washington DC, Kansas, England, Scotland, France, Denmark, Oz; and of all people a female colonel in the Royal Thai Army. Most of the message boards I visit are devoted to conservative politics and military history. I’ve only been on Tishie’s board a few months and I just discovered Simon’s. But I’m seeing the same thing on both boards.
This board displays more anger and profanity in a week than all the right-wingers put together generate in a year. I know that there is a diversity of views here, and there is bound to be some passion behind some of the discussion. I don’t care that some of you are gay, lesbian, atheists, wiccan or whatever. I DO care that some of you seem to be so angry that you can’t have a rational conversation with somebody who disagrees with you.
Take your Prozac, get counseling, get laid; do whatever it takes get yourself a life. Throw eggs at the local kingdom hall if that makes you feel better. We’ve all wasted some part of our life in the Watchtower, do we want to waste the rest of it spewing hate at the people around us?
I couple of weeks ago I said on this board that life is too short to spend it pissing people off. Life is also too short to spend it being pissed off.
PS Tishie: Thank you for all your hard work.
PPS: Annie, standing up and apologizing to everybody was a class act all the way.
I am making my last post to you with the same title that my first post had. I was so stunned and thrilled to find that there were others out there who had been through the same experiences and who were surviving on the outside.
I had spent years feeling as if I was the only ex-JW in the world, and it was a glorious feeling to know that I finally had found friends with whom I could share.
I spent the first three weeks or so reading posts and sobbing uncontrollably as I recognized my experiences being related by others.
This board has become the pivot point for my online activities. Many times I don't post, but I know the "old pub" is there, and I know that I can go back and touch bases with the many true friends I have found here.
Thank you, Tishie, for all your hard work. Thank you for being my friend.
I cannot express my thanks better than any of the other members but will say it anyway. Thank you. What you have done has been fantastic and will live on.
Only if randy gets your permission to put it in his site. The only stuff that will remain are these message boards. I'm removing the entire site, and Randy will build a new one.
Seriously, Tishie, this place has been a haven for me. A comfort and a haven.
You will never know how many people you have helped. You know about all of us regular big-mouths, but how many untold legions of lurkers have gotten the message and are helping extricate themselves, thanks to this site?
Thank you is inadequate. I know how much time and energy you have invested here. But thank you is all I can think of right now, so there it is.
I'm so glad you're not "gone." Looking forward to seeing you there.
Darn it! Jaime's baby is due Sept 16, so I have to stick around MO until at least the end of Sept. But we can make arrangements for Christmas or Spring vacation or something, how's that? 
So, yes, let's make plans for a break.. I have like 4 weeks at xmas time and then a week for spring break, then months for summer again. As soon as you know more, we'll make solid plans so ya can't back out. 
