Bashers Lurking

[revtj]

Soulforce Compatriots,

Wow! I have already received hate e-mail for the message I posted encouraging Soulforce Atlanta & GSV (an Atlanta Men's Group) to attend the Pride Forum on race tomorrow night. I am stunned that overt racism is now OK in academic and LGBT communities. :(

I am also getting some other anti-gay junk email because my email is posted as Soulforce Atlanta leader. I really love this site and I hate not feeling safe here. :o

It reminds me, in the late 90s I found a 'gaychristians' chatroom and met some wonderful people all over tha nation. Then the bashers found it and it became impossible to have a conversation or hang out without tolerating hatefulness.

Jaime, will you please post some instructions on how to use the 'ignore' function? I saw this when I first joined and ignored it (pun intended) because I thought it would be pointless. Can we block email from this site also?

Can I get a witness? :'(

[NathanATX]

I get a lot of "hate mail."

I usually try to respond BRIEFLY and see if there is the potential for an actual conversation--not an abuse session. If not, I just don't reply.

I print them out and file them under "Proof Your Message is Being Heard."

Nate

[Zerbie]

:love:

Sorry to hear about the vicious emails, TJ. :love:

I didn't reply to your notice about the forum in Atlanta, but I was very happy to know that it is going to take place and I thank you for posting it. What a shame that such things are so badly needed!

One of the sorry things about these forms of communication is that the nasty people are quicker and louder to make their presence felt than those that are grateful for the sites/announcements.

Yes do please try to ignore the hate mail. This forum will continue to be a wonderful cyber-place even if the occasional troll buzzes in for a day now and then. You're doing some wonderful things TJ and I'm happy to "know" you (even if only online). ;)

[Jamie McDaniel]

Revtj, I'm not sure a solution would be blocking email from this site. Are the nasty-grams being sent through the contact form? That would mean they go to your profile and click "Send a message via email to revtj." That is the only way such an email would originate from our server. You would need to forward one to me at jamie@soulforce.org for me to inspect the header and tell.

Also, the ignore list is only for thread postings. Here are the instructions, but I don't think it is a feature that would be used here.

Ignore lists are used for those people who's messages you wish not to read. By adding someone to your ignore list, those messages posted by these individuals will be hidden when you read a thread.

[Jamie McDaniel]

Also, here is another piece of information. You can go to your User CP and click options, or just click this link
http://www.soulforce.org/forums/profile.php?do=editoptions

And uncheck "Receive Email from Other Members"

Note this does not affect Private Messages, just emails sent when someone views your profile and clicks "Send a message via email to revtj"

Also, any email sent via that method starts with the sentence "This is a message from __________ at Soulforce Community Forums."

I'll send you one so you can compare.

[revtj]

Hey, I'm sorry if I implied that the email necessarily came from a Soulforce person. I sent the email to another listserv also.

I was upset because the email was racist and really ripped me for the things I said in the post. The signer indicated his M.Ed after his signature and I jumped to the conclusion that it was someone from one of the Equality Ride schools. I'm still not so sure that I'm mistaken about that, but I appreciate everyone understanding how upset I was. I deleted the email so I can't do any more research which is probably for the best.

The kind of racism that is coming out of the closet and into the public airwaves right now is disturbing to say the least. As a gay man who came out in the Reagan era, it's bizarre to hear people blaming immigrants for mumps, TB, bird flu, & demonizing them the way they once did us re: AIDS/HIV. And I'm upset about it because I want to know what happened to all the progress I thought we'd made? It's like the people need a new group of people to blame everything on! :'(

Thanks for reading and apologies if anyone thought I was blaming Soulforce. I do know that those who spitefully use us are reading & sometimes responding in these forums, but for the most part that's not a big deal.

PEACE :love: