As the Beliefnet Community Host for this otherwise dead forum, it strikes me that there is a huge disproportion between the number of views and replies to some of our older threads here. So I know you're out there and I'm asking what I might be doing better as yer 'umble mod'rator to make this board meaningful and attractive to you.

I'm here and I'm paying atention. I do understand that we don't have much anonymity among ourselves as Beliefnet members, and that makes it imposssible for us to discuss our problems with alcohol or in recovery without members from other groups and discussion boards finding out about it.

I would greatly appreciate hearing any requests or suggestions you have, and if you don't care to post them here, you can send them to me by PM with the assurance that I will hold your screen name and anything you say about yourself in strictest confidence.

Yours in happy, joyous and free sobriety,

Cherubino

Hi, my name is Luna, and I'm....not an alcoholic!  I am a lurker though, and an offline member of another 12-step organization.  I've popped into threads in this forum once or twice over the past few years, mostly speaking to family members of alcoholics/addicts (as I am).

It's a bit of a confusing thing, because I click on a link called "12 Step Spirituality" to get here, but when I'm in the forum it's titled "Alcoholism Forum."  Which isn't that bad, alcoholism is how I got where I'm at, but it's a little intimidating at times.  I've had the thought a time or three to start a thread calling out the friends and family members, but at the same time I've felt as if I'd be starting up a meeting in the middle of someone else's.

As for lurking for the sake of lurking, I do that because no matter what someone is recovering from, it's always heartening to hear from people who are doing just that.  I just don't say anything because I've come from a completely different set of experiences, and know I don't understand what a lot of the people here have been through...

Several problems come to mind but I think the most obvious is that the FaceBook style that has been developed on BeliefNet does make anonymity more difficult, so that discourages any kind of online AA meeting freedom here. The older bulletin board system at least felt more anonymous before everyone started putting up their photos and life stories for all the world to see.

Also, these forums are now pretty buried amid all the blogs and stuff that BeliefNet is now promoting. The forums used to be one of the main areas, now it feels like a backwater.

Possibly as a result of these changes, I've noticed that several other religious group forums I used to frequent are also falling dormant. Places that once had several postings an hour or at least a day now are lucky if they get something new in a week. And the intellectual level of discussion has fallen way off.

I don't know if there is a solution to this problem The forums seem to be getting killed off by the new format.

I don't think Bill Wilson's "ego deflation at depth" and the FaceBook style are very compatible.

Hi Cherubino (and Mike in Colorado) ~

I used to post here, at times more frequently than others, and I've been absent a while for two reasons ~

There's simply a limited number of forums I can post on without spending too much time on-line, and I have others that pre-dated this one for me and are more of my primaries;

But, also, I'm not a stupid person, but the intellectual level of the postings here turned me off.  I've heard it said that you can't be too dumb for AA, but you can certainly be too smart.  I have a tendency to intellectualize everything, which blocks me from living from my heart/soul/spirit.  I like forums where we're all just "regular folk" seeking a common solution to our common problem of alcoholism.  Too much intellectual conversation and I get that paralysis by analysis; I'd rather learn how you grown-ups take the actions of this simple Program to maintain physical emotional and spiritual sobriety one day at a time than to partake in academic debates/discussions about AA.

Just my thoughts...happened to be passing through and figured I'd drop a post.