Debate Future

[Ron Bulman]

Registration for the JFK Assassination Debate reopens Monday.  Any potential recruit's anyone can recommend?  

I've been wondering about survival of the site based on recent participation.  I usually observe who's on line when I visit.  Not as many recently as in the past, though people have come and gone over the years.  Too often lately when I check in I see 1, 2, 3 others or even only myself.   Without sustained comment how can the debate continue?

[Stephanie Goldberg]

-raises hand-

Sometimes I feel awkward posting a question or comment because I'm not an expert like so many people here.  I know that anything I'll post could have easily been already talked to death in a thread from years ago.  So even though I read at least one new book (new to me, that is) on this subject or a related one, I am often unsure if I should post my questions or keep them to myself because everyone else already knows all that stuff.

[Steve Thomas]

2 hours ago, Stephanie Goldberg said:

-raises hand-

Sometimes I feel awkward posting a question or comment because I'm not an expert like so many people here.  I know that anything I'll post could have easily been already talked to death in a thread from years ago.  So even though I read at least one new book (new to me, that is) on this subject or a related one, I am often unsure if I should post my questions or keep them to myself because everyone else already knows all that stuff.

Stephanie,

 

For the most part, people in this Forum are pretty kind and will gladly share what they know or have learned over the years.

This is an Educational Forum more than a debating class after all.

Occasionally, you will run across someone who is rude or unkind. The best you can do is just ignore them and move on.

 

Steve Thomas

[Michael Clark]

Stephanie, when I was new to the forum I did a lot of rummaging through and bumping of old treads, looking for gems. I think that was  met with near universal approval, and I believe is fostered a lot of discourse. I dunt pick through the old threads as much as I used to but if you do, go ahead and dust-off old topics or share some of comments or quotes from them. 

Definitely raise your questions. There are very few crabs on this beach.

[Michael Clark]

6 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Registration for the JFK Assassination Debate reopens Monday.  Any potential recruit's anyone can recommend?  

I've been wondering about survival of the site based on recent participation.  I usually observe who's on line when I visit.  Not as many recently as in the past, though people have come and gone over the years.  Too often lately when I check in I see 1, 2, 3 others or even only myself.   Without sustained comment how can the debate continue?

I’ll use this opportunity to raise a question for a moderator if they see it....

Do you ever reconsider allowing past members back in who have been blocked or banned in the past? I imagine that some people have been blocked for minor transgressions and just forgotten about. Is it ok to even ask? I definitely don’t feel like it is ok to ask about the readmittance of a particular member, and it should not be that way. It should be ok to ask, keeping in mind that we may hove no idea what caused the member to lose privileges.

And, generally, is there an eye, at all, towards reconciliation? Forever is a long time.

[Darrell Curtis]

I'll admit I'm reluctant to post here, for several reasons.

1) Like Stephanie, I don't have the depth of knowledge that most here do. While having read more books on the subject than I can recall (at least fifty, if not more) I don't do the sustained research and investigation that allows for the ready recall of all the dates, places, people and details. I'm a concerned, interested citizen, not a researcher.

2) Having lurked here since the inception of this forum, I've seen some hair raising arguments and disagreements. While this place is more restrained and well behaved than it once was, it still makes one wary of posting. I recently expressed some doubts about the views/opinions of another member here. I truly tried to, and thought I had done so in a way that wasn't an attack, or that was insulting. I still received a rather unpleasant response that called my comments into question simply because I'm new. I wasn't aware that a person had to have a required amount of time to express such things.

3) The Lone Nut squad. While it is easily dealt with by using the ignore function (and I do) it still creates a strange sense to know that these people are present. While an echo chamber is unhealthy, and confirmation bias should be avoided, it seems to only help keep things stirred up by having them here. 

[David Andrews]

Everybody should ask questions, and everybody else should answer them.  Keeping knowledge and opinion insular and esoteric is no way to make progress, or keep interest in the assassinations and the surrounding culture alive.

That said, I'm with Michael - there is so much rich material in the back threads that can be studied first  Topics often re-appear in new threads that, frankly, got a better treatment in threads ten years ago, and from members who aren't with us today.  (The downside is that many of the photos and illustrations in the old threads have disappeared, but some of these can be hunted down on the web.)  Also, turning on the current members to research found in the old threads is a noble effort in itself.

There are a lot of people here who will help with a question, or guide you to pertinent research areas, if you send them a private message.  That's always been so.

However, if you ask public questions, you can sometimes get everybody here debating.  And that would seem to be part of our mission.

Edited July 1, 2019 by David Andrews

[John Kozlowski]

20 hours ago, Stephanie Goldberg said:

-raises hand-

Sometimes I feel awkward posting a question or comment because I'm not an expert like so many people here.  I know that anything I'll post could have easily been already talked to death in a thread from years ago.  So even though I read at least one new book (new to me, that is) on this subject or a related one, I am often unsure if I should post my questions or keep them to myself because everyone else already knows all that stuff.

I feel the same way. I thought I was knowledgeable about the JFK case until I found this site. I started reading books in 1994 when I was 9. I had lurked here for years before I finally made an account. I can’t imagine have the wealth of info that some of these people here have. Remembering all the names and dates of events alone impresses me. It takes true dedication and I’m grateful just to be able to observe the discussions that go on here.

[Ron Bulman]

3 hours ago, Darrell Curtis said:

I'll admit I'm reluctant to post here, for several reasons.

1) Like Stephanie, I don't have the depth of knowledge that most here do. While having read more books on the subject than I can recall (at least fifty, if not more) I don't do the sustained research and investigation that allows for the ready recall of all the dates, places, people and details. I'm a concerned, interested citizen, not a researcher.

2) Having lurked here since the inception of this forum, I've seen some hair raising arguments and disagreements. While this place is more restrained and well behaved than it once was, it still makes one wary of posting. I recently expressed some doubts about the views/opinions of another member here. I truly tried to, and thought I had done so in a way that wasn't an attack, or that was insulting. I still received a rather unpleasant response that called my comments into question simply because I'm new. I wasn't aware that a person had to have a required amount of time to express such things.

3) The Lone Nut squad. While it is easily dealt with by using the ignore function (and I do) it still creates a strange sense to know that these people are present. While an echo chamber is unhealthy, and confirmation bias should be avoided, it seems to only help keep things stirred up by having them here. 

Well Darrell if I was possibly rude I apologize.  I know I've been curt before with others on here regarding things I was suspicious of.  I also know I've become a little skeptical and cynical over the years.  Arguing with John McAdams on JFK Fact's  will do that.  I'm not a researcher either other than going to Dealy Plaza and looking for myself several times, driving from Oswald's room to where Tippit was shot then the Texas theater, and going to a party at Ruth Paine's old house in the early 90's.  I went to UTA, like hiking,  History and some dog's.  If you want to do a walkabout of Dealy Plaza some time PM me.  Rick McTauge (?) might be interested.

[Darrell Curtis]

21 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said:

Well Darrell if I was possibly rude I apologize.  I know I've been curt before with others on here regarding things I was suspicious of.  I also know I've become a little skeptical and cynical over the years.  Arguing with John McAdams on JFK Fact's  will do that.  I'm not a researcher either other than going to Dealy Plaza and looking for myself several times, driving from Oswald's room to where Tippit was shot then the Texas theater, and going to a party at Ruth Paine's old house in the early 90's.  I went to UTA, like hiking,  History and some dog's.  If you want to do a walkabout of Dealy Plaza some time PM me.  Rick McTauge (?) might be interested.

Hi Ron,

I appreciate the apology, but it wasn't you. You're off the hook! I'd enjoy meeting you (and possibly Rick) and walking DP. I've never done that with someone who knows about the subject with any depth. I've either gone by myself, or with my wife and daughter, which means limited time there. My wife isn't terribly interested in the matter, which is ironic, as she was the one who insisted I watch Stone's "JFK"

I'll be in touch.

[Stephanie Goldberg]

First of all, I want to say thanks for all the encouraging replies in this thread.  It seems like I'm not the only one who sometimes feels hesitant to ask a question or start a new discussion.

I have read some of the older threads which are a bit like walking through a time capsule where the debate is happening right there, in the moment, and you can still feel the energy these discussions must have generated.  I sometimes feel awkward throwing my new thoughts and/or questions into threads where it feels like research giants have already been, but I understand how it helps to have all the discussion for one subject in one thread.   So I can easily make new posts in old threads as long as that's okay.

One thing I think would be interesting would be an active book discussion thread.  I know there's an entire subsection of the overall forum for books, but it doesn't seem to generate a lot of posts.   This part of the forum seems to have the greater overall amount of traffic, though.  

Anyway, back to the future of debate on the forum.   I agree that we need more conversation in here.  Having made the disclaimer here that I'm just an ordinary person who wants to know more (vs a researcher with decades of experience in this field), I'm happy to post my thoughts and questions.  

 

 

[Ron Bulman]

When I started this thread I seriously was questioning the future of the "Debate" aspect of the Education Forum.  I'm confident Mr. Simkin and others will ensure the continuation of the other most valuable educational and historical aspects of the forum.

As Steve Thomas alludes to above this aspect of the forum is not so much a debate as a discussion among interested and informed, to various degrees, members.  I remember being told in school no question is stupid, but still being hesitant to ask and expose my ignorance.  Between https://jfkfacts.org/ and here, with encouragement, I overcame my fear of making a fool of myself.  Which I've done more than once on both sites.  I've tried to be polite but when confronted with rudeness, and what I've thought at times was intentional disinformation (been wrong on this before too) I've failed sometimes.

The Assassination Debate had funding troubles a few months back, which seem to have been overcome for the time being.  New registration was shut down until July, I didn't know why.  Participation and members viewing when I looked seemed to be down.  Not many newer members, some of them not posting much.  Members I respected like Chris Newton and Bob Prudhome stopped a while back.  Larry Hancock seemed to have quit posting or looking in as frequently.  Jim DiEugenio stopped posting a month ago.  Joseph McBride not in a while.  Just wondering what the future holds.  Continued serious discussion?

I did notice a uptick in participation and observers in the last couple of day's.  Hope that continues. 

[Joe Bauer]

As I mentioned in my first forum postings a few years ago, I'm like almost all of this thread's participants.

I stated that I chose to participate in the forum even though I knew I was not well informed as so many of the older members were.

However, at my age, I figured if I didn't get my questions and thoughts out to at least one credible JFK assassination truth seeking forum like this one before I die, I would feel like I cheated myself.

Cheated in the sense that for 55 years I have been passionately concerned with the JFK assassination and the real truth about it's genesis, implementation and cover up and had no where to share that passion.

I always wanted to do "something" to add to the effort of keeping the JFK truth search flame alive.

I do wonder now however, whether some of the older deep research members are pulling back from participatory posting because they feel the forum is too populated with JFK research lay members like me more so than in the past.

Just a thought.

With that said, I would love to see a celebrity type person become a member and join in. Someone not in their celebrity prime as their membership here might hurt their public image.  Rather someone at the end of their career.

Edited July 3, 2019 by Joe Bauer

[Stephanie Goldberg]

I think any serious researcher would want to know that his/her work matters to both the present and future generations.  While busy researchers might not have the time to post here on a regular basis, I'm sure any of them would be gratified to know that the work they've done and the cause which they've championed - finding the truth - is still alive to another wave of people who believe in the facts.  

 

 

[Larry Hancock]

 I still look in on a daily basis, I think I last posted a few days ago in response to a question.  These days most of my new posts are on my own WordPress blog, where I have more space and can monitor replies more easily without getting lost in threads. However that blog covers a lot broader scope of content since most of my current work and books go into military history and national security subjects that cover several decades. At the moment I'm deeply into a new work on the 1960/61 Cuba Project, which is really a much bigger and deeper story than simply the Bay of Pigs.

I also use my blog to post extensive material like the Wheaton names research which is really the only JFK area I've been involved in recently. I'm always happy to answer questions though and do comment when I have something to offer, however many of the current threads are simply outside my area of expertise/interest or honestly I've posted on them extensively in the past and would be repeating myself...

Anyway, I'm still here....