Wednesday, October 8, 2008

The Three Pillars is down... ahhhhhhh!!!!

Today, I attempted to go on the Three Pillars discussion board but all I found was this. Ahhhh!, what am I supposed to do? I feel like Homer when he was denied beer and TV:


If anyone knows what is going on over there or you have contact info, please post it in the comments.

Update:
Three Pillars is back online.

8 comments:

Greg Stewart said...

Its things like this that make me hate the web.

Anonymous said...

It appears to be back now :-)

Just out of curiousity, I am interested in learning more about the Masonic Forums world (I have been exploring mostly blogs since I was raised).

I am wondering whether there are any particular forums that Brothers here consider especially worthwhile? (Optional question: are there any that you would not touch with a 10-foot pole?). If you do have a favourite, is there any particular reason that you prefer it to other alternatives?

Thank you in advance for any advice offered.

~ Vitruvius ~

Widow's Son said...

Bro. Vitruvius,

Personally, I've generally found Masonic forums -- heck, most forums -- to be a waste of time. Sure, sometimes you'll find good info or good convo there, but generally speaking, threads on forums tend to quickly deteriorate into the same kinds of name-calling brawls that often develop on blogs. Plus, the format of a forum is usually such that you click a lot of buttons to see each comment, and those comments are seldom worth the click, in that they rapidly become one-liners and one-word posts that aren't worth the effort it takes to read them.

On top of that, forums often reward regular participants with all sorts of special access and "room monitor" statuses, and those so "honored" often turn into heavy-handed censors and enforcers of petty or non-existent rules.

While blogs may be a great desert, forums by comparison are like little sandboxes that come with the kid who usually takes your bucket and shovel away if you don't his particular line.

Widow's Son
BurningTaper.com

burntloafer said...

Nick - I went to your link, and if there was a problem it appears to be back up and running! Sometimes we travel a path that is fraught with peril.

Greg Stewart said...

Amen to that WS. The sand box analogy is spot on.

Personally, its counterintuitive in the first place to have so many internal communications. Good for some light conversation, but light on the light. even some of the newer models tied to societies. Lots of smoke, not a lot of light, as the saying goes.

Sometimes its more enlightening to go out into other forums and just be a Mason, offering our unique insight to the fraternity. You can learn lots more just by going outside as the lit candle in the darkness and seeing what you start attracting.

Millennial Freemason said...

Agree with WS's comments in terms of control of arguments. It can be incredibly frustrating to watch your arguments be quoted out of context. I especially remember my comments on what to wear to Lodge being attacked and ad hominem attacks being directed to me.
That being said, I do enjoy discussing with brothers the topics of the day. I have found Three Pillars to be a very good resource.

Nick

The Palmetto Mason said...

There is one rather nice Masonic forum that I have found. I starting my exploration into eMasonry there. It is self-policing for the most part and the flame wars are rare. It has been weeks since a post has had to be deleted by the administrators - other than for the normal spam, of course. It has general areas for all folks and password protected areas for each degree of Freemasonry. Unlike some of the password protected forums, I consider this one to be a little more "blue collar," more relaxed, and friendlier. It is also very user friendly, as opposed to most forums I have come across.

Many of the same topics, as seen on the blogs, are discussed there - minus the venom.

The participants normally do a very good job at being able to disagree without using disagreeable words. Folks that don't abide by that are eventually run out on a rail, though they are given ample opportunity to right their wrongs.

Of the 1934 registered members, only 25 are in a muzzled (banned) status, and many of those are spammers.

Sorry to tease, but I will not name the forum since I feel my endorsement could actually harm it due to the unintentional and unfortunate controversy created by what I write on my blog. I removed a link from my blog to that forum for that very reason. If anyone is interested, however, it shouldn't be hard to find. An upfront warning: folks from unrecognized bodies will not be admitted into the password protected areas and the administrators are rather good at figuring out who belongs to what.

Anonymous said...

Hulu is always down in Canada. Is there another video service you can use? Maybe just download it and upload it to blogger.

Justa