Joe Lynn February 7 at 3:55pm
Future ESMB Trends
So, finally, and after months of low level grumbling and thumping in the dark and a month of purges and spin, ESMB still exists. It's not what it once was, and, that's OK. Forums evolve; sometimes they're deliberately altered. In the grand scheme of things, it's small potatoes and barely worthy of mention.
But, in the meantime it's become almost dogma that 'ESMB Is Emma's Home', and, there's some truth to that. At the very least, it's 'her' forum and over 4 years it's survived and thrived thanks to her care and investment. So, ESMB *is* 'hers', in at least a couple of senses. But, it's not *only* hers.
Yes, Emma owns the servers and software and it's her management that's allowed ESMB to exist. But, with the servers and software and management *alone*, ESMB would not be ESMB. What's made it a unique forum and a valuable place has been the contributions of the participants. Without Emma, ESMB would not exist, and, it's even questionable whether *any* forum like it would have existed. But, that's a moot point. For 4 years ESMB has grown and moved and taught and revealed and been the site of spats and love and brilliance and stupidity, because of the *participants*.
But, thanks to *how* Emma chose to manage, ESMB was *allowed* to become what it became. Not thanks to planning, but thanks to a 'hands off' management that had as its sole purpose the facilitation of communication. Not 'some' communication. Not 'directed' communication, but anywhere it chose to go; within some very loose guidelines. No threats or promotion of violence; that was essential, and except for the usual OSA provocateurs, seldom an issue. No personal attacks or gang-bang dogpiling; and, for the most part that was achieved, not because ESMBers were immune to the usual faults of public internet forums, but because *Emma* was the sole arbiter and her arbitration was even handed; to the point where Emma herself was more constrained than the ESMB participants. Constrained to hold her *own* tongue, rather than speak her mind and give rise to charges of impropriety and bias in her management. Not that those charges didn't come anyway. Any side or faction was free to see anything less than 100% Agreement with *its* side as 'bias'. It's the nature of the beast, but, ESMB survived thanks to the group sanity of ESMB, and thanks to Emma's own restraint.
Other forums operate and operated other ways. In almost all cases, the forum is 'run' by a back-channel 'cabal' of 'insiders'; sometimes a number of them. Sometimes *competing* factions, with 'back-channel' spats breaking out onto the main forum and creating civil war. ESMB was spared that because the only 'back-channel' was Emma, and the only 'herding' going on was the minimal (and I'm sure overwhelming at times to her) moderation necessary to *allow* communication. It's a unique (to my knowledge) way to run a Forum, and, it's why I was a participant for 4 years.
And, without all the other hundreds of participants, and even the lurkers ESMB would not have been ESMB. So, thank you Emma and thank you ESMBers; you done good.
And now, unfortunately, that stage of the evolution is done. The 'why' is unimportant here, but, ESMB has moved on to being an 'asset'. A 'herded' platform with a Party Line. A more or less typical internet forum run from behind by 'special' people who have an agenda and a certainty that they can *use* ESMB for 'good'. A perfectly normal and even potentially valuable exercise, but, it's not the ESMB that Was.
And, the symptoms are startling; purges and 'investigations', even *beyond* ESMB itself. Enemy lists and lies; spin and attacks. Demands for 'knowledge reports' and breaches of confidentiality. I've seen it all before, and, so have you.
No, ESMB may be Emma's 'home', but, it's not mine any more. Under other circumstances I would probably continue to post, and, if ESMB adopts the 'prior restraint' model of control and moderation a'la MartyWorld, I probably will. After all; if I can post to MartyWorld, why couldn't I post to MartyWorld Lite? 'Certain' questions would not be allowed; 'certain' thoughts could not be expressed. There will never be a *list* of 'forbidden subjects' because that list itself would give rise to 'thoughtcrime'. Oh well. It's a moot point.
I've seen it happen before, and, I should probbly be surprised that it didn't happen before on ESMB. The fact remains though that, once it *has* happened, there is no going back. The trust is shattered; the freedom squelched. Much as I'd love to see a miraculous recovery, I'm realisitic enough to know it's not only highly unlikely but practically impossible.
But, in the meantime, ESMB *remains* a valuable asset, because it's the repository of 4 years worth of stories, thoughts and revelations by *hundreds* (if not thousands) of people. And, ESMB may be Emma's 'home', but she does *not* own those thousands of posts. You know, the ones that show up on almost *any* search for 'scientology' and almost any other term. The ones that answer questions from *beyond* ESMB.
Emma is at *most* the custodian of that 4 years of history; not the owner. She has a human and essential *duty* to preserve them, and preserve them as written. If she can't or won't, then she has a duty to pass that historical archive on to someone who will.
Thank you Emma and ESMB; it was a good run.
Zinj