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2. What is the purpose of this Web site? 3. What exactly is the group “The Children of God/The Family”? 6. I disagree strongly with something that I read on here. What should I do? 7. What is “The Trailer Park”? 8. Why was my comment or article moved to “The Trailer Park”? 9. Don't I have the absolute right to complete freedom of speech? 10. Who are the Web site administrators? 11. Who are the Web site editors? 12. Can someone be blocked from this Web site? What would get them blocked? 13. Are the administrators power hungry control freaks who are out to get me? 14. Is [insert name here] a Family spy? 15. I want to become an editor. How do I do that? 17. What's the deal with the Grammar Nazi/s? 18. Who is responsible and/or liable for what is written on this Web site? 19. Someone is harassing me. What should I do? 20. Why does the chat room suck? 22. Can another participant trace my computer from this Web site? 23. How is my privacy protected here? 24. Something is not working. What should I do? 25. I have a great idea for a new feature here. Can you build this for me? 26. I think this site sucks and I could make a better one in my sleep. What do you think about that? MovingOn.org was created for people born and/or raised in the religious group known as The Children of God or The Family. While the majority of participants are people who have left (hence the name Moving On,) second or third generation young people who still live in Family communes are welcome to participate on here as well. Friends and relatives of participants are also welcome here, as are those who were raised in other religious groups. However, the web site's primary purpose (see FAQ #2) is to discuss life in and after the Family for those raised in it, so please keep the discussions topical and respect that this is “our space”. People who chose to join The Family as adults had a very different experience than those who were children in it and are not the target audience of this web site. In particular absolutely no one on this site wants to hear preaching from people who joined the group. Most of us grew up hearing nothing but preaching and “testimonies” of how bad they were and how great they are now, so no one will take too kindly to this. There are other discussion groups and web sites online for first generation current and former members where the reception will be much warmer. People who joined The Family as adults are however welcome here as long as they understand and respect that this site is primarily for those of us who had no choice in being part of the insanity. 2. What is the purpose of this Web site? The purpose of this web site is twofold: a. To provide a forum for open and frank discussion on the unique experience of being raised in The Family, on life after the group and how we have adjusted (or not). b. To connect with real people. The purpose of this web site is also to provide a place to connect with old friends, to make new friends and to find support among those few people who understand the unusual background of someone who was raised in the Family. As such, this web site is ultimately a means to an end and not an end in itself. The opinions and beliefs of many of the participants vary greatly on almost every topic, which results in frequent and lively debate. This is something that keeps this site interesting. There is no “official” belief that someone must adhere to participate on this web site. All that is asked is the understanding that if we have lived through it, then we know what we are talking about. 3. What exactly is the group “The Children of God/The Family”? Please see here for more information on this organization: http://www.movingon.org/thefamily.asp 4. What's up with the strange terminology people use on this Web site? What on earth are you all talking about? Sorry about that. The Family developed a strange lingo all it's own which we are all fluent in. We do know how to talk normally, but when discussing our background, sometimes these are the words that come to mind. Other cults such as Microsoft and the US Marines also have dialects all their own. A glossary of Family lingo can be found here: http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/Category:Glossary 5. Why is this site called Moving On when people are talking about their past? You must not really be Moving On? Well, aren't you original? Please refer to the many times this question has been answered before: http://www.movingon.org/article.asp?sID=3&Cat=48&ID=1909 http://www.movingon.org/category.asp?sID=3&Cat=48 6. I disagree strongly with something that I read on here. What should I do? To start with, it might be a good idea to check your facts. You may have misunderstood the person in question, be mistaking them for someone else or you may be misinformed about the topic being discussed. If you are still aggravated then you basically have three options: a. Conclude that this was a personal attack against you and that the author is now your mortal enemy. Devote all your time to rants about how much you hate them and call them every name you can think of. Call or email all your friends and have them get involved as well. Spend the next three months brooding about how evil this person is. End up with your comments being moved to the Trailer Park (See FAQ #7). b. Explain that you disagree with their statement and specifically why you disagree. Stick to the topic and avoid resorting to personal jibes. Lay out a clear, concise and factual argument and baffle them with your dazzling wit and/or intellect. Then move on. c. Ignore it. Do you really need someone who is probably thousands of miles away to agree with you on everything? 7. What is “The Trailer Park”? It's basically a way to maintain the quality of the content on this site without resorting to deleting comments. See here for a more detailed explanation: http://www.movingon.org/trailer.asp 8. Why was my comment or article moved to “The Trailer Park”? There are three possible reasons for this: a. Each user of this site can vote to send a comment or article to the trailer park if they think it is unnecessarily rude, mean or obscene. If a comment or article receives five votes, it is automatically moved. b. The administrators of this Web site can move something immediately if they deem it offensive or obscene. This is usually a rare occurrence but might happen if they don't want to wait for votes. c. If you have replied to a comment that was moved to the trailer park, then your comment will be moved there as well. This occurs whether you reply before or after the comment is moved. If your comment was moved, you may be annoyed. However you'll probably agree that in the grand scheme of things having a comment moved from a blue page to a pink page is not that big a deal. 9. Don't I have the absolute right to complete freedom of speech? Unless you are living in China or The Family, (or if you are really unlucky in The Family in China) you sure do have the right of freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want whenever you want. However you cannot say it wherever you want. If you want to yell at your neighbor, you have every right to do it from your living room. You cannot go into his house and yell at him in his living room. While this web site may look like it's in your living room, it's actually not. Personal feuds, drunken ramblings, temper tantrums and obscene thoughts are best indulged in privately. Really. No one wants to read that. 10. Who are the web site administrators? Jules 11. Who are the web site editors? Not all of the editors are always active on this web site.
If you want to see who edits which section then go to the main page of the section in question. The editor's name is displayed there. 12. Can someone be blocked from this web site? What would get them blocked? Among people who joined the Family as adults, observers and those who are just interested, those who refuse to respect our "space" here and are consistently rude, condescending or obscene will be blocked from this site. This web site is pretty much open to anyone who was raised in the Family, no matter what their views. However, someone who endorses child abuse, even if they were raised in this group, will be blocked from this web site. Predators are not welcome here. 13. Are the administrators power hungry control freaks who are out to get me? Hey, everything is possible. What is more probable is that you are just having a bad day and the persecution complex ingrained into us as children is kicking in. 14. Is [insert name here] a Family spy? It's not likely. It's more probable that you and they disagree on something and that's as far as it goes. At some point almost every participant has thought that some other participant is a secret Family spy. We all seem to be a little paranoid at times, sometimes perhaps with good reason. While it's always a good idea to be careful with the information you disclose online, try asking around about the person in question first. Almost everybody has a few people that they know personally. If you are really concerned and someone's behavior is harmful and inappropriate, then contact an administrator and they can check it out for you. 15. I want to become an editor. How do I do that? Any participant who would like to can become an editor. Simply send an email to an administrator with the details of the section you would like to manage and we can set this up for you. Please note that you must agree to the editor's code of conduct prior to having your section set up. http://www.movingon.org/editors.asp It can be pretty tricky sometimes to tell the difference between a cult and a web site. To help you out here are some simple pointers: * One uses creative scripting, the other creative scriptures. Hope this helps keep things straight for you. If you are still confused then please contact an admin for instructions on how to send ten percent of your income to them. They will then send you colorful brochures explaining how this web site is not a cult. 17. What's the deal with the Grammar Nazi/s? Grammar Nazi is a phrase first used here by an exceptionally brilliant and witty participant of this Web site. It refers to people who consistently work themselves up into a frenzy over spelling errors and incorrect grammar. For your best options on dealing with Grammar Nazi's, please refer to FAQ #6. Interestingly enough, a Grammar Nazi can be transformed into a spelling disaster themselves, simply by adding enough alcohol. 18. Who is responsible and/or liable for what is written on this Web site? The owner of this site (that would be me, Jules) is liable for anything written on here. No one is suing anyone else apart from me for what is written down here. If anyone threatens you privately or on the site, please refer them to me. My contact info is easily obtained and I take full legal responsibility for this web site, whether I personally agree with the participants or not. If anyone believes any statement made here to be false, they are welcome to clear their name themselves. If they wish to take legal action instead, I solely and personally claim full liability and they should come after me. 19. Someone is harassing me. What should I do? If someone has sent you nasty emails or is constantly harassing you in the chat room or on the site, please let an administrator know about this. If you have received spam or unsolicited emails that appear to be from this web site, please let an admin know. We do not endorse spam or harassment. 20. Why does the chat room suck? It's a free third party ASP/Flash application that I downloaded and host on the web server. It's not very efficient and uses up way too many server resources. Eventually I will upgrade it. I don't use Java because the web server doesn't support it and I don't use IRC because I want something that I can pull the names from to show who is chatting. Basically it sucks because I don't have time to fix it properly. 21. Are emails sent through this web site private? What about the chat room? Are conversations in there recorded? Emails sent through this web site are not read by anyone but the recipient. The web server acts as a relay and does not store email messages sent through the forms. In fact setting up a profile with an email form is a better and safer bet than posting your email address in a comment or article you write. If someone is harassing you, they can be blocked from sending you emails through your profile. (Eventually I will build the ability for people to block people themselves, but for now this can be done for you). Also you are quite likely to receive a huge increase in penis enlargement and Nigeria money laundering emails if you post your email address where it is visible anywhere on the Internet. Chat room conversations are also not recorded. The messages written in there are stored in a temporary part of the server which is accessed only by the people in the chatroom and are deleted when people log out of chat. This is one reason for using such a sucky application. There are many free remotely hosted chat rooms that do not crash all the time, but the messages go through the web server that belongs to the company hosting the chat application. I don't know what their policies or practices are and I would therefore not be able to guarantee privacy and anonymity. 22. Can another participant trace my computer from this Web site? No, they cannot. If you wish to stay completely anonymous, then you have that option. 23. How is my privacy protected here? See the privacy policy for a detailed explanation on this: http://www.movingon.org/privacy.asp Please note that participants also have a responsiblity to protect their own privacy here by not posting personally identifiable information such as real names, phone numbers, mailing addresses, etc. 24. Something is not working. What should I do? Please email an administrator with the details of the error you received. Be as specific as possible and if you can, copy the error message into the email. 25. I have a great idea for a new feature here. Can you build this for me? Hey, anything's possible. If there is a feature you would like to see added to this web site, you can post it online or email your idea to an administrator. Some things may not be feasible, but this web site evolves as my coding (painfully slowly) improves. A lot of the features here now came from suggestions from the participants. 26. I think this site sucks and I could make a better one in my sleep. What do you think about that? I think the more the merrier and you should go for it. Please let me know when you get it done and I will put a link on the home page to your web site. Last updated: April 26, 2005 |
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