Hi and welcome back Danielle. I didn't feel it would be fair to hijack your thread so I started this one.Jamie Ann wrote:Danielle La Belle wrote:May 26, 2005……
I may not always run with the pack girlfriends. I may run outside the circle that has been defined as the appropriate place to run. After all, just how much can be said about “the various shades of lipstick” as another forum member so eloquently put it. There is life after lipstick. I hope to talk about that in the near future. I think that this forum will shape itself well into the future. With no one particular opinion or personality to dominate the issues, there will be much to talk about and share among those that willingly participate in the various threads.
Hugs,
Danielle Marie
I am glad to see you back, Danielle! I hope that you are right about this forum having a bright future, but I am undecided about that. Competition is the name of the game, in CD forums as in business, and those forums that meet needs or have the greatest appeal will win out.
Talking about significant issues here, for the most part, is restricted to the “Hot Topics” usergroup. Most participants here do not even know that this area exists, and even the Site Administrator has only the foggiest idea of what that area is and why it is important. Consequently, it is hidden from view, which means that few people go there. As Sharon(SO) said in a recent response to a user of this forum, “ ‘Hot Topics’ is a private, hidden usergroup and can only be viewed by members whose names are in that group. It is an area that can get really heated, so if you don’t like debates, heated discussions, talking about politics and CD related issues, etc., you would probably not like the usergroup. But if you want to be added to the group, that is fine. The only qualification is that you have to have been a posting member of our forum for at least a month.”
This point of view, which emphasizes secrecy and hiddenness, greatly reduces discussion of the issues that most CD’s and most SO’s are most concerned about. In a thread below, for instance, Darlene raised the issue of conservative Evangelical Christians seeing crossdressers who go out in public as deceitful persons whose motivations are fraudulent. (Darlene had to sugar-coat this observation, but my statement of it is accurate.) This would be an important topic to discuss. But we are very restricted in discussing it — unless we want to see our responses moved to the hidden area. So the original question was reformulated by those who responded so as to become the question of whether CD’s are deceiving or pretending. That may be in interesting question, but it is not the question of why conservative Evangelical Christians insist of seeing a man who wears a blouse as evil — or of what we as a community might do to change that perception.
To Jamie Ann's point though I really want our family of users here to know we're really not competing with other forums. We think it's great that there's more choice out there for support. We'd hate to see those we love leave us because they want us to change things, but we also want you to be happy and feel like you are being heard by people are the same level of thinking you are.
Plenty of people have left this forum and we'll probably lose a lot more, but we respect their choice to leave. There are so many sites out there that have different themes, different rules, different guidelines. It's good to explore. We'd love for you to always return here sometime during your day, but we accept some might not.
Our audience is pretty defined these days and thanks to those who want change more than we're willing to change things, we can tell this is not the place for them anymore. This is not a place for the masses, but it is a friendly little virtual pub. As Jamie pointed out there are lots of CD pubs on the web and more and more are appearing everyday. I'm so happy to see this.
Especially when I don't have to admin them. 
I'm a member of 12 groups myself. It's probably a few more, but I love each one for different reasons. This is my web home though. I always come here and feel good about things (when things are good). Like a local pub it's good to see friends that I know.
We love you, we really do. All the members of the forum. We're happy to have you here. If you want to leave though, we respect your decisions and will welcome you back should you want to stay with our house rules. In that way we're winners.
We're also winners with our sincerity of caring for our members. A lot of us have gone through tough times here. A lot of us have supported members through tough times and for this I feel we are all winners. Competition? Naaaa.. They win. We're not ever in the place of grand hotel forum. We're a bed & breakfast forum. We may come in last place when it comes to being the best or we're headed there some fear, but we'll always do our best for those who want to stay and can live by our house rules. We're optimistic we'll be ok based on feedback we get privately. Sharon and I always get PMs and e-mails out of the blue from both new and old members telling us to stay strong and giving us their support. We also sometimes get threads of those who thank us. Those are usually our regulars.
Thank you!!! To all the new forums out there and those that are getting better we wish you the absolute best!!!
If our people want another place to rest their internet fingers we hope you take care of them.
We don't get a lot of members, but we're not trying to. Those we do get though must like something since they've been here a while.
Even regulars have to go at times though or grow beyond us. We wish everyone well though. We love you even if you leave.We'll always have people here and there will always be those who come off the street looking for a place to share this part of their lives. We'll let them stay here if they want and can handle our rules, but we'll happiliy, and with great respect, help them find another pub if they don't like ours.
Thanks Jamie Ann for bringing this up. People should know there are more choices out there. Please visit our Link Of Interest Area to find more forums out there.
Beauty
