Forum Direction?

[Amelie-Laveau]

Gracie I am so sorry to hear you this way. I have had tough times in my life outside of the forum and I have brought my anger to the forum in the past. This was wrong of me and I am very sorry if I had hurt you, CJ or Shannon in any way.
I am trying to better myself and I hope my words never hurt anyone again.
I really love you Gracie and CJ, Virginia, Liz and others here, you all have been much help to me in your posts. I have learned a lot from you all.
Thanks to you, Gracie
Love Amelie
xxx

[Virginia]

Amelie,
Thanks, hon, for your kind words. I think that we all continue to learn and to deal with our gift! It can really be a struggle for us sometimes and when we try and express ourselves "in writing" like here on this forum, sometimes the emotions are misconstruded, but we must all understand that and continue to love and support each other. No matter what we say or do we all still have a "tough row to hoe," even with this beautiful gift!
God bless you and and all my sisters here!
Love ya!
Virginia

[Carolynn]

Gracie, you have no reason to apologise to anyone. You have done a great job , with humor and sensitivity, and your genuine caring has always shown through. You have grown and changed, for the better IMHO, as you have come to know yourself. Take a rest, but stick around. Recharge. But always do what is best for You!!

Love Carolynn

[Maria]

Gracie,

I am going to miss you here! It was wonderful having you here as the moderator of this forum. You have done a beautiful and graceful job here! Thank you helping me set up my avatar.

Good luck to you!

Maria

[Merinda]

Firstly thanks to Lorna for your excellent post on this matter


Gracie ,

You have done an excellent job here in the past and I hope you return to do so in the future , I will miss you.

lots of love and hugs to you Gracie

[SilverLady(SO)]

with Lorna, Virginia, & Merinda!

As Gracie liked to say, "I knew if I waited long enough, someone would say it for me!" Gracie will be sorely missed, and I hope she returns when she's ready.

On the other hand, though, I firmly believe that Stephanie W, as well as Jadeanne and Curly(SO), will make excellent new Moderators, and they deserve our support, as well. {*}

As Lorna so clearly pointed out, this is a free forum, the moderators are not paid, and we are all guests in this house belonging to Shannon & Sharon(SO).

I believe our Hosts and Moderators deserve a big round of applause for all their hard work.

I thank them for allowing me to be a guest in their home. I appreciate their hospitality and friendship, and hope I may return the favor some day.

{* I've edited this on 12-03-2005 upon seeing they're new Moderators, also. - SL}

[Lynne]

Beautifully said, Lorna! A great big hUg! for you!! :-)
Lynne

[Elizabeth]

Hi girls,

Gracie,

I for one am very sad to see you step down as moderator. As you know I have lobbied hard to get and keep the forum in it's current form. Yes, it is not the same as other places. It is more subdued. However, going off my own personal experience, it needs to be that way.

I beleive there are many out there who are/were frightened, just like I was. It was the gentleness of this place that allowed me to come here and admit for the very first time, I was a crossdresser. This is not the first place that comes up when you do a google search.

Nothing against other sites on the internet for crossdressers, I occasionally post on some of them, but they seemed geared more towards those who were already out and living the transgendered lifestyle. When I got here I did not need a forum section to date, I needed to find out how to erase the browser history so no one would ever find out I had been here.

I lobbied to get rid of Mordor when it became a place of fighting, backbiting, name calling and other unpleasantness. I felt that it was a huge distraction from helping those who came here afraid, like i had. So we compromised and Mordor was moved to a closed area and it's name changed, some time later.

Let us not forget, we lost a lot of valuable forum members, particularly the SO's, directly or indirectly because of the problems caused by Mordor.

If you(Gracie) stepping down means a return to the ways of Mordor, I don't see that as being a good thing for this forum. Unfortunately, it is not my forum nor my decision.

Gracie, thankyou from the bottom of my heart, for all that you have done for me personally and this forum. I can not tell you in a quantifyable way what you have meant to me. I love you and will miss you being a moderator.

Love always,
Elizabeth

[GalicianGirl(SO)]

I just wanted to let everyone know that the forum will still be run exactly the same way. I will not let it turn into something that is anything other then a sympathetic, loving, and caring place.

I have been making most of the decisions on how this forum was to be run with input from Gracie. Since I am still Administrator of this forum, I will continue to stand firm on having it continue this way.

Gracie has been a great asset to this forum and I'm sad to see her step down... Hopefully it will not be permanent...

Sharon(SO)

[Kersten Lee]

Hi All,

After being gone for so many months, I am so surprised to see these problems still. It makes me very sad. I came here a long while back hating myself and most others. People here found me and took care of me. We talked about and discussed about everything. I was built up and up. It was rare indeed to be torn down.

Somehow, as we became so intimate, the same as family, we felt like we could let it all hang out. We believed we could do this no matter who we trampled. Believe me, I have been guilty myself. The thing is, sometimes we forgot to respect others space. Bad behavior became so common as to disrupt the free flow of ideas and feelings. At this point moderators had to exert some control for the greater good. I did not like the change, but I could see things had gotten too angry so often that it had become necessary.

Survival of freedom cannot depend on laws alone. Freedom to exist anywhere requires personal responsibility. I would humbly ask that all of us, when writing, remember the buck stops with each and everyone of us.

Lots of Love,
Kersten

[Stephanie H]

I am finally getting around to reading this thread and strongly echo Lorna's post.
I also feel as a guest in someone elses house and feel that I will treat all with respect and coutesy at all times.
We were fortunate to have moderator as pleasant as Gracie has been to me, I will greatly miss her. Gracie, thank you.

I think that each of us needs to revist our purpose of joing and becomming an active participant in the forum. For me, it was to receive different view points on the "Gift" and to understand myself. I also wanted to participate as much as I could by giving my ideas and comments to others who created threads that were of interest to me.
Hopefully, we will all respect the decisions of Stephanie W as the new active moderator. We need to remember, it is a thankless job, and if we want the forum to be as we joined it, "a place for information, ideas and trading "war stories" we must place our trust in Stephanie W.

[Anita]

You've done a fine job, Gracie, in my eyes. I know the kind of hours you must put in in order to do that kind of job, too. Take care of yourself for awhile, and post when you feel like it.

[DonnaT]

Gracie, sorry to see you go, even if only for a short time. I reckon you've a lot going on now, and there's always something coming up to add more to your plate.

I was surprised to learn from Sharon that you were taking a hiatus, since this thread didn't initially interest me, so I missed your announcement.

Hopefully, the other new mods and I can keep up with the load you were taking on.

Take care.

[Eva]

Instead of my first ultra-long post which thankfully was deleted by mistake, let me just say I fee; sad for Loretta Ann, Beauty and any person who has to let go of something they enjoy because of a family squabble.
luv to all,
e

[Marda]

Hi Ladies,
~
Pls excuse me while I go to the fridge here in my favorite 'soul kitchen' for some fresh water ...

Just back after a long time away, I'm obviously a bit out of the loop so I'll be as quiet as I can be ...

It sure is nice to be back here - I've been in some places recently that were anything but civilized and are showing no signs of improving, and even all signs of deteriorating further into the muck of human unkindness ...

Pardon my ignorance, but it seems Gracie = Beauty ? I don't think I know Gracie - but I remember Beauty took her thimble to my ear once or twice in the past when I was yapping or behaving a bit on the risky side ...

I've always considered the overall management of this forum to be a benchmark for others - setting and living up to high standards of 'housekeeping' - heaven knows I've pushed the limits here in my own search for 'self' and meaningful interaction ...

Sharon was very kind to me and unlocked the door for me when I returned unannounced late the other night after almost a year away ...

Now when I read this thread, as unsettling as some of it seems, I also have a warm enough feeling that "here you all are acting like women" !!! ... *almost* the way I would have expected to find you after a long time a way ...

Without naming names, I hope those of you who need time away, as I had to take, will drift back when you are able - meanwhile, know you are loved and missed ...

To my experiences, of all the rough and rotten places to land here in cyberspace, or over in "facespace", this is *not* one of them !!!

Tnx Sharon, and delegates, moderators, members, guests ...
~

Love / Marda