Where did all the Open Minds Forum members go?

With Open Minds Forum restored now for almost half a year at it's new location with forumotion.com we can now turn to look at reaching out to OMF's original members who have not yet returned home. OMF's original membership was over 6,000 members strong, prior to the proboards suspension, according to the rolls of the time. We can probably safely assume that some of those accounts were unidentified socks. If we were to assume a reasonable guess of maybe as many as 30% possible sock accounts then that would leave potentially somewhere between 4800 to 4900 possible real members to locate. That is still a substantial number of people.

Who were all these people? Some were average individuals with common interests in ufology, exopolitics, globalism, corruption, earthchanges, science and technology, and a variety of other interests. Some just enjoyed being part of a vibrant and unusually interesting community. Others were representative of various insider groups participating in observation and outreach projects, while still others were bonafide intelligence community personnel. All with stake in the hunt for truth in one fashion or another. Some in support of truth, and communication. Others seeking real disclosure and forms of proof. And others highly skeptical of anything or limited subjects. The smallest division of membership being wholly anti-disclosure oriented.

So where did these members vanish to? They had many options. There are almost innumerable other forums out there on the topics of UFO's or Exopolitics, the Unexplained, and Conspiracy Theory. Did they disappear into the world-wide network of forum inhabitants? Did some go find new homes on chatrooms or individual blogs? Did they participate in ufo conventions or other public events and gatherings? How about those who represented groups in special access? Or IC and military observers? Those with academic affiliations? Where did they all go and what would be the best way to reach out and extend an invitation to return?

And what constitutes a situation deserving of their time and participation? Is the archive enough? How exactly do people within the paradigm most desire to define a community? Is it amenities, humanity or simply population size for exposure? Most of the special guests have been emailed and have expressed that population size for exposure is what most motivates them. But not all. Long-time member Dan Smith has other priorities and values motivating his participation. Should this open opportunities for unattached junior guests who have experience and dialog to contribute to the world? How best to make use of OMF's time, experience and resources?

Many skeptics would like to see the historical guardian of discourse opportunity to just up and disappear; go into permanent stasis. They think that not everyone has a right to speak about their experiences and if there is no proof involved then there can philosophically be no value to discourse. I personally would respectfully disagree with them. Discourse has always been the prelude to meaningful relationships and meaningful mutual relationships have always been the prelude to exchanges of proof. In a contentious social environment with regards to communication vs disclosure how do we best re-establish a haven for those preludes? Is it only the "if we build it they will come" answer? Well considering OMF has been largely fully functional over the last four or five months this line of reasoning is not necessarily true. So what would be the best way re-establish this? Your suggestions are sought. Please comment.

Well, I am here. The poll above does not seem to apply to me.

I assume loyalties or perhaps a pack mentality is the draw to more fluid arenas. And you probably have you finger on the pulse as to many, but not all of the special guests needing a audience.

We could try a big group hug with our jilted sister. Big sister does have her friends, while many here fixed the dress she lent to the her inner circle.

Cy et al.........

I am not terribly concerned about obscurity or lack thereof. I'm certainly available for consultation wrt outreach, but my experience is limited, in that regard.

What I was thinking is that a high percentage of the original members don't even know the forum was reconstructed. I know this is true because I've had people on my personal email list who didn't know.

The original member list with the corresponding personal email addresses did not survive the Proboards Suspension. There has been no way to directly notify everyone except where individuals were personally associated outside of OMF in some way or for internal augmentation of communication, or those who had joined Compass Morainn at the temporary regrouping.

Basically I'm looking for options to reach out and notify them of what they may not have been informed of. If they then choose not to return, then nothing changes here and we continue on as is. But I don't think any of us would want it said that we didn't try to find them and give them the choice.

Long before OM was closed members were leaving. It was a steady decline,nothing all at once. I know I spoke out against what I observed was taking place. All forums need Mods but over moderation can kill a forum.

In no time at all a forum can become nothing more than a buddy system. You fit the mold or we don't want you. You get exactly what your actions ask for,and the forum begins to die.

In my opinion the very best years were the early days of OM. I felt a freedom to post my opinions,thoughts and beliefs without the hammer coming down.

As the years passed the "hit the door if you don't like it" attitude took root. If you're outside the buddy system the rope gets tighter. For those attempting to stick around you begin to feel like you are walking on egg shells with every word you type.

For the few that will speak out and attempt to stay,they are removed or as I believe to be the case, the vast majority just walk out the door.

A forum is much like a retail business. Once you lose customers it is "Very" difficult getting them to come back. There's always somewhere else to shop that fit their needs.

Scarz does have some valid points. Still, there 'needs' to be some system/action in place for what many would consider intellectual buffoonery.

I don't mind an opposite opinion because it is a sovereign right to experience the world with different eyes. Purposeful childishness and class clowning has its place on a Tosh.O forum somewhere in all seriousness. Hey, even I enjoy a Darwinian moment from time to time.

Most forums may be destined to shed its un-liked. Birds of a feather stick together? It does seem to generally progress to such ends does it not?

Hi guys, I agree with both of you (ScaRZ & MDonnall2002). We need to have healthy freedom to speak, share, and exchange without excessive deliberate misbehavior. With forums sometimes it gets to a point where managers have a hard time distinguishing the difference. Like where individual of dual memberships (other forums) strategize in other locations mischief to be done in this location.

Sometimes it is hard to maintain the atmosphere of humane discourse without allowing the contentious, and negative points of view in some instances and censuring for the sake of sanity deliberate attacks in another. Either end of the pendulum will drive different people away. Preferences of atmosphere often seem to depend on communication style. For some individuals no-holds-barred verbal sparring is normal and acceptable. Some people don't feel it is open free dialog if profanity is not allowed as part of the interactions. Others are the opposite whereas if those sorts of things are present and they have to wade through conflict dialog then the forum could not be considered a location of civil discourse and intellectual value.

Personally, my philosophy is largely hands off with regards to moderating and could be described as middle of the road. I spent 10 years in a rough and tumble no-holds-barred male industry and know enough to not take serious offense to the occasional rise of tempers and heated language. Everyone has a right as far as I'm concerned to get angry at times, same for having a little fun. If someone is having trouble identifying when your joking, labling it "humor" is an easy solution.

On the other hand I have a personal preference for the intellectual style where intensive non-argument (supporting details) based bickering is largely absent. I would hope that where it comes to threads, that forum members here can exercise some common sense and observe that the creator of the thread should have the lead in the style and flavor of the discourse and that if members wish to engage each other in a different way that they have the courtesy to begin a different thread. Or even request the creation of a suitable board. We can easily do things like that. It's flexible here and there's plenty of room to accommodate most every preference style.

Personally speaking I don't want to end up a babysitter and referee for forum faction or netwide factional infighting where the intent is to maime (headhunt) the speakers rather than engage in real discourse. I don't want to find out members are stalking with intent to do harm other members, special guests or annonymous communicators/group representatives at their homes, families, places of employment like what happened at the earlier edition of OMF. That'd be the fastest way to put me on the war path. Admin-ing a forum, it goes with out saying that the likely-hood of some low-level forms of that is probably inevitable. But hopefully after what happened to the first edition of OMF will largely stick in everyone's mind and members, visitors, and external observers will choose to temper their personal conduct enough to "do it differently" this time around.

I do have a number of forum and member defense tools in the old toolbox if it comes to it. I'd prefer those continue to collect dust on the shelf if everyone knows what I mean.

Basically what I want everyone to know is that this new forum is not for me. It's for the benefit of the members; the OMF community family. The only thing I was tasked to do was ensure the survival of the archive. But I'm sharp enough to know that part of the value of the archive is the Soul of the community which created it. That Soul best expresses itself in its own home. That is what this forum is. It is the expression of the meaning and value innate in the archive's materials. That is why this forum was reconstructed. You are it. When it comes to disclosure, whatever proof can be assembled, whatever communication can be made, whatever interpersonal healing relationships can be constructed and achieved, well that's you. You are it. We are judged by our efforts not just our achievements. That is whole point in the myth of the proverbial Round Table. That open door; open mind, courtesy, and welcome to all parties counts and in the long run really does make a difference. Each one of you matters.

Carry on. FiOs.

Cyrellys

I agree with your philosophy Cyrellys. It would be the best route.

It has been a shame that a few, very small few, dished the forum on their way out, thinking their personal gripes and views outweighed the many. And they couldn't even extend the common courtesy of offering an explanation.

I believe this is the major cause for why the members scattered.

A few had burned the forum as they left, for personal ambitions and self aggrandizing ego. And this was obviously apparent to the majority of members. And so they lost interest. I empathize with them.

Another reason this forum is likely to remain small, is for the same cause that all others forums like OMF have lost their attraction. Forum popularity is diminishing. Just like Karaoke became passé. Social styles of internet communications and entertainment have morphed.

Admin,
With regards to your desire to notify all the members....

I used to (every six months) prepare and post an analysis of the members. We found that slightly more than half of all members never post at all. And regardless of how many more members signed on over the years, this ">half not posting" remained consistent.

And approx a 1/3rd of members who did post, never exceeded 10 posts. And only approx 10 percent (of posters) made more than 30 posts.

So doing the math, it works out to approx only 5 percent who where at one time or another, regular contributing members. = 325. (greater than 30 posts each)

I'm doing this by recall btw, but it's close to reality, based on my tracking the stats for years.

Of the approx 325 regular contributors (30+ posts) some came, became active for a brief time, then reverted to lurking over the years. At the peek 6500 members when all the "Special Guests" were at OMF. There were probably no more than approx 250 regular posters = defined as making 2 or more posts per week.

However there were some very prolific posters of course. I personally made 5 percent of all the posts on the forum. And Dan Smith made approx the same. And there were a approx a dozen others who made 2-4 percent of all posts. There were approx 50 members who made 1000 or more posts.

It was these prolific posters that attracted the readership. And at its peek, the readership averaged 1,100 per day (unique hits) Fluctuating between 5,000 and 10,000 unique visitors per week.

---------------------

Concerning informing them.... The vast majority of the members already know about this forum. It's been streamed on Victor's lists, AND every other UFO type forum became aware of the meltdown while it was happening, and watched with interest. So those on the other forums are also aware this forum is here.

More publicity will make little difference at this point.

Take "TheOutPostForum" as a reference. Victor Martinez has plugged that forum to 2000 ufologists at least a couple dozen times over the past year. Yet, they too are very small, with perhaps 25-50 regular contributing members, and a dozen or two who post 2 or more times per week. They have only 103 "active members" (members who have posted) as of today's date.

I do have a publicity attractor, I could release.

But I'm not sure it would do much. As I feel Forums have lost much or their popularity. And therefore, it would serve to be no more that a flash-in-the-pan.

However it would most likely make the UFO Community Headlines and be the talk-of-the-town in UFO circles. But it would perhaps only last a couple/few months, and I wouldn't have much time to help moderate it.

Yes Jake, forums are going out of style. You are correct that even in the hot days of forums most people were lurkers. Those that did join never used their memberships to post much at all.

Some of the members that did take part in The Bible Thread at OMF are members at The OutPost Forum. I'm sure all of them know of OM being back up.

I guess however I could send them a PM and invite them to join in if they would have any interest. I just don't want anyone at The OutPost thinking I'm attempting to take away their membership.

As you've pointing out Jake The OutPost is slow also.

In due time...due time. Hey, is there a way to extract all of the former members' emails and send an email message to them that the Forum's back in action?

I tried an old OM member, but his email address bounced.

I'm still here sort of

Jake and Scarz do you guys remember me?  It's been many years since I've been on any forum.  I never heard the whole story of the fallout.  Would like if one of you guys would fill me in.

Welcome Home Shmush!

The catastrophe of OMFv1 was a culmination event in which a number of things occurred simultaneously.

It included but was not wholly limited to:

a.  combined sock attacks by headhunters who were also prior members via a neighboring set of forums - this set the stage for confusion so that other defining events could occur unnoticed.

b.  Bren, one of the founding Admins had a death in his family and was unavailable

c.  Some confusion, misinterpretation of events, and conflict among the remaining Admins during the attacks

d.  opportunistic covert denial of service attack via manipulation of the hosting company by a combined British and American connected deep black group to essential wipe materials of historic importance from the net which would shine a light on truth under synchronistic circumstances at some point in the future and prevent them from initiating their own version of truth and controlling a "digestable disclosure".

e.  All involved Admin's inability to get a straight and clear understanding of what was happening.  Proboards was NOT giving them clear and accurate accounts of what the problem was.  It was a deliberate no win situation designed to permanently shut the forum down.



Observers within the Compass Morainn organization were able to view the situation and investigate what was happening to determine the situation and the needs of the forum outside of the Admin and Mod groups.  

It was determined that an IC (intelligence community) shutdown attempt was underway and so Compass Morainn decided a quiet and rapid emergency salvage operation was necessary.  The Admins were not informed CM was proceeding with an emergency copy effort of the forum contents for preservation purposes since at the time it was still uncertain if any of the Admins were involved in the "take-down" attempt.  One group of Admins and Mods had already vacated the premises and opened a new forum of their own because they believed the internal conflict between Admins was not reconcilable.  For them this was and continues to remain a true belief because they were unaware of the source of the internal manipulation of the forum which set the stage for the denial of service attack through the hosting company under cover of the chaos created by the prior members engaging in sock attacks.

Compass Morainn's tech team completed the copy of the forum to an offline containment within 2 hours of the final shutdown by Proboards.

The subsequent events occured when Bren attempted to move the community to the reserve Open Minds Forum location which was a tool for times when Proboards was down or the Forum needed some sort of maintenance.  The chaos continued at the reserve forum and Proboards moved in and closed it as well.  

Those members who could be reached were then relocated to Compass Morainn's public forum where they resided for several weeks.  

The only portions Compass Morainn was unable to salvage were the members private messaging and the member list with the member's emails intact, due these areas being restricted by the Proboards system.  Only Admin's had full access the member list and the member's private message areas were just that, private.  So the materials housed in within these two areas were unavailable for emergency copy.  This made it near impossible to contact the full membership as to the restoration of the forum at a different hosting company.  Cyrellys devised a set of videos for youtube posting to help members performing searches for Open Minds Forum to find and return to the community now relocated at the forumotion.com site.  

The Open Minds Forum site resources is now designed in a "hydra-site" style in which the community resources are spread across multiple hosting sites including Webs.com and the Forumotion hosts, and the various archive sites along with a number of non-publicly published backup community sites in the event of a repeat situation.  This protects the remaining community and the archive by forcing attackers to hunt across the net and make a huge scene across multiple hosts if they choose to attempt to force closure again.  The current Admin group has a substantial collection of resources at its disposal should any party decide it wishes to wage war again.  Outcome of any further attacks is prepared to result in an exponential copy of the Archive, the community name, and the situational story across the net in difficult to close locations friendly to open source materials.

The current OMF community is a relatively quiet group keeping the lights on until the prior membership rediscovers its restoration.  We welcome the return of all members.  The current forum design is arranged to be friendly to those who both forum post and maintain personal blogs.  IT is also designed with expansion and a more active role in the internet at large in mind with boards that can handle research reports, news reporting, and even private groups.

The Admin and mod team are open, friendly, and active onsite.  If you have any questions or special needs, please feel free to approach us and let us know what we can do to make this restored home more functional for you.  I am personally available via pm, personal blog, forum, and email.

Cyrellys
Lead Admin
cyrellys@dishmail.net

shmush wrote:Jake and Scarz do you guys remember me?  It's been many years since I've been on any forum.  I never heard the whole story of the fallout.  Would like if one of you guys would fill me in.

Of course I remember you, shmush.  You were one of the team!    

I believe Cyrellys answered your question quite thoroughly.

We owe our respectful thanks to her and her team.  Without Cy, this forum would not exist.  And "Pman35", you might recall him from the "Source A" thread.  It is through his tech skills that we have the forum and Original OMF Archives.

Although current activity is rather sparse at the moment.  Like a wilderness.
Or shall I say - Quality, not quantity.

This is the new Area 51.  No one knows it exists.  And those who do, aren't telling anyone.

 

I'd like to laugh... But, I won't! I'm only going to grin.

How did those electronics fritz out each time?!?! I just have to shake my head sometimes, and ponder an inner voice. "Just remain silent..."

Strange day it was!

Then I woke up.

PS:  Forum Shut-Down:  I don't know any specific particulars concerning Cyrellys notation of IC involvement in Proboards decision.  However I was the one who worked with Bren in discussions with Proboards.  And I can say, with absolute certainty, that there was a SECRET REASON for Proboards decision to NOT reinstate the forum under any conditions what-so-ever, AND without explanation.  And so something of significant power was influencing their action.

The very limited and narrow explanation that Ivo, Surfer, Ufonaut and Garuda tell, IS NOT the whole story.  

Additionally, it should be remembered that OMF was one of the most popular forums that Proboards had.  I recall we were 19th at one point.  19th out of a million forums!  We were thus their 19th largest money making forum.  Given the costs of hosting and managing a million forums, it is easy to understand that they would not relinquish our forum's revenue unless they had little other choice.

.

This one is under protectorate.

Close this door - the other closes also.

shmush wrote:Jake and Scarz do you guys remember me?  It's been many years since I've been on any forum.  I never heard the whole story of the fallout.  Would like if one of you guys would fill me in.

Hello Shmush,I remember you very well. I believe you are Brian......"Is that correct?"

Good to hear from you. I imagine it's been at least six years since you
left OMF.

I hope you stick around and take part in the forum.

Jake Reason wrote:And I can say, with absolute certainty, that there was a SECRET REASON for Proboards decision to NOT reinstate the forum under any conditions what-so-ever, AND without explanation.  And so something of significant power was influencing their action.

It's called a Writ of Assistance.  

Senator Ron Wyden, OR

“Unlike the traditional FISA authorities and unlike law enforcement wiretapping authorities, section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act does not involve obtaining individual warrants,” Wyden explained. “Instead, it allows the government to get what’s called a programmatic warrant, lasts for an entire year, and authorizes the government to collect a potentially large number of phone calls and emails with no requirement that the senders or recipients be connected to terrorism, espionage, the threats that we are concerned about.”


“If that sounds familiar,” he added, “It certainly should. General warrants that allowed government officials to decide whose privacy they would invade were the exact sort of abuse that the American colonists protested over and led the Founding Fathers to adopt the Fourth Amendment in the first place.”

Source:  
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/27/sen-wyden-fisas-general-warrants-are-like-the-writs-of-assistance-the-founding-fathers-despised/

Writ of Assistance:
Document Sample  and Document Sample 2

and http://seriouslyfreespeech.ca/mediabully/the-writ/

Document Sample 3 - Canwest/mediabully



The Contact Paradigm is a matter of national security.  And secretive FISA courts, NSA spying, et al.

It is all about the preps for unambiguous contact and the system's version of a "digestible disclosure".  After the fact of course.  There will be no pre-event disclosure, except by the opposition groups representatives like Hellyer, etc.  

Cy

MD02 wrote:This one is under protectorate.

Close this door - the other closes also.

Yessirrreeee!

Sorry I can't be more specific than that guys.  There's stuff that needs to stay protected there.  Suffice to say it was them (IC).

The factions have been knocking their rocks around while taking pot shots at each other quite some time.  The effects on the general public are just matters of collateral damage.  

I can say this...that they regard National Security (and it has little to do with any real nation) to be a higher priority than any life, lives, or rights of anyone on this world.  There is no morality or ethics in that regard.  Those who took oaths took them and then were taught their oath was to National Security rather than the Constitution and the principles it represents.  Like the globalist umbrella they work beneath, there is no real allegiance to any principles or nation or culture or society.  There is only the hierarchy; the chain of command.  This is how their world works and it is a fertile environment for their kinsmen groups of 90% population reductionists.  

Because of the tendency of the public to think in terms of the good of the people or the good of the world, and to practice acts of seeking recompense, the different factional groups will protect their own skins above all else. The public has earned a reputation via their direct experience with it, to be "too toxic to deal with".  So something like our forum is an easy object for them to attempt to destroy.  They don't care about it being a black swan.

They don't value any of the people out here enough to value what we do.  To them and other groups within the system, the people are expendable and so are our tools and subsistence structures.  They don't care about you.  They can't afford to care about you other than in what way it will benefit them.

This is what separates the globalists from the oath keepers.

Cy

ScaRZ wrote:

shmush wrote:Jake and Scarz do you guys remember me?  It's been many years since I've been on any forum.  I never heard the whole story of the fallout.  Would like if one of you guys would fill me in.

Hello Shmush,I remember you very well. I believe you are Brian......"Is that correct?"

Good to hear from you. I imagine it's been at least six years since you  
left OMF.

I hope you stick around and take part in the forum.

You are absolutely correct!  I do believe we exchanged a few emails back in the day, although I cannot find them anymore.  Hope you are doing well.

Yeah I believe it was '07-'08 time period.  It was during the time when I was a MOD and we were putting together the pertinent info regarding SERPO.  I don't know if anyone knows this, but I asked to have access to the background info that the "SuperMODs" had and although I was tasked with putting together all of the background info on all the key figures, they denied me access.  Needless to say, I didn't really take kindly to the censorship on their part...apparently there were some high level people that they wanted to keep secret.  I thought I was part of the team, but when that happened it soured me to the whole forum experience so I left.  

My passion for this subject has never waned.  I've been passionate since I was 7 years old about this subject.  On a whim I decided to search for the forum recently, and found that it was back in business, so I decided to rejoin and see if I can't get involved again.  

Whatever happened to Greatwaller, or whatever his avatar was?  Is he still alive?  I know he was older.

Is Bren still on here?  

To be honest, I miss SERPO.  That was one of the best things that I liked about being part of a community.  That and talking to the likes of John Lear, whom I like to think I got to come to OM in the first place, also Gary Bekkum, whom I've tried to have let me be his helper, but to no avail, and Kit Green, who was more than willing to talk about anything, which was surprising, considering his security clearance.  He also sent me is CV, which had his SS number on it, which surprised all of us MODs.  

To be honest, I don't really care about the "politics" of the forums, I was just curious why it all went down.  I'm glad that someone was able to back it all up, and I'm glad to be back and to see what's going to happen next.

shmush wrote:

ScaRZ wrote:

shmush wrote:Jake and Scarz do you guys remember me?  It's been many years since I've been on any forum.  I never heard the whole story of the fallout.  Would like if one of you guys would fill me in.

Hello Shmush,I remember you very well. I believe you are Brian......"Is that correct?"

Good to hear from you. I imagine it's been at least six years since you  
left OMF.

I hope you stick around and take part in the forum.

You are absolutely correct!  I do believe we exchanged a few emails back in the day, although I cannot find them anymore.  Hope you are doing well.

Yeah I believe it was '07-'08 time period.  It was during the time when I was a MOD and we were putting together the pertinent info regarding SERPO.  I don't know if anyone knows this, but I asked to have access to the background info that the "SuperMODs" had and although I was tasked with putting together all of the background info on all the key figures, they denied me access.  Needless to say, I didn't really take kindly to the censorship on their part...apparently there were some high level people that they wanted to keep secret.  I thought I was part of the team, but when that happened it soured me to the whole forum experience so I left.  

My passion for this subject has never waned.  I've been passionate since I was 7 years old about this subject.  On a whim I decided to search for the forum recently, and found that it was back in business, so I decided to rejoin and see if I can't get involved again.  

Whatever happened to Greatwaller, or whatever his avatar was?  Is he still alive?  I know he was older.

Is Bren still on here?  

To be honest, I miss SERPO.  That was one of the best things that I liked about being part of a community.  That and talking to the likes of John Lear, whom I like to think I got to come to OM in the first place, also Gary Bekkum, whom I've tried to have let me be his helper, but to no avail, and Kit Green, who was more than willing to talk about anything, which was surprising, considering his security clearance.  He also sent me is CV, which had his SS number on it, which surprised all of us MODs.  

To be honest, I don't really care about the "politics" of the forums, I was just curious why it all went down.  I'm glad that someone was able to back it all up, and I'm glad to be back and to see what's going to happen next.

Shmush, I do remember us sharing some e-mails around the time you gave up the Mod Tag. Most of the ones you refer to as Super Mods opened up another forum called "The Outpost". Here is a link if you wish to check it out.

http://www.theoutpostforum.com/tof/forum.php


I have not heared anything of Greatwaller since he showed up at one of Cyrellys forms after OMF was taken down. He may be at The Outpost Forum,but I don't remember seeing anything of him there. I only drop by every now and then to read some of "Fore's" post.

I have no idea if Bren is around. If he is he must be using another screen name or he is just lurking,or both.

I quess John Lear gave up on OMF a long time ago. I doubt there's enough members taking part here to interest him.

SERPO was pretty much dead and buried years ago. Who knows Victor and Company may attempt to dig it up again. A resurrection of sorts for a new generation.