Topic: monachos.net?

[Tikhon.of.Colorado]

I seem to be very, very out of the loop here, but what exactly is "monachos.net"?  I've been to the site and it seems interesting...an Eastern Christian forum?  Is it somehow related to OC.net?

thanks!!! 

[PeterTheAleut]

My experience is that monachos.net is a Web site and discussion forum devoted to the study of Orthodox Christianity from a patristic, monastic, and liturgical point of view. The discussions there, IIRC, tend to be much deeper and much more academic than what you'll generally find here at OC.net. To my knowledge OC.net and monachos.net are not in any way connected to each other outside of their common devotion to Orthodox Christianity.

[Tikhon.of.Colorado]

My experience is that monachos.net is a Web site and discussion forum devoted to the study of Orthodox Christianity from a patristic, monastic, and liturgical point of view. The discussions there, IIRC, tend to be much deeper and much more academic than what you'll generally find here at OC.net. To my knowledge OC.net and monachos.net are not in any way connected to each other outside of their common devotion to Orthodox Christianity.

I see.  Thanks for the helpful info, PTA!   

[PeterTheAleut]

My experience is that monachos.net is a Web site and discussion forum devoted to the study of Orthodox Christianity from a patristic, monastic, and liturgical point of view. The discussions there, IIRC, tend to be much deeper and much more academic than what you'll generally find here at OC.net. To my knowledge OC.net and monachos.net are not in any way connected to each other outside of their common devotion to Orthodox Christianity.

I see.  Thanks for the helpful info, PTA!   

Any time.

[Salpy]

In my opinion, Monachos is not that academic.  I've seen at least one thread where misinformation about the OO's is repeated, but efforts to correct the misinformation got the thread shut down.  What is allowed to be posted over there seems to be very controlled.

It is, in my opinion, a very boring place.  That may be why some people think it is academic.  Boring=Academic.  

And no, Monachos is not related to OC.net.  I don't think anything related to OC.net could be that boring.

[Tikhon.of.Colorado]

In my opinion, Monachos is not that academic.  I've seen at least one thread where misinformation about the OO's is repeated, but efforts to correct the misinformation got the thread shut down.  What is allowed to be posted over there seems to be very controlled.

It is, in my opinion, a very boring place.  That may be why some people think it is academic.  Boring=Academic.  

And no, Monachos is not related to OC.net.  I don't think anything related to OC.net could be that boring.

haha    I picked up on that, too.  It is a bit boring 

[mike]

Bot that approves registration messaged me that my name (they require a full name as a login) is invalid so I couldn't create an account there.

I hope the another one CAF thread won't emerge here

[Salpy]

Well, I think you have a very nice name, and if Monachos doesn't like it, that's their loss.

[Salpy]

In my opinion, Monachos is not that academic.  I've seen at least one thread where misinformation about the OO's is repeated, but efforts to correct the misinformation got the thread shut down.  What is allowed to be posted over there seems to be very controlled.

It is, in my opinion, a very boring place.  That may be why some people think it is academic.  Boring=Academic.  

And no, Monachos is not related to OC.net.  I don't think anything related to OC.net could be that boring.

haha    I picked up on that, too.  It is a bit boring 

I don't know.  Maybe we are being too hard on them.  I just clicked on over there and saw that they had 11 new posts today.     I don't think I could keep up with posting at such a breakneck speed.

[Cognomen]

 I just clicked on over there and saw that they had 11 new posts today.

Perhaps someone needs to start up a toll house thread over there to fire them up.   

Seems to me that the site itself is a helpful, centralized search point for Patristics, Orthodox articles and the like.  Never spent time on the forum.

[IsmiLiora]

If you start that one, I'll start a thread entitled "Pews: Why not?"

[deusveritasest]

In my opinion, Monachos is not that academic.  I've seen at least one thread where misinformation about the OO's is repeated, but efforts to correct the misinformation got the thread shut down.  What is allowed to be posted over there seems to be very controlled.

It is, in my opinion, a very boring place.  That may be why some people think it is academic.  Boring=Academic.  

That's my experience as well. Monachos seems highly intellectual, but at the same time very narrow-minded and uncritical.

[xariskai]

Bot that approves registration messaged me that my name (they require a full name as a login) is invalid so I couldn't create an account there.

I hope the another one CAF thread won't emerge here

Same thing happened to me. I tried to register a few times, attempted to contact the board, and finally just gave up.

[Father Peter]

I used to post there for a long time and it was my main forum. I racked up a couple of thousand posts. Some of the moderators didn't like OO posting. They started introducing rules such as that the OO members could not refer to their communion as Church. Then we all had to set our profiles to Guest even though some of us had been there for years and had helped build up the site. Then even topics like 'How could Constantinople 553 be a basis for agreement' were banned.

I didn't find it a means of studying Orthodoxy through patristics at all.

Lol! I remember that even when OO agreed with the EO moderators we were told that we were not agreeing in the same way because we were not Orthodox. And when EO moderators were asked to explain their position they would suggest that since we OO were not Orthodox we would not be able to understand it!

They really didn't like it when a few people realised they had been fed misinformation about the OO.

It became very boring, and rather offensive, so I left.

[Iconodule]

I used to post there for a long time and it was my main forum. I racked up a couple of thousand posts. Some of the moderators didn't like OO posting. They started introducing rules such as that the OO members could not refer to their communion as Church.

Can you indicate the posts where this was said? I recall OO threads going for many, many pages.

Monachos is a site for discussing Eastern Orthodoxy. It is, IMO, a much more mature though not always academic forum- there's plenty of non-academic discussion. There is room for disagreement and heated debates, but you will never see the utterly pointless and stupid Orthodox-Catholic disputes that are chronic on this forum. The moderation is fair, even-handed, and does not behave like a clique. I don't consider monachos boring at all.

[IsmiLiora]

They don't use smilies, and for that reason I don't trust them. 

[Father Peter]

The present Monachos forum rules require an OO to register as a Guest, or to change their setting to Guest if they were OO members, and I had posted enough to be a Very Frequent Poster. The rules also state that threads discussing EO and OO comparisons and relations will be terminated.

I received instructions from the moderators that I should not refer to my communion using the word Orthodox Church as it was against forum rules. I have just logged back in and read the message again. I see that I left fairly soon after it became clear in July 2007 that no OO discussion was to be permitted. It's their site and they can run it how they like, but I had committed many hundreds of hours of serious posts in a generally eirenic and positive spirit.

Father Peter Farrington

[GabrieltheCelt]

I used to post there for a long time and it was my main forum. I racked up a couple of thousand posts. Some of the moderators didn't like OO posting. They started introducing rules such as that the OO members could not refer to their communion as Church.

Can you indicate the posts where this was said? I recall OO threads going for many, many pages.

Monachos is a site for discussing Eastern Orthodoxy. It is, IMO, a much more mature though not always academic forum- there's plenty of non-academic discussion. There is room for disagreement and heated debates, but you will never see the utterly pointless and stupid Orthodox-Catholic disputes that are chronic on this forum. The moderation is fair, even-handed, and does not behave like a clique. I don't consider monachos boring at all.

Hear! Hear! + one!!  (Although, if the charges brought forward from the OO perspective are correct, that perhaps might need to be addressed.)  I used to really enjoy my time on this forum, and still do to a point, but this site lacks serious study/conversation.  I appreciate that people are allowed to post their opinions, but it's frustrating that rarely, if ever, will a priest get involved to provide the correct viewpoint (whether that is OO or EO); things are said and just left for the others to try and sift through the wheat and chaff on their own.  But to be completely fair to this forum- it's moderators are volunteers and (despite the fact that this site uses Eastern Orthodox icons) it is NOT an Eastern Orthodox site or forum.

[Carl Kraeff (Second Chance)]

But to be completely fair to this forum- it's moderators are volunteers and (despite the fact that this site uses Eastern Orthodox icons) it is NOT an Eastern Orthodox site or forum.

Bozhe moi! I did not know that. 

[Father Peter]

I think this is the best moderated religious forum on the internet. It used to be crazy when I used to battle with Linus7 but now it is a pleasant place and I find it easily as intelligent as Monachos. I think to say otherwise is to fail to do justice to the knowledge and spirituality of those who post here.

[Gamliel]

I think this is the best moderated religious forum on the internet. It used to be crazy when I used to battle with Linus7 but now it is a pleasant place and I find it easily as intelligent as Monachos. I think to say otherwise is to fail to do justice to the knowledge and spirituality of those who post here.

I belong to both forums.  I did not know what the monachos rules were doing to the OO and am sorry to hear that.  I still plan to stay with monachos, as I do not think it is boring, and I do think it has a wealth of information, but I hope the moderators let up on the OO.

[Father Peter]

Well people are free to run their own forums how they choose. I wouldn't want to start generally criticising other forums. But I was rather upset by what happened on Monachos because I, and other OO, had committed a great deal of time and effort to contributing and participating in a positive manner.

If yoy get something out of Monachos and other forums then I am genuinely glad and would not wish it to be thought I was suggesting EO should avoid Monachos at all. But it is rather narrow and inward looking, in my opinion. That isn't the same as being Orthodox.

[orthonorm]

If 87.472% of the their threads do not involve lambasting RCs over the same three issues over and over again, I have no interest.

[Αριστοκλής]

I think this is the best moderated religious forum on the internet. It used to be crazy when I used to battle with Linus7 but now it is a pleasant place and I find it easily as intelligent as Monachos. I think to say otherwise is to fail to do justice to the knowledge and spirituality of those who post here.

Now THOSE were some run amok threads. We're much better behaved here now. 

[Father Peter]

It was unfortunate that Linus7 and I both developed Pon-farr at the same time!

[Schultz]

I look at it this way:

Monachos.net = going to a seminar on Eastern Orthodoxy

OC.net = coffee hour after Sunday liturgy

[Salpy]

^  A seminar where incorrect information may be given.

I am specifically recalling a thread about Antioch communing OO's.  I think this was from the time after Fr. Peter and a lot of other OO's had left.  The thread bashed the OO's for about three pages, calling us heretics and other names, and saying all kinds of false stuff about us.  When on the fourth page a guy came on and tried correcting one of the false beliefs about us, there was a warning from a moderator that "inter-church discussion" would not be allowed.

The bashing then continued with more false information, posted from a website notorious for that kind of thing.  No warning was given for that.

Then Isa came on the thread and tried to correct something false that was said about us.

Then the thread was locked.

If that's what seminars on Eastern Orthodoxy are like, I don't want to attend any.   

[Salpy]

But to be completely fair to this forum- it's moderators are volunteers and (despite the fact that this site uses Eastern Orthodox icons) it is NOT an Eastern Orthodox site or forum.

Bozhe moi! I did not know that.  

We're an Orthodox forum, which is why the OO's are allowed to participate so freely:

http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php/topic,24177.msg381079.html#msg381079

[Father Peter]

Well I wasn't going to recall specifics, but since Salpy is not known for polemics and she was also frustrated by behaviour such as that, I will agree that this was why I left.

At least on OCnet there was a degree of wild and dangerous freedom to engage one's opponent. But when only one side is heard, and misrepresents the other, then there is no point in staying.

[Schultz]

^  A seminar where incorrect information may be given.

I've been to plenty of seminars, both spiritual and secular in nature, where incorrect information is not only given but the floor is not open to Q&A after the presentation.

So I stand by my characterization

[Salpy]

Thanks for the clarification.   

[Iconodule]

I think this is the best moderated religious forum on the internet. It used to be crazy when I used to battle with Linus7 but now it is a pleasant place and I find it easily as intelligent as Monachos. I think to say otherwise is to fail to do justice to the knowledge and spirituality of those who post here.

It has nothing to do with the people who post here- many of them are also on monachos. But the atmosphere on this forum is often less conducive to meaningful discourse, as evidenced by the many, many pages of childish antics in thread after thread in the Orthodox-Catholic forum.

[Father Peter]

I think that I have found the OO section of OCnet to be useful and thoughtful. If the EO-Catholic threads degenerate then those who participate should perhaps examine themselves.

I had to leave one EO dominated forum because Catholics were routinely insulted and then told that it was an EO forum so they should get over it.

[podkarpatska]

If 87.472% of the their threads do not involve lambasting RCs over the same three issues over and over again, I have no interest.

rotfl

[Schultz]

If 87.472% of the their threads do not involve lambasting RCs over the same three issues over and over again, I have no interest.

Hold on there.  It's 87.274%, buddy!