Who would like to see Nate Merritt back here again?

by VM44 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  VM44

  Nate Merritt has been absent from this board for a good number of months.

  When he was posting here he was very prolific! He wrote some good and interesting things, sometimes he might have gone too far in expressing himself, but I think he made a valuable contribution to this discussion board.

  Nate has not be away from this board of his own volition thought. I have received a communication from him where he has expressed an interest in participating in the discussions here.

  How many people here would like to see Nate Merritt posting here again?

  --VM44
• 

  VM44

  Here is a message Nate sent me that he would like everyone here to read, so I am passing it on here. --VM44

  Dear friends and future friends:
  
  I am deeply affected by having been banned from this site. I was making good friends with many of you, and hoping to meet many of you in real life. I had never before associated with fellow former Jehovah's Witnesses, so I really had no conception of how diverse, intelligent, educated, cultured, and downright interesting, personable, and funny so many of you are. The people here, my friends, quickly became extremely important to me. I am pretty much a shut-in, unable to walk for more than a few hundred feet, and I can't drive anymore due to heart disease (I pass out frequently), so this board and all of you fun folks filled a huge void in my life. When I was banned, it was devastating, as I told the owner in several emails. Surely, Simon or the owner can see their way clear to exercise the grace toward me that the Society never exercised toward them? Surely they can show the same grace toward me that Christ has shown toward them? The same grace that I would show to them if our roles were reversed. I know I would because I once moderated a Buddhist discussion board, and Buddhists are some fiery people contrary to the public image.
  
  I have apologized several times via email to the owner of this discussion board, stating my willingness to publicly apologize on this board for having angered the owner and moderators. I never received a response to my heartfelt and sincere pleas for clemency. I just kept being blocked. Then I hit on the idea of using a proxy server, but while that enabled me to register I couldn't actually post while signed in on a proxy server, I could only read. So that meant I had to sign in and reveal my computers actual IP address. I did that and nothing happened for awhile.
  
  I pretended to be someone else at first to make sure my computers IP wasn't going to be blocked. Once I determined that my IP would not be blocked, I was emboldened and revealed my actual identity. Then I broke the rules by advertising my latest book, I Was A Teenage Jehovah's Witness, after I saw another book advertised by another member, who is the author of the book. I knew that it was against the rules, but I see the rules broken with impunity on very many posts. So again, I was emboldened. I hereby apologize to the owner of this board and the moderators and I won't use this board to advertise my books.
  
  I have a whacky sense of humor and a wicked sense of mischief, but I'm not an evil person. I am a Gnostic Christian, very much so. That's my Path. In real life I do many things to obey the ethical and moral commands and example of Jesus, and despite my personal situation I do more than you might think a handicapped shut-in can accomplish for my community of Indio California.
  
  I'm one of the founders of the Hongaku Jodo sect of Shin Buddhism, in the sense that the sect was dead in the water when I came upon it, and it was my enthusiasm, self-confidence, infectious positivism, and hard work that got the sect off the ground and flying. I have also been a Baptist minister, after being DFed by the Dubs.
  
  Many of you here, the ones I have gotten to know (even Shining One to whom I was taking a shine to in my latest incarnation as Mistah MOJO), have a real place in my heart. Do you recall how you felt when you discovered this board? The relief of being able to fellowship with people who understood? Who knew by personal experience, what we've all been through?
  
  I spent nearly two decades and untold thousands of dollars in therapy because of the WTS. I have done what I can in writing to expose them.
  
  Please, Simon, show some grace to a fellow Christian and fellow former Jehovah's Witness. I bear you no ill will, nor anyone else on this board or in real life. I wish to make friends and have a social group again. Since this board was taken away from me I have felt the ache of no longer having my peers to interact with.
  
  If any of you would like to see me reinstated, please add a thread to this petition. Thank you and may your life be a LOT OF FUN! ;)
  
  Namaste,
  Nate Merritt
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  luna2

  I enjoyed Nate. Guess I must have missed whatever happened that broke the rules. I'd like to see him be able to post again.
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  slimboyfat

  I'd watch it or you'll find yourself banned too.

  If book promotion is not allowed, how does Don Cameron get away with it?

  Slim
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  Lady Lee

  Nate has not be away from this board of his own volition thought. I have received a communication from him where he has expressed an interest in participating in the discussions here.

  Nate has NOT been banned or deleted from the board. He is on restriction which means he can post but is on reduced posting.

  Perhaps if he could remember how to spell his name he would discover he can post on the board. He signs his message to VM44 as

  Nate Merritt

  In reality his ID here is

  Nate Merit
• 

  Lady Lee

  It has been brought to my attention that Nate has had several different IDs here on the board. We have a polcy of not using alias and more than one ID. He has broken the rule repeatedly and many of the IDs have been deleted or banned.

  Now he knows he has been deleted or banned and just keeps coming back. And to make matters worse he is contacting posters on the board and crying "poor me"

  We are trying to apply the guidelines fairly and across the board. Too often the mods have been accused of letting one person get away with things while others get deleted or restricted. So if one has to obey the rules then all do.

  The mods can't catch everything but we do try. It helps us when you let us know about violations of the posting guidelines.

  It helps YOU to not be sucked into anyone's mind games.
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  kid-A

  Frankly, I am always offended by posters who try to hawk their wares on this site. There are a myriad advertising mediums available for such purposes

  and IMHO, nobody should be attempting to "sell" merchandise on a recovery board such as this. What is worse is that those doing this are well aware they

  are dealing with an emotionally vulnerable audience. Very crude. This is a discussion board, NOT e-bay. You will even note that Mr. Meritt (?) embeds yet

  another plug for his book in the e-mail sent to VM44. He has therefore now resorted to "spamming by proxy".
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  Simon

  The reason he has been deleted YET AGAIN is that he fails to follow posting guidlines, spams the board with self-promoting adverts and has threatened me with legal action.

  He is not welcome on the site for these reasons and he is trying to mislead and paint a false picture with the emails he's sending.

  Any more 'petition' threads will be treated as though he has posted them and will be deleted along with the account posting them.