What I Wish I Knew About FJ When I Joined

[FundieFarmer]

Hi y'all, and welcome to FJ! Recently on another thread, I proposed this idea. It was received with some enthusiasm, so here's the thread. It's a place to share what we wish we already knew about FJ when we joined, that we found out either because someone told us afterward, or because we learned the hard way. Here's what I wish I knew!

1. It's fine to have favorite fundies. It's when you go overboard stalking them (fertility cycles? flight plans?) that people start to think it's weird. We've all been there.

2. Nobody is off-limits for being called out. You just may take some heat for it. Disagreements always pass, no matter how heated they are. (Trust me, been there!) If you cause drama enough, though, people will remember. Like anywhere else, think before you speak.

3. Questions are totally fine and encouraged, but make sure you read all of the things in SOTDRT before beginning. Some people will help if you haven't, but many don't like answering questions that have already been answered.

4. FJ is a great resource for everything. If you're here for the Duggars, that's great, but there's a whole world outside that forum! Want to make jam? We've got that. Want to talk about IUDs? Well, we've got that too. Seriously, everything. Hell, there's a whole hobbies forum.

5. THERE IS A PETS FORUM. I'll just leave this right here for you: viewforum.php?f=56.

I could keep going for years, because it never gets dull around here, but I've limited myself to five points for now. :)

[DowntownAbbey]

What I Wish I Knew About FJ When I Joined...

This is more what I want to know now. How on earth am I supposed to stop checking/participating here all the time once my classes start back up?! FJ's way to fun.

[Closed Womb]

The "Active Topics" link in the navigation box to the right. I've been here for years and just found out about that a few months ago. Love it.

[Fascinated]

I wish I'd known how addictive FJ is.

I wish I'd paid closer attention to the many warnings that one can NEVER change one's username. :(

Oh, and I wish I'd known sooner about the little blue arrows that enable collapsing of side margins. Makes it much easier to read on smaller screens.

[from the bible belt]

I wish I'd known how addictive FJ is.

I wish I'd paid closer attention to the many warnings that one can NEVER change one's username. :(

Oh, and I wish I'd known sooner about the little blue arrows that enable collapsing of side margins. Makes it much easier to read on smaller screens.

This! :confusion-helpsos: :lol:

[church_of_dog]

The "Active Topics" link in the navigation box to the right. I've been here for years and just found out about that a few months ago. Love it.

Oh, and I wish I'd known sooner about the little blue arrows that enable collapsing of side margins. Makes it much easier to read on smaller screens.

I just learned two new things from this thread already! :clap:

[DowntownAbbey]

Oh, and I wish I'd known sooner about the little blue arrows that enable collapsing of side margins. Makes it much easier to read on smaller screens.

WHAAAaaaaat?!

I wish I would have known that it is possible to "mark subforums as read." I started using "Unread Posts" so that I wouldn't miss anything and thought that I had to actually open up every single unread thread to get rid of the older ones... :embarrassed: :pull-hair: :lol:

I also wish I would have known that there is a "View more smilies" link below the small (and I mean small) sample given. I was wondering how you all remember how to do smilies that weren't in the sample like :brain-bleach: . :lol:

[VelociRapture]

What I Wish I Had Known:

1. Don't take things too personally. There are times when other posters are clearly out of line when they call you out. . . but for the most part, people don't hold grudges here.

2. If you have an unpopular opinion don't be afraid to share it. You do want to try and word it as politely and respectfully as possible though - it will cut down on the amount of angry responses you run the risk of receiving.

3. Jill Rodrigues is a hot mess in the absolute worst way. Read that thread - it's far more entertaining than anything Duggar or Bates related could be. Here's a link to the first of the (now) 8 parts on their family: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=23223

If you don't want/don't have time to read all 8 parts fully, then there are nice little summaries that HappyAtheist writes that start of each thread. Just look for the first post in each new part and read the last page or so of the most current part to get a bit caught up on things before jumping in.

4. SOTDRT is a seriously awesome resource for anyone, but especially for newer posters. Questions are not only welcome there, they are highly encouraged. Theres also a nice sub-forum that was created that provides brief summaries for some of the families/people we discuss here - such as Doug Phillips (is a Tool) and the Anderson family. You can find it here: viewforum.php?f=34

[princessmahina]

I wish I had known about the "new posts" tab. I don't know why I never looked to the right of my screen, but I didn't. I probably missed out on a lot of fun.

[from the bible belt]

What I Wish I Had Known:

1. Don't take things too personally. There are times when other posters are clearly out of line when they call you out. . . but for the most part, people don't hold grudges here.

2. If you have an unpopular opinion don't be afraid to share it. You do want to try and word it as politely and respectfully as possible though - it will cut down on the amount of angry responses you run the risk of receiving.

3. Jill Rodrigues is a hot mess in the absolute worst way. Read that thread - it's far more entertaining than anything Duggar or Bates related could be. Here's a link to the first of the (now) 8 parts on their family: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=23223

If you don't want/don't have time to read all 8 parts fully, then there are nice little summaries that HappyAtheist writes that start of each thread. Just look for the first post in each new part and read the last page or so of the most current part to get a bit caught up on things before jumping in.

4. SOTDRT is a seriously awesome resource for anyone, but especially for newer posters. Questions are not only welcome there, they are highly encouraged. Theres also a nice sub-forum that was created that provides brief summaries for some of the families/people we discuss here - such as Doug Phillips (is a Tool) and the Anderson family. You can find it here: viewforum.php?f=34

I started there to but i seriously went through all the parts, my jaw still has problems to stick where it should be. That is just Wowwwwwwwwwwwww :cray-cray:

The duggars are boring compared to that even with joshgate :pink-shock:

[VelociRapture]

I started there to but i seriously went through all the parts, my jaw still has problems to stick where it should be. That is just Wowwwwwwwwwwwww :cray-cray:

The duggars are boring compared to that even with joshgate :pink-shock:

Yes, yes. The Crazy is strong with Jill Rodrigues. :lol:

[Firiel]

Here's one from me:

You probably don't know just how bad a particular fundie is and therefore may not understand all the vitriol.

When I first started lurking, it was right when Zsu was pregnant with twins and lost one of them. People were saying some pretty nasty things, and to be honest... I was kind of appalled. Luckily, my registration request got held up so I wasn't able to register for a few months or else I probably would have jumped in and told people they were being pretty cruel. Some long-term members did have a problem with the tone around that situation and said so. Truth be told, if I had been a long-term member then, I probably would have still felt somewhat uncomfortable with the level of vitriol considering the positions I tend to take now. But if I had jumped in defending Zsu as a new member with no real understanding of the horrible things she had said and done, I would have (rightly) been ripped to shreds by old posters.

I also think this happens with the Bates. They come off as a nice, friendly family, albeit with dangerous beliefs, and I think newer members often don't understand just how horrible Gil and Kelly are for forcing their family to live in poverty and sending their daughters to a place run by a sexual predator.

I think everyone defends a fundie from a particular accusation at one point or another, but your defense holds a lot more legitimacy if you actually understand the details and particular offenses of that particular fundie.

[JeanieCat]

I wish I had known about the "new posts" tab. I don't know why I never looked to the right of my screen, but I didn't. I probably missed out on a lot of fun.

I'm with you! Never looked at the navigation bar on the right 'til the other day! There is a lot to take in! And I'm using the quote button for the first time! Hope I get it right! LOL!(I hate looking stupid!)

[Geechee Girl]

I wish I knew there was a place & people who like to gab about TV and random stuff so I didn't have to join multiple forums. When I was a lurker, I think the subforum was called Chatter.

[happy atheist]

I wish I knew there was a place & people who like to gab about TV and random stuff so I didn't have to join multiple forums. When I was a lurker, I think the subforum was called Chatter.

Chatter was the old name for Are You There FJ.

The TV/Movie/Pop Culture forum has always been Quiverful of Worldly Distractions: viewforum.php?f=14

[happy atheist]

Chatter was the old name for Are You There FJ.

The TV/Movie/Pop Culture forum has always been Quiverful of Worldly Distractions: viewforum.php?f=14

Actually, I think there might have been a time (before my time here) that those topics were discussed in Chatter. An FJ historian will have to set the record straight.

[thoughtful]

I think we can make some money for FJ if we market these:

[Walking Cat Bed]

It's possible to be protective (even somewhat fond) of fundie offspring without seeing them as blameless. (See: most of the Duggar kids.)

You (we) can hope for the best for the kids in these families without being creepy about it. And you (we) can be sad when said kids make choices we wouldn't.

[VelociRapture]

I think we can make some money for FJ if we market these:

We could bedazzle them in ridiculously neon 80's colors too - to go with the whole Jill Rodrigues theme of course!

[treehugger]

Honestly, the biggest thing I wish I had understood about FJ when I joined was that a lot of the posters are very educated and wicked smart. There is no feeling quite like the feeling of getting into a discussion and realizing you have absolutely no foot to stand on.

The perk to that is that if you want to, you can learn a ton of stuff, about almost anything.

[Duggarsdugup]

I wish I'd known that Duggars is spelled Duggars, not Duggers!  Would have saved me some problems with logging in under my screen name (now fixed, thanks to our admins!)