Dharma Wheel

Hi Dharma Wheel!

I'd like to welcome Henry to the Dharma Wheel staff team as the newest Global Moderator. He comes to us both with tons of experience in moderating as well as practicing the dharma.

Welcome Henry!

Best,
Laura

Good to see you again, Henry!
Welcome!

on the ride again ...

Oh no....

thank you for the invitation and warm welcome...

Greetings Henry,

What a pleasant surprise to wake up to this morning!

I hope you're well.

Metta,
Retro.

Great to have you as a mod here Henry-la!

Hey! Henry-la! Tashi Delek! Was just thinking the place needs some more knowledgeable people!

Hey Henry welcome. I am glad your hear. If it wasnt for E-sangha not sure I would now be practicing Shakyamuni's teachings

Dear Henry,

You should be aware that there are some people here, including myself, who were not fond of the repressive nature of E-Sangha, and who therefore, distrust you.

However, I do truly hope that the way you conduct yourself here as a moderator will show us that you are a fair and honest person we can have confidence in.

Specifically, I would not want to see these typical E-Sangha occurences:
-perfectly reasonable, unoffensive posts frequently being deleted into oblivion at the whim of the moderators
-moderators bullying members who disagree with their viewpoints
-forbidding all discussion about the general function and policies of the forum itself

But my hope is that you will be a great moderator like all our other ones.

Sincerely,

Luke

henry wrote:thank you for the invitation and warm welcome...

Hi Henry.

Luke wrote:Dear Henry,

You should be aware that there are some people here, including myself, who were not fond of the repressive nature of E-Sangha, and who therefore, distrust you.

However, I do truly hope that the way you conduct yourself here as a moderator will show us that you are a fair and honest person we can have confidence in.

Specifically, I would not want to see these typical E-Sangha occurences:
-perfectly reasonable, unoffensive posts frequently being deleted into oblivion at the whim of the moderators
-moderators bullying members who disagree with their viewpoints
-forbidding all discussion about the general function and policies of the forum itself

But my hope is that you will be a great moderator like all our other ones.

Sincerely,

Luke

Dear Luke,

Your feedback is very valuable and appreciated. And I have no doubt that Henry is appreciative of your honesty and expression of your experiences at e-sangha.

Please do be aware that DharmaWheel.net is under new management, and we intend on running the site exactly as it has been so far.

You've been a most valuable member, and I mean that. Your comments, remarks, and contributions have been a backbone of Dharma Wheel, especially when we were first getting off the ground.

But please be assured, nothing will change here. We are free to discuss just about anything under the sun (except the Karmapa controversy), as it should be.

Kind wishes and thanks,
Laura

Here's something to think about...


ESangha was what it was due to millions of causes and conditions. Henry being on staff may or may not have been one of them. It is possible that he was even working in the opposite direction and the troubles arose despite he best efforts to prevent them. Or, his involvement in the developing culture there may have been minimal.


Now I know very little about ESangha's inner workings, but considerations like the above do give me some equanimity and inner peace.

Do we really need another admin/mod here? Don't we have enough?

Hi Henry!

Didn't mean to be rude in the other thread mentioning you in the third person (I didn't know that you were present!). I was only trying to express the concern that the crazies who shut down e-sangha and Buddhist-community.com may follow you here, and you being a global moderator might really entice them.

maestro wrote:Do we really need another admin/mod here? Don't we have enough?

Before Henry came on board we had one moderator.
I would like to step back a little bit from moderating and I intend to see to more administrative tasks.

Thank you for your input.

Now if we could kindly be done with welcoming Henry I think this thread has run its course.

Welcome Henry, glad to have you on board.

Best,
Laura

Just so there's no misunderstanding about my previous posts, I completely support Henry's online efforts, in fact I tried to talk Jundo Cohen Roshi and Nonin Chowaney Roshi to take down the E-sangha Watch website in a discussion at zenforuminternational.org. Unfortunately they would not budge on the issue. In my opinion they just wanted to have some control of Henry's website. Note what Rev. Nonin Chowaney writes at the conclusion of his public statement about E-sangha:

Rev. Nonin Chowaney wrote:The only way that I would even consider returning would be if a couple of changes in the Terms of Service were adopted, a massive change in the culture of E-sangha was facilitated - such as total transparence, democracy rather than dictatorship…

Also note that there are no such inclusions in the ZFI terms of service where Nonin Chowaney currently administrates.

Again, I was only expressing a concern for the wellbeing of this website. I meant no disrespect or lack of support for Henry.

Dictatorship needs a Dictator ... I guess it is not the case !


Sönam

Thank you Shel, I've noticed your efforts, your kindness, and your good nature about this matter.

Best,
Laura