I had an old computer with a dial up connection. It was so slow! It would take forever to exit the site, and I'd be so afraid that someone might see me reading the stories before it closed down the site.
Those were different times.

I would guess I first looked at this site in about 2001.
It was full angry ex-mormons that clearly had missed the point about how brilliant the church was. They were probably offended or something .

I think I found this place in 1997 or 1998. Since I had always been told not to look at "anti Mormon" material, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. So I did a Yahoo search for "anti Mormon" and it brought me here. I think there were 40-50 exit stories at the time and I stayed up all night reading and reflecting on each one. It was comforting to see others who had the same thoughts and feelings as I.

I'm not on the board as much as I used to and only post occasionally. I do get a kick out of it though when I take exception with someone with less experience here and they call me a troll. LOL!!!!!!

Troll.

Who me? Well..I get what your saying but your as stubborn as me..

Meant for Mr Happy, nor scotlander..though I appreciate them both and their opinions..

I think you were here before I was. It has been quite the ride hasn't it dear. Remember back when the only rule was don't piddle on our rug our your neighbor's shoe? It was easy to read EVERY post. We have seen so many come and go and grow. We don't chase after people but I sure hope as I am sure you do that folks have gone on to have happy productive lives. So many weddings, births and deaths. So many trolls that turned into valued members. Remember just how amazing Grace's story was as it unfolded and they went and fetched their son off his mission? The board being the first reporter of Hinkley in the hospital? It was so surreal to see the front page on a newscast. Same with the tornado, a few armed gunmen and someone jumping off some high building?

I am glad you are still here with me :)

I am such a newbie. I found this place in September 2012. I introduced DH to this site about a year later. I thought this site was so evil. All those bitter, angry mormons who were offended! I was so terrified TSCC would find me here. I learned so much from the posts on this site and have transitioned. Now I visit for laughs.

I've been here since summer of 1997, so 18 years. Wow. Back then you could read every post in every thread, and I usually did.

I remember logging in at my job and seeing "RECOVERY FROM MORMONISM" splashed across the top of the screen. I asked if it could be changed so if somebody was on a public computer people around them couldn't see that they were recovering from Mormonism and it was changed to simply "Recovery Board."

I'm so glad I came here and got good answers to hard questions. And I'm really, really grateful for the people (especially Ether) who pushed me into being true to myself.

Thank you, Eric K! Long live RfM!

Ha! Now they'll just think you're in rehab.

I remember you Dimmsdale.....

its been 13 or 14 years for me. I wish all the old posts form

those days were still available, we really had some good good

times. It was a wonderful group of people. I remember you too

Debbie... I think we were in that secret group too, the one

Shakjula started.

saucie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Debbie... I think we were in that secret group
> too, the one
>
> Shakjula started.

Shhhh...that was SACRED, not secret. ;-)

Nope nope I never knew about it nope. And our own short lived Social board NOT to be confused with that other mess.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2015 12:11AM by Susan I/S.

You are so right Susan I/S... that "other" place was a complete

and horrid mess . Tons of Drama... Yikes.

Strange, except for the political fights, I don't remember a horrid mess. Drama, yes, but I stayed out of it mostly.

There was a sexual predator being protected by admin, the predator did a few years in jail and is now out. Admin has since returned to mormonism , albeit the Emma version, not the brighamite version that most of us escaped from.

I don't remember when I found rfm, but I do remember you being there when I did dimmesdale. I lurked for at least a year or so before posting, I began posting right about the time we lost Yossarian.

The follow-up to the RfM Social board was a relative success and around for a long time, but was supplanted by Facebook.

A good time was had by most.

We learned to disable PMs and have a one year waiting period before new boards were allowed to link and advertise. When one of them went to jail for underage sex and the admins were reading PMs and trolling their own board it was a great learning experience for us. Shame a lot of good people were hit with the fall out.

hahahahahahhahahahahahahhaha so true Debbie... Sacred.

It has been about that long for me also. I used to print exmormon stuff at work and then race down the hall to get it before someone found out- then sit up all night reading.

Met Erik at the first exmoe conf. in LV.

Ha! Me too, I moved last year and when I did I found several boxes full of printouts on mormonism, probably close to half of them came from rfm.

ive "phased" in and out on this board and it's a great place to heal, ask questions and know you are not alone questioning Mormonism.

It was about 17-18 years ago that found my way here. I remember being. Rey active and engaging in some very interesting exchanges. Back then the board reflected the attitudes of the general population and was much less progressive. It was more common for people to express outright homophobia. Over time that seemed to evolve. It was more common for people to ask and discuss, recognizing their own distortions and biases.

I found my own participation becoming less and less. Posting rarely, killing time, not really engaged in the goings on of an organization I left more than 20 years ago. Was cruising through here tonight waiting for Thai food to be delivered. The topic caught my eye and reminded me of one of my favorite RfM experiences.

A poster was going through a divorce. It was rough. He was terrified that he could never come out as a gay man to his kids and was convinced they would reject him. I wrote him a snarky message...."you're right....your kids are such hateful assholes they won't appreciate you telling them the truth...far better you keep lying to them" He eventually agreed and did tell them. It went well. We called and talked for hours.

One day he showed up in LA and we went out to dinner. We went back to his hotel and he asked me to have sex with him. He was terrified and ill informed. He had no experience. We played together and became even better friends. He went home and eventually moved on to a life of happiness and wonder.

Whenever I read posts of people convinced life sucks and it's all mormonism's fault, I think of this. Sometimes things work out GREAT. It did for me and it did for him.

It's been 15 years for me. I've always enjoyed your posts, dimmesdale.

I remember when I was first here, I got hooked on the exit stories and devoured all of them (maybe 150 back then) in about a week. And some of them were practically books, like Simon Southerton's story. I was up to 3 or 4 a.m. every night, and got almost no sleep.

This place was such a lifeline for me for a while.

I been here for about 14 years. This was one of the first sites I found After realizing the tscc is complete bulshit. There was some great advise about telling your spouse slowly. I never said a thing for the longest time for fear of divorce. One day my DW ask why I seemed to have a different attitude towards anything church related. I said that I was struggling with a number historical and doctorinial issues But I did not drag her into my pain,therefore it was better I just keep it to my self. I told her that our marriage was the most important thing In my life and that I did not want to lose her over my issues.

Eventually my patients has been rewarded. Curiosity got the best of her and she did her own research and came to her own conclusions. Now we talk openly about the issues. We would love to leave it all behind but we have family and job related issues that make it impossible at this time.

The going slow method and other sage advice I have obtained for this board has helped me emencely.

I started reading back then too. Are there archives of those ancient pages anywhere? I don't remember all my old nicks.

I found this site about 10 years ago. I loved reading exit stories and the humor. It is quite healing to just read and know that I am not alone

Stumbled on to RFM quite by accident. My first reaction was "WTF?" My next reaction was 'Where the hell have you people been hiding?"

Left the cult back in the mid 1970s. Until 1997, I thought I was the only one. Spent roughly 15 minutes perusing before making my first post. That was cool!

Play Elder was still posting with some frequency. Boy cracked me up. Mighty Kymba was awesome. Back then, posts would stay upfront at least a day or two. Now they get buried in a matter of minutes.

Haven't been posting much of late as the ability to contribute meaningful s**t eludes me. Don't remember who said this, but I still believe it accurate. Don't think one can fully recover from being in a cult. However, one can heal. Think that's where I'm at.

Party on, mates!

Timothy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2015 03:10PM by Timothy.

Don't be shy, you are the inventor of "Who gives a sh*t"

;-)