Meredith Van Woert

Hi Rick, I think it is fine. For the sake of consistency I am suggesting you capitalize Social Network and show brackets where I think they should be changed. Also you'll see another typo in red. Also I think you can drop the PS at the end. Thanks, Meredith Announcing UAI's New Website Dear UAI Forum Members, The "old Forum" has a new home, and you are invited! This new Social Network has been created to fulfill UAI’s two-fold purpose[;] fostering in-depth study and dissemination of the teachings of The Urantia Book. Our new web-home provides subscribers with opportunities to participate in this mission, to engage other readers and truth seekers, to introduce inquiring minds to the beautiful concepts of the book, and to share experiences of truth, beauty and goodness in real-time dialogue. The vision for the [social network] is the realization of a worldwide community of believers, and its value will be realized in the rich personal interactivity and lively social interaction that results when people come together to meet, study and share ideas with each other. As subscribers you will have an opportunity to make this vision real by becoming a part of this community. The UAI website and [social network] with its wide variety of information and services provides many reasons for readers and visitors to return again and again, and is designed to spark an interest and desire to learn more. With this new networking service, UAI is introducing subscriber services as a self-funding component[,] designed to provide funding for the expansion of the website and other UAI’s services related to UAI's mission. We encourage you to join in the free [social network] sections that can be found under the General Public Urantia Dialogue Zone, and when ready, to subscribe to added services. The subscription service assures you a secure, moderated social network. The subscriber forums include chat groups, UAI members only groups, study groups for each Paper and Section in the book, a gallery section, topic related discussions, marketplace and much more. And your subscription will make it possible for the growth and expansion of all the services available on this website for the benefit of our growing Urantia community worldwide. Advantages of Subscribing As a subscriber, you can post and reply in all the forums; attach images and files and use the bookmarks feature; create private conversation groups; create and manage your own public or private social forums; add yourself to the contacts directory; use the interactive chat and chat-rooms facilities; and play interactive games with other subscribers. Each subscriber level has specific network privileges. [PS.] For your convenience, study and research, the old Forum will remain open for an extended transition period. Thanks for your time and attention. Take this link to your new UAI Website

Just curious Rick, but can you go back and get stats for each year since inception for April-May? I wonder how long it took to get up to 32,861. I wonder what the growth rate was over time. Could that be plotted on a graph? My curiosity gets the best of me sometimes. Many thanks, Meredith

Hi Rick! Wow! It's a huge comparison isn't it? The April-May 2011 total of 32,861 compared with 2012 total of 19,544 is something. I wonder if the numbers for that time period in those 2 years were just an anomaly. I realize my questions are retrospective in nature and the data doesn't mean anything to us now that we have Xenforo. But I have an inquiring mind and I wanted to know. Thanks so much for satisfying my curiosity, Rick! All the best, Meredith

Hi Rick, Yes. I was thinking the most recent 30 day time period: May 10 back to and including April 11. That's the most recent 30 days. Is it possible to find the stats for the same 30 days of 2012? And 2011? Just for the sake of comparison. Just wondering if it's possible to measure the diminishment in activity. I hope this isn't too much work to do for you. I am surprised so many people, it seems to me, still visit here. You're the main poster these days, yet people are reading here on topics of interest. to them, besides what you contribute. All the best, Meredith

Thanks Rick, Could it be inferred, then, that most users are in the West? In the Stats center, could you select a 30 day period of time and determine "Topic Views" across the spectrum of the forum? Thanks, Meredith

Hello Rick, I have a question about data. Is there an option on this site to know what the average number of visitors is? Every time I log on I see 15 or 20 visitors during my "day". Do you think this number drops during the night time? I notice you are online when I am sleeping, or so it seems. So I thought you would have knowledge of numbers of visitors by virtue of you posting on OPAD, etc. Does Invisionzone collect average numbers of visitors during a "day" or "night" other than the "number of visitors in the past 30 minutes"? The reason I'm asking this question is to infer, if possible, growth of interest in the website from growth in this forum, while I completely grasp that the website and this forum are incomparable, as they are so different. To put it another way, I notice we have more visitors reading threads here, compared to several years ago. I just wondered if those numbers could be measured. Thanks, Meredith

Thanks Rick. Do you archive OPAD for yourself?

Thanks Rick for putting these reports together! I hope this forum can stay up for a while more. But I don't know anything about when it will close, nor what will be done with it - archived or not archived. Nigel previously indicated he wanted to grab some of the threads and posts (I assume with permission from the posters) he thought would make good reading for the future in one of our publications. Other people may be interested in copying some of the material also. OPAD is a treasure trove, for example. I would like to see all the material you created prior to PAPER 128 (where you begin with OPAD on the website) posted on the website. All the best, Meredith

Happy birthday Mike Rayl! In acknowledgment of your special day I offer these memorable references for our mutual edification. I especially like the first one, because it applies to me. As you grow older in years and more experienced in the affairs of the kingdom, are you becoming more tactful in dealing with troublesome mortals and more tolerant in living with stubborn associates? Tact is the fulcrum of social leverage, and tolerance is the earmark of a great soul. If you possess these rare and charming gifts, as the days pass you will become more alert and expert in your worthy efforts to avoid all unnecessary social misunderstandings. Such wise souls are able to avoid much of the trouble which is certain to be the portion of all who suffer from lack of emotional adjustment, those who refuse to grow up, and those who refuse to grow old gracefully. P.1740 - §5 Greatness lies not so much in possessing strength as in making a wise and divine use of such strength. P.557 - §11

Happy birthday Toby Weiss! Happy birthday williamstade! A few words for you from my favorite book: Do not become discouraged by the discovery that you are human. Human nature may tend toward evil, but it is not inherently sinful. Be not downcast by your failure wholly to forget some of your regrettable experiences. The mistakes which you fail to forget in time will be forgotten in eternity. Lighten your burdens of soul by speedily acquiring a long-distance view of your destiny, a universe expansion of your career. P.1739 - §3 I think this one is complementary. The evolving soul is not made divine by what it does, but by what it strives to do. P.557 - §8 Wishing you the very best, Meredith

Happy birthday Rita Schaad! Let us celebrate with you by pondering this thought gem! The high mission of any art is, by its illusions, to foreshadow a higher universe reality, to crystallize the emotions of time into the thought of eternity. P.557 - §7 Thinking of you on this special day, Meredith

Happy birthday Urantian Mortal! Today is a new day, a fresh start to do God's will and manifest His love to our fellow sojourners, even in the various commonplace routines of daily living. Only a poet can discern poetry in the commonplace prose of routine existence. P.557 - §6 Wishing you the best day of your life, Meredith

In remembrance of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Man and Son of God. The day and a half that Jesus' mortal body lay in the tomb of Joseph, the period between his death on the cross and his resurrection, is a chapter in the earth career of Michael which is little known to us. We can narrate the burial of the Son of Man and put in this record the events associated with his resurrection, but we cannot supply much information of an authentic nature about what really transpired during this epoch of about thirty-six hours, from three o'clock Friday afternoon to three o'clock Sunday morning. This period in the Master's career began shortly before he was taken down from the cross by the Roman soldiers. He hung upon the cross about one hour after his death. He would have been taken down sooner but for the delay in dispatching the two brigands. P.2012 - §1 As far as we can judge, no creature of this universe nor any personality from another universe had anything to do with this morontia resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. On Friday he laid down his life as a mortal of the realm; on Sunday morning he took it up again as a morontia being of the system of Satania in Norlatiadek. There is much about the resurrection of Jesus which we do not understand. But we know that it occurred as we have stated and at about the time indicated. We can also record that all known phenomena associated with this mortal transit, or morontia resurrection, occurred right there in Joseph's new tomb, where the mortal material remains of Jesus lay wrapped in burial cloths. P.2021 - §3 A little after half past four o'clock this Sunday morning, Gabriel summoned the archangels to his side and made ready to inaugurate the general resurrection of the termination of the Adamic dispensation on Urantia. When the vast host of the seraphim and the cherubim concerned in this great event had been marshaled in proper formation, the morontia Michael appeared before Gabriel, saying: "As my Father has life in himself, so has he given it to the Son to have life in himself. Although I have not yet fully resumed the exercise of universe jurisdiction, this self-imposed limitation does not in any manner restrict the bestowal of life upon my sleeping sons; let the roll call of the planetary resurrection begin." P.2024 - §3 As we approach the time of the resurrection of Jesus on this early Sunday morning, it should be recalled that the ten apostles were sojourning at the home of Elijah and Mary Mark, where they were asleep in the upper chamber, resting on the very couches whereon they reclined during the last supper with their Master. This Sunday morning they were all there assembled except Thomas. Thomas was with them for a few minutes late Saturday night when they first got together, but the sight of the apostles, coupled with the thought of what had happened to Jesus, was too much for him. He looked his associates over and immediately left the room, going to the home of Simon in Bethphage, where he thought to grieve over his troubles in solitude. The apostles all suffered, not so much from doubt and despair as from fear, grief, and shame. P.2025 - §2 The mortals of the realms will arise in the morning of the resurrection with the same type of transition or morontia body that Jesus had when he arose from the tomb on this Sunday morning. These bodies do not have circulating blood, and such beings do not partake of ordinary material food; nevertheless, these morontia forms are real. When the various believers saw Jesus after his resurrection, they really saw him; they were not the self-deceived victims of visions or hallucinations. P.2029 - §3 All the best, Meredith

Happy birthday Felipe! I hope your special day is filled with every good thing - truth, beauty and goodness! Here is a thought gem for today: Whet the appetites of your associates for truth; give advice only when it is asked for. P.556 - §16 Wishing you the very best, Meredith

Hello Bonita, I didn’t mean to make you gasp. Thanks for your opinion. Your voice, as well as the voice of Rev. Red, Carolyn, Rick, Bradly and others adds value to the discussion. Nowadays, social networking is where the action is. It is my observation that people in my generation are not interested in doing it. The generation after mine is, and the generation of my grandchildren is born into it. It is second nature to them. They think nothing of it – no big deal. They are fearless on the Internet, unlike many of us. I suppose you can call Facebook an exclusive club. People have secret postings there, secret conversations. What’s wrong with that? Facebook is free, but you have to sign-up. LinkedIn is free too, and there are others. All free. If the free-and-totally-visible-to-the-public model were a good idea, don’t you suppose Zuckerberg would have structured Facebook that way? I think it is naïve to wish for a totally free and public site. By the way this Invisionzone is not free, neither with respect to the monetary expense of it, or with respect to the public. Somebody is working behind the scenes here to keep out the spammers, the bots, and who-knows-what-junk-is-out-there in cyber world. The Urantia Book is young. Plans need to be made for the future. Those dedicated people who service the revelation by joining an existing team of like-minded people, such as UAI, pool their resources of talent, leadership, hard work, skill and money – there is never enough money – and all else that is needed, to take this revelation, organizationally, into the future. Like it or not, organizations are essential to accomplish tasks and projects that cannot be accomplished by the individual. Anyhow, the site is a good model in my opinion. I’m sure modifications and improvements will come. Always do. Can’t stay in one place. Gotta keep doing better. All the best, Meredith