Stokes Sounds Off: A Note on the Readership of This Blog

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Sunday, January 14, 2018

A Note on the Readership of This Blog

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post today to send a special message of thanks to my international readers. I was surprised (and gratified) to discover yesterday that my thoughts published on this blog have, in addition to reaching so many in the United States, have included page views from Spain, Portugal, Venezuela, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Canada. As I have previously noted, my original intention in starting this blog was to keep family & friends informed about what was happening in the lives of my wife and myself (we just celebrated 7 years of marriage).

But then, I began to slowly shift the focus to the day-to-day news and developments relating to the LDS Church in general, and on the subject of temples particularly. And it has been that shift whereby I have found whatever degree of success I have achieved. Ongoing Church history has long been a passion of mine, and it means a lot to me to know that I can pass such things on to all of you who are kind enough to read (and respond to) those thoughts as they come to me.

I consider it a great obligation to keep current on such things, and am blessed beyond measure to have found that my thoughts, which are just as imperfect as I myself am, matter to so many of you. Even if several posts are put up with no comments, I know they are being widely read because each post has been showing double-digit views just hours after I put them up. And that is something I never could have imagined occurring.

Thank you all for bearing with the way my posts get sidetracked so easily, and for wading through the more massive posts, which is not a task for the faint of heart. Thank you for proving to me that what I post here has value, and is of interest to so many of you. And thanks especially to those who have posted questions or comments to clarify or correct things I have said here. As we continue this journey together, I hope the content of this blog and the discussions we have here continue to prove illuminating and inspiring.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

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In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.

At the same time, however, I recognize that we live in a time when incivility, discourtesy, unkindness, and even cyber-bullying has regrettably become part of online interactions. With that in mind, while anyone who wishes can comment on anything if they choose to do so, I hereby reserve the right to immediately delete any comments which are critical, unkind, lack civility, or promote prodcuts, services, and values contrary to either the Church, or to the rules of online etiquette.

I'd also like to remind all who comment here that I try to respond personally to each individual comment as I feel is appropriate. Such replies are not meant to end the conversation, but to acknowledge earnest feedback as it is submitted.

And in order to better preserve the spirit and pure intentions for which this blog was established, I also hereby request that anyone not commenting with a regular user name (particularly those whose comments appear under the "Unknown" or "Anonymous" monikers, give the rest of us a name to work with in addressing any replies. If such individuals do not wish to disclose their actual given names, a pseudonym or nickname would suffice.

Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.