A few thoughts concerning /u/excultist. Skip this first section if you're pressed for time.

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excultist has been, to this point, the most active member of this community as well as one of the most respected (though clearly not by all). Whether you agree with him or not, his commitment to giving feedback on nearly every post, to leaving no question unanswered, and to staking out a substantive position in every debate has been a major positive feature of this subreddit for many of us. His contributions helped many of us learn a way of reasoning about the subject of Scientology. The character of this community is changed substantially by his decision to leave.

/u/revenimus8 arrived in this subreddit some months ago with the express intention of seeing excultist removed as a moderator and discredited. Though the details are messy, the fact that s/he has achieved that end is simply not an acceptable outcome to me. I hope that excultist will take some time to reconsider the stakes in this matter and will return from this sabbatical refreshed and ready to pick up the argument and carry it forward once more.

This subreddit may be small by reddit standards, but by the standards of the various Scientology communities online we do have a significant footprint. On a busy day, 1200 unique visitors will read what we we post here, including certain influential Ex-Scientologists and critics. We have readers who are still in the church whose opinion may well be swayed by what they read here. We're not just preaching to the choir, which makes us substantially different from nearly any other Scientology forum online.

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Here's my exhortation, such as it is, to those of you who think this community is a valuable exercise to any degree.

1. Vote. Don't go past a post or comment without voting on it. Vote based on quality, not opinion. If it contributes, up vote it; if it's a waste of everybody's time, vote it down. This is how we moderate ourselves as a community, as well as how we gain more visibility in reddit's algorithm.

2. Participate. If you've been lurking, this would be a great time to create an account and join the conversation. If you see some interesting content elsewhere that's relevant to this community, we'd love to hear about it. If you see somebody asking a question you know the answer to, help them out.

3. Practice good reddiquette and encourage others to do the same. Don't feed the trolls, don't get sucked into flame wars, and don't stoop to anyone's level. This is the Internet, there are unpleasant people around, that doesn't mean you should join them.

These are interesting times in the world of Scientology watching. I think we've got a good thing going here and I'd like to see it continue.