Jonestown: Help me with my homework by sharing your opinion?!

[KiaraRawks]

For those of you new to the topic, I certainly do not want you to research and do my homework. I have all the facts I need, but I want the perspective of others whether it lends in my favor or not to include in my paper. Believe me, my paper is almost more than half way finished and I comepleted my annotated bibliography weeks before I even made this topic, so I need no help in the research department. I am only looking for your opinion in the topic not regurgitated quotes and facts you picked off the interwebs. In a nutshell, just simply respond whether you believe it was massacre or suicide. Why suicide you say? Because a lot of others have tried to tell me that most of those people died willingly (which would make it suicide and not murder). But if you have nothing to add to this discussion, please refrain from posting, it wouldn't help much would it? lol :p

I don't know if this is the right section for this, but I am currently writing a research paper (due in a couple of days, I know I am late with this) on the Jonestown Massacre or The People's Temple. My goal in my paper, is by using the facts put out by the government and other "specialist" I want to convince/persuade my readers that this wasn't a "mass suicide" but more of a mass murder. The rough draft is due tonight, but only the first four pages, so if I decide to quote you, I'll add it in later. So this is what I need you guys to do for me please :) :

State

Whether you believe those 900+ temple member died voluntarily or not.

Why you believe what you believe.

How educated you are on this topic

Do you think your opinion is based on the facts you know or just how you feel?

Also if you don't mind, could you include your age? Just for comparison between the younger generation and the older.

If you feel like adding anything else in there, go ahead. Try to be convincing as possible in your words and try to use your best grammar because I will have to quote/cite your opinions if used.

Again, sorry if this is not the right place to post. :)

[maxon]

I'm guessing this is a school project. I'm wondering why do you think the opinions of a bunch of people off a game board is suitable for an academic project? I'm not criticising you, specifically, it just seems odd to me. My advice to you though would be to Google the topic. There are a lot of theories about how Jonestown happened out there.

[crocobaura]

It's called massacre, not suicide, so I think you can forget about the suicide part. Also, according to this article, many people were hold there against their will and they drank poison under gun threat. Besides, suicide is something that you do of your own choice not at someone's orders.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1970s/p/jonestown.htm

[SuicidiaParasidia]

...what happened to kids doing their homework by their own effort(s)?

[whiterider]

Pff, kids have been cribbing on homework since time immemorial. They're just less bashful about it now they can do it both publicly and anonymously at the same time.

[Anonymous101]

I don't know if this is the right section for this, but I am currently writing a research paper (due in a couple of days, I know I am late with this) on the Jonestown Massacre or The People's Temple. My goal in my paper, is by using the facts put out by the government and other "specialist" I want to convince/persuade my readers that this wasn't a "mass suicide" but more of a mass murder. The rough draft is due tonight, but only the first four pages, so if I decide to quote you, I'll add it in later. So this is what I need you guys to do for me please :) :

State

Whether you believe those 900+ temple member died voluntarily or not.

Why you believe what you believe.

How educated you are on this topic

Do you think your opinion is based on the facts you know or just how you feel?

Also if you don't mind, could you include your age? Just for comparison between the younger generation and the older.

If you feel like adding anything else in there, go ahead. Try to be convincing as possible in your words and try to use your best grammar because I will have to quote/cite your opinions if used.

Again, sorry if this is not the right place to post. :)

Wait a minute. Let me guess. You want us members to input our opinions on the Jonestown Massacre or The People's Temple? There are some issues with coming to us like this. Firstly, this is a Sims-related website, not a homework help website or a social studies website or a history buff website. Secondly, I am 95% confident that you can find what you are looking for if you search online or consult your teacher about your topic. Thirdly, you may want to consider how much trust and reliability you or your teacher can hold of us. If we input information, no matter how compelling it is, it's going to be nearly worthless if the information we put out there has no trust or reliability. I doubt any reader will trust a source that comes from a Sims-related website. Not that Sims members are any less intelligent that other people or academics, but the association of the Sims label really make our voices and opinions on serious topics goofy and unreliable.

[simsample]

Perhaps the OP was asked by the teacher to get opinions from family members or friends. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but this thread would be better used to discuss the actual topic of the homework, rather than whether it is right to assist with homework.

[Barbie Crash]

I don't think this is a debate.... You should try like, Yahoo! Answers or ask people you know...

[Bodhie]

I don't see what's wrong with asking help with homework . It better asking help (in the wrong place) then NOT doing homework all together .

I personally , wonder if she can change the Subject....maybe take a case that is known by most peoples . (Manson case come to mind , since I do believe the whole world know about that one ?) . Cose...I certainly never heard of the one she/he choose :blink:

[Clashfan]

I'm old enough to remember when this event actually happened and at that time it was not even considered mass suicide but mass murder. I suggest you watch this excellent documentary on the subject:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jonestown/.

This is however where the phrase "drinking the kool-aid" comes from used when referring to someone who is blindly buying a bogus theory or idea.

[KiaraRawks]

Wow, this is not the response I was looking for. First of all, let me say this, I do my homework on my own and have done more than enough research prior to this post to get all the information I need. I simply told my Instructor that I wanted to get the perspective of my peers on this topic to show how they feel about the topic at hand. From my experience of asking others thus far, i find that they are either highly uneducated about the topic so they just nonchalantly say, "Those people knew what they were getting in to, they died because they wanted to." while on the other hand I get complete weirdos who have to delve into their own conspiracy theory.

I'm guessing this is a school project. I'm wondering why do you think the opinions of a bunch of people off a game board is suitable for an academic project? I'm not criticising you, specifically, it just seems odd to me. My advice to you though would be to Google the topic. There are a lot of theories about how Jonestown happened out there.

Also to the person who says that this is a sims website and no place for a topic like this, then why even have a debate section or off topic discussion board if the mods/admins didn't want us to address something other than a video game. I mean people seriously, not trying to sound mean but to me it sounded as if some of you are saying that people who visit this website or play the sims aren't educated enough to discuss topics outside of the gaming realm. If you had nothing to add to this discussion, then I would kindly suggest not replying at all.

It's called massacre, not suicide, so I think you can forget about the suicide part. Also, according to this article, many people were hold there against their will and they drank poison under gun threat. Besides, suicide is something that you do of your own choice not at someone's orders.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1970s/p/jonestown.htm

I've done my research, and I know what it's called the Jamestown Massacre, but my paper is dealing more with the opinions of people who believe it was suicide vs a massacre. That's why I want others opinion and what not.

...what happened to kids doing their homework by their own effort(s)?

I know this is a joke, but I am not a kid and I've done my homework and this is just my final paper for this class, which I wanted to go a different route and get a fresh perspective from my peers as well.

Wait a minute. Let me guess. You want us members to input our opinions on the Jonestown Massacre or The People's Temple? There are some issues with coming to us like this. Firstly, this is a Sims-related website, not a homework help website or a social studies website or a history buff website. Secondly, I am 95% confident that you can find what you are looking for if you search online or consult your teacher about your topic. Thirdly, you may want to consider how much trust and reliability you or your teacher can hold of us. If we input information, no matter how compelling it is, it's going to be nearly worthless if the information we put out there has no trust or reliability. I doubt any reader will trust a source that comes from a Sims-related website. Not that Sims members are any less intelligent that other people or academics, but the association of the Sims label really make our voices and opinions on serious topics goofy and unreliable.

As a sims player myself I highly doubt that as i told my instructor I want to show the perspective from my peers.

Perhaps the OP was asked by the teacher to get opinions from family members or friends. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but this thread would be better used to discuss the actual topic of the homework, rather than whether it is right to assist with homework.
Exactly.

I don't think this is a debate.... You should try like, Yahoo! Answers or ask people you know...
Sure I could have, but I thought with all of MTS strict rules I would get less trolling here and more on-topic discussion.... but look where this thread has ended up at. :faceslap:

Thanks, but no thanks for most of your time. :)

[maxon]

Also to the person who says that this is a sims website and no place for a topic like this, then why even have a debate section or off topic discussion board if the mods/admins didn't want us to address something other than a video game. I mean people seriously, not trying to sound mean but to me it sounded as if some of you are saying that people who visit this website or play the sims aren't educated enough to discuss topics outside of the gaming realm. If you had nothing to add to this discussion, then I would kindly suggest not replying at all.
Or, you know, you could explain a bit more clearly in the first place just what this was for. THEN you might have got the kind of answers you were looking for. And BTW, I am not your peer - there are a lot of people here of widely different ages. And if you want just yes or no answers, why not do a survey? There are plenty of places on the web where you can do that. I can't see why you are getting so annoyed with people's posts when you weren't clear in your original post exactly what you wanted.

[KiaraRawks]

Or, you know, you could explain a bit more clearly in the first place just what this was for. THEN you might have got the kind of answers you were looking for. And BTW, I am not your peer which is another reason for not asking on a site like this - there are a lot of people here of widely different ages.

Yes but I also wanted the opinions of people from varying age ranges as well as my peers. btw updated my first post before reading this and clearly thought it was specific enough originally as I had edited so many times to add more specific info. But again, please refrain from posting if you have nothing to add to the topic at hand, which is not "if you're doing my homework for me or how to google search a topic."

Thanks.

P.S. - LOL it seems like this topic has turned into more about a debate over me doing my homework than the actual Jonestown Massacre topic. Ah but alas I am asking a mod or someone to close the topic as my final paper is due this day and it seems like no one has their own opinion about the topic. Oh well, I guess I wont try to debate this anymore. :p