How do we attract Skepchicks to sign up here?

[JimC]

I would rather attract a swarm of killer wasps.

Get naked, coat yourself with a mixture of honey and beef stock, and lie still in the garden...

[Tero]

We're just attracting skepchicks, not skepdicks? I propose a test: They have to post a picture of themselves in a bunny costume to prove they have a sense of humor:

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I could humor that middle one for a while.

[Bella Fortuna]

I would rather attract a swarm of killer wasps.

Isn't that what happened a few days ago?

Seriously, though... I agree with TA. We've had some marvellous people find us (or re-find us) through happenstance, and that's worked just fine.

[Audley Strange]

How about a true battle of the sexes. I'll bring the hammers and ski-masks.

[Bella Fortuna]

How about a true battle of the sexes. I'll bring the hammers and ski-masks.

Hey, I thought you said battle, not orgy!

[fretmeister]

How about a true battle of the sexes. I'll bring the hammers and ski-masks.

Hey, I thought you said battle, not orgy!

That's not an orgy - no ballgags, cable ties or tarpaulins.

Hammers and Ski-masks are the diet coke of orgies.

[Audley Strange]

How about a true battle of the sexes. I'll bring the hammers and ski-masks.

Hey, I thought you said battle, not orgy!

At my orgies, many enter, only one leaves.

[Robert_S]

And mine is that I don't think we should be trying to attract anyone here because of who they are, or what group they identify with (our general 'friendly rabid atheist' tagline being a guide to who's here already). I agree - all are welcome, but I'd much prefer to see people come here because they find us interesting and attractive as a group and want to join in. "How do we attract XYZ" makes it sound like we're trying to collect one of everything, or are seeking validation from them - we are who we are, foibles and failings included. People who can see through the BS spouted about Rationalia by the likes of PZM will hopefully recognise that on their own.

Maybe I should have written the OP as an invitation to them directly. I think there might be one or two who might be able to at least see something of value here and possibly even post in a thread or two. That one thing that brought the spotlight upon us is not representative of the place generally. Maybe we should set up an exchange program where we trade members for a set period of time. We could maybe make a skeptic website reality tv program out of it.

I'm also thinking I was maybe trying to be on the Justice League when I should have been with the Mercy League during that interaction with the Pharyngula. I got snappy. It was an out of the ordinary situation and I wasn't on an even keel. i'm sorry about when I was overly harsh, especially to Hotshoe. I should not have used that tone. You had actually been very nice to me before then and posted something for me over at PZ's blog. Thank you for that. you deserved better from me.

Sweeping generalizations have been made on both sides here. I'll take my share of the blame for that. I skim over those threads and see how I could have been more careful and read things a little more slowly and gotten a better understanding of who was saying what over there while posting over here.

I'm actually quite pleased to have noticed a poster over there who took me to task for "don't drop the soap". I don't think I mentioned that before.

Also... I had not actually posted what I was thinking of when I said some people needed a "thicker skin". I was thinking in the context of the T-shirt incident. That it was in that context didn't make it into the post I actually typed but I thought it did when I posted it. As a result, my post was understandably taken in the context of the thread. That's the wrong mistake to make when thread just happens to be about how we should treat the subject of rape, which is a lot different than the content of the T-shirt in question. I remember there's a post somewhere on PZ's blog where I was angry that someone had thought I had intended it as me implying what my contents of my post then said. Sorry. My only excuse is that it was hot here but I was running fans and not an A/C to save money.

So, maybe I should also take a bit of time to get an account at and check out one or the other blog that has been involved in this. Maybe it wouldn't hurt me to get to know a few more of "them" and expand my conception of "us" a bit.

These are just things I need to say in the hopes that we don't, either as skeptics or people of good will, have so many preventable rifts.

[Audley Strange]

Yeah Robert, in theory it would be a nice idea, I'm sure there are also some reasonable Taliban we might want to invite too.

I do not see them as skeptics, rationalist, atheists or anything other than a passive aggressive hate movement.

Why are you apologising to reactionary cunts who consider you a Rape Enabler by association? Fuck them. Radfem androphobes are poisonous to every movement they try and usurp.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

How about a true battle of the sexes. I'll bring the hammers and ski-masks.

Hey, I thought you said battle, not orgy!

At my orgies, many come, only one leaves.

[Robert_S]

Yeah Robert, in theory it would be a nice idea, I'm sure there are also some reasonable Taliban we might want to invite too.

I do not see them as skeptics, rationalist, atheists or anything other than a passive aggressive hate movement.

Why are you apologising to reactionary cunts who consider you a Rape Enabler by association? Fuck them. Radfem androphobes are poisonous to every movement they try and usurp.

Does that apply to every one of them? How do I know?

[Audley Strange]

Yeah Robert, in theory it would be a nice idea, I'm sure there are also some reasonable Taliban we might want to invite too.

I do not see them as skeptics, rationalist, atheists or anything other than a passive aggressive hate movement.

Why are you apologising to reactionary cunts who consider you a Rape Enabler by association? Fuck them. Radfem androphobes are poisonous to every movement they try and usurp.

Does that apply to every one of them? How do I know?

Am I generalising, yes. Should I? Yes. It is wiser to generalise that snakes are poisonous if confronting one, even if it is not.

Go actually read through the shit in the comments sections on FtB and Skepchick thoroughly. Not just pertaining to our own little debacle. Tell me if they seem like a bunch of reasonable people or a bunch of people who should be sectioned as a danger to themselves and others. It's just pure raw angst and androphobia. Any real dissent is shut down. They say the vilest things about others. They defame and villify people. Some of them actually want to put in place a programme to get rid of males except for breeding stock.

Go on, go read that shit and then convince me we should try and compromise. Seen ANY of it from them? Ever? People have bent over backwards to accommodate them and see their point and they lashed out time and time again, because "we just don't get it." You know like we don't get "The love of Christ" in our hearts. We are men, we are the original sin. They are fucking nuts.

Tell me if you replaced any of the shit they talk about men with any other group you'd still extend the olive branch. Imagine if they took Laurence Krauss to task over his association with jewish science, or saying that Black people were a genetic flaw.

I think they have every right to be so vicious petty and nasty. I just wish they'd appreciate that so does everyone else, they don't get to special plead.

[Kristie]

Tell them all about one of our meets. Who wouldn't want to get involved in one of those?

Got me posting again!

[hadespussercats]

Weekly debates? A chance to try to knock us down, but maybe a chance to look around a bit, see who else is here? Especially if the debates have teams, so they're sometimes on the same side as other Ratzes?

Beyond Ratzerdome...