Announcement about RDF

[Rum]

Hey all. I've successfully relocated my anti-theist operations to this regime.

There is a guerilla war for there *not* to be a regime here..low key (very) at the moment..

[natselrox]

I always thought that the best topics were the ones where some lousy theist would come along and attack Dawkins for being militant and make stupid claims about the God Delusion. They were good threads because the result was many members explaining that simply saying that you don't believe is not offensive and that there is a big difference between fundamentalism and passion. I think that those threads were very educational. I sincerely doubt that those types of threads will fall under the scope of the new discussion thing they are wanting to set up.

The other gpart of the forum that will most likely be lost is the excellent debunking threads. If topics must go through a selection process there probably won't be any creationists charging onto the ste with their canards and creationist lies. Even if the topic starter never got any of the excellent rebuttal into their thick skull, the experience was always beneficial to anyone who read through the thread.

Well said!

[Cunt]

Did gallstones make it here?

I sure hope so. I just sent him a PM at RDF asking him to.

I guess that means that PM's work sometimes.

.....

Gallstones was posting a picture of someone giving the middle finger, other mod's supported his views. Rest of us vented our displeasure at the situation. Nothing that wasn't to be expected after being told we were being fucked.

I'd send Josh the exact same picture if I could still post PM's. Crap.

Gallstones has a Facebook page. She posted a non-link to it before everything went tits up but I do know Nora is a F’book friend of hers.

Gallstones is a SHE? LOL

I guess it doesn't matter, but it was a bit unexpected. Seldom have I liked a woman so much without sexually harassing her in some way...

.....

I am slow, so some of these bits were written almost an hour ago, but I will leave it as it is.

.....

Sciwoman - I LOVE the new avatar! My compliments to the photographer and the composer.

[sforza]

How hard would it have been to divorce the forum from Dawkins and let someone else host it? How hard would it have been to give people time to establish a new location away from RD.net? Why were all attempts to alert people to an alternative discussion area so vigorously stamped upon, to the extent that the forum itself has been locked and the accounts of the "ringleaders" deleted altogether?

It's as if Dawkins and his henchmen think they own the people who posted on that forum, clearly evidenced by their instruction not to attempt to "'relocate' groups of users to a separate forum".

Exactly.

If the old forum had become a PR liability, if the idea of a strictly-modded, "serious" debate forum about reason, science and philosophy without all the silly or potentially offensive off-topic stuff appeals to RD and is the way he wanted to take his site, that's perfectly fine. If they had discussed this with the mods, maybe the community could have worked out a compromise in advance. I don't think relocating a forum as huge as that without the benefit of a foundation running it would have been easy - maybe it would even have been impossible - but the RDF people should have given the mods and users a chance to find a solution.

If the new format turns out to work, it'll probably be as a site where people sometimes go to post when a particularly interesting debate comes up, not a community. Depending on how their idea of strict moderation works out in practice, it may even still be worth a visit, just not for the kind of socialising and free discussion we had before.
If they had been more forthcoming with information to the mods, less patronising and arrogant and more courteous, I think this could have turned out very differently.

[M]

I don't think RD wanted to get rid of the forum at all but he'd take advice (as would the Foundation) from the tech people. If they said it can't be fixed and is draining the resources then they are going to approve the new system that's presented to them.

That's my hunch anyway.

I really DO think he wants shot of it. He's is nearly 70 years old for one thing; shouldn't he be relaxing in a shed on his allotment by now?
If it were purely a pain in the technical arse, why couldn't he just say "Look guys, I can't be bothered with this any more. Rename the forum, take my name off it and let someone else front it?" Looks like a perfectly reasonable way out of a situation, even if there is really something else underlying, as I suspect.

[DoctorE]

I unsubscribed from from Dawkins youtube channel, perhaps you should do the same; You know Josh handles his channel

[Cunt]

Can someone compile a list of everything Josh has his fingers in so it will be easier to boycott (for those who think it's a good idea, I mean)?

[hackenslash]

I've decided not to sever any ties at this time. I want to keep my ear close to the ground and appear to remain reasonable, although in reality I'm feeling far from reasonable. I'm still hoping I can get access to the database properly so that all forum content can be saved.

[Babel]

Gallstones is a SHE? LOL

I guess it doesn't matter, but it was a bit unexpected. Seldom have I liked a woman so much without sexually harassing her in some way...

.....

I am slow, so some of these bits were written almost an hour ago, but I will leave it as it is.

.....

This might not encourage her to join ratz. Unless she's into you harassing her.

[DanDare]

I have changed my RD.net sig to link here and I have linked here in one of the articles as well. This change to the forum has greatly distressed me. I spend about an hour or two every day on the forum, reading, learning, and chatting. I feel hurt and betrayed.

I am so glad to see that the community of people who actually are driving change in the world have found a place to regather. I am all for donating to this forum. Where's the PayPal button?

[Bella Fortuna]

I have changed my RD.net sig to link here and I have linked here in one of the articles as well. This change to the forum has greatly distressed me. I spend about an hour or two every day on the forum, reading, learning, and chatting. I feel hurt and betrayed.

I am so glad to see that the community of people who actually are driving change in the world have found a place to regather. I am all for donating to this forum. Where's the PayPal button?

Good on you, Dan! Look up Pappa's profile - the PayPal link is in his sig, I believe.

[ozewiezeloose]

I have changed my RD.net sig to link here and I have linked here in one of the articles as well. This change to the forum has greatly distressed me. I spend about an hour or two every day on the forum, reading, learning, and chatting. I feel hurt and betrayed.

I am so glad to see that the community of people who actually are driving change in the world have found a place to regather. I am all for donating to this forum. Where's the PayPal button?

I think sigs have been deactivated. You'd better put it in as your location, I figure.

[CTC]

Nope. I thought it would strengthen the forum and bring in new members.

Are you still game with it?

I don't know. I'm going to give it some thought and, of course, much will depend on how successful we are in archiving the content.

Frankly, this mess is *more* reason to do it, not less. The only real benefit to doing it as an official RDF project was that it might aid in getting it successfully published - though that 'might' ultimately would have hinged upon whether or not Dawkins could stomach the notion of putting a book on the site that wasn't his own (and a cynical little piece of me always screamed 'No!' at that).

But given this turn of events, it'd be a decent kick in the pants to them if it happened anyway. We can be not only good without God but rational (and worth reading) without Richard.

Then again, it sure as shit would help if anyone knew a literary agent.

[Flora]

And I can't send PMs! It says "You can't make a post so soon after your last!" :pissed:

Nope, can't send any PM's either. And I can't use the 'view your posts' and 'view active topics' functions either. I actually managed to send Topsy a PM before everything got blocked. Is she here, btw?

S.

Yeah, somewhere.

I've been here since last August.
(lemme out! lemme out!)

I have loads of PMs from people asking why they can't post but I can't answer more than one an hour due to the new PM settings.

[ozewiezeloose]

I have loads of PMs from people asking why they can't post but I can't answer more than one an hour due to the new PM settings.

I know. Don't worry, Topsy/Flora! Good to see you back!

S.