Gallstones wrote:devogue wrote:I'm not having a go at the girl or trying to stir up shit (much), but why is starr the top mod on Ratskep? She seems to have risen from nowhere within the wider RDF community to a position of almost Timonenesque power. How did that happen?
I don't get it, and I think that her personality and personal compass have had a massive effect on the Ratskep vibe (I remember starr being fairly reactionary and conservative here as lbon). Can you imagine how different it may have been if Topsy, sciwoman or someone even slightly more relaxed had been in the driving seat?
There was a poll. The staff voted on who they felt would make the best second in command. Starr did not get the vote but she is who LIFE wanted. I have no idea why he bothered with the poll.
Who did get the vote?
In retrospect, I also think it's a bit of a shame that the RDF community, especially the more vocal and respected big-hitters, didn't take just a little bit longer on Rationalia to catch their breath and decide together the best way to build their new forum rather than gratefully put the nearest cock in their mouths (sorry about that

). They had a fantastic opportunity and the luxury of time afforded by this forum (and advice born of experience) to build something really special and avoid the mistakes we were perhaps pressured in to at the birth of TAF and (to a much lesser extent) Ratz. Instead, everyone jumped gratefully in to LIFE's vehicle (I'm honestly amazed by your revelation, Gallstones) without a second thought.
Now some of you may think I'm exaggerating and full of it, and that all is sweetness and light on Ratskep and always will be, but I remember the gloating, the schadenfreude, the overbearing and pompous moral arbiters on RDF who cheered the Ratz community's first banishment from Dawkins to TAF, how a lot of RDF members laughed at us and cheered Timonen and Dawkins for their decisive and correct action in getting rid of us and our filth. And I remember how some of those people clung gratefully to Rationalia when Timonen and Dawkins made them walk the same plank eighteen months later . Well, Rationalia is our third try at getting forum life to a point where things don't implode horribly (I'm counting HoC) - I would say the Ratskep community has at least one schism in the pipeline.
Marry in haste, repent at leisure.