Future of the Forum

[The Central Scrutinizer]

At this point, it's just myself and I'm being very limited in what I do.

Ok, thanks. Even limited as it may be, it is still positive news.

Depends on what she does.

 

[Horatius]

Depends on what she does.

Well, the traditional thing is to ban Scrut.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

Well, the traditional thing is to ban Scrut.

That's on my to-do list.

 

[madurobob]

Sharon has a tough skin and can handle the slings and barbs, but why not give her some room? You may have a point, but don't use it to puncture the side of the boat.

I think we need to let this Titanic analogy go, now.

I've not been bashing Sharon, I've been thanking her, and empathizing with her situation. From what I can tell this was dumped on her with little time to plan, and what planning has since taken place has been concurrent with new revelations in this thread. Remember, this thread started off with a plea for help with maintenance of the forum HW & SW, not a call for suggestions on how best to migrate the forums away from JREF.

I have, of course, been poking the JREF, and rightfully so. Reading thru this thread from the beginning you can see this very quickly went form a plea for help with forum maintenance to a statement that the JREF is jettisoning the forum and we should be thankful its not just being deleted without warning. This forum is a fabulous resource and to realize its current owners see it as more of a nuisance than anything else is maddening. Kudos to Sharon for convincing them otherwise.

 

[Jeff Wagg]

Aww, I like the Titanic analogy.

Ok, how about this. There was this submarine, and it was investigating an underwater volcano... ah, forget it.

 

[Professor Yaffle]

The JREF has kindly given me back my Admin powers (for limited use). If you have a concern about your real name or email address, PM me and I'll see what I can do.

Thank goodness for that. Imagine how long we could have been stuck with uncayimmy....

 

[carlitos]

Curious.

It's one of the poorest attempts at sockpuppetry I've seen. Ever.

Digital Dan, you sound just like this jerk called UncaYimmy that got banned here a long time ago.

Either my ideas are valid or they are not. I don't need to be a longtime member here to have good ideas on how something like this should be handled.

An admin has risen like a phoenix from the ashes, wielding the mighty banhammer.

Ban Notice: Digital Dan

 

[calebprime]

How did paperskater know that, and so fast?

I must have missed some posts of his that were particularly argumentative.

 

[Olowkow]

Reading between the lines, I think someone mentioned a new JREF lawsuit a while back, what seems to underlie most of JREF's concerns about the forum is legal liability for what some people may say in their posts. This is certainly an understandable concern, and I can't imagine anyone wanting to take on such potential legal nightmares without some possibility of compensation. My question: is it possible to "lawsuit proof" a forum? Can courts be told that the forum has no records of anyone's identity and no control over their opinions?

Is it possible to create a legal forum entity analogous to someone offering free paper and pencil or the use of a megaphone to anonymous club members with opinions? Could a forum be run implementing complete anonymity of those members who choose to remain so? It seems to me that the only thing I would miss, if I were completely anonymous, is the emails telling me I have new PM's.

 

[Vermonter]

I appreciate Sharon and Jeff's work in for the forums. It's a suboptimal situation, but it's not utterly hopeless. My take is that the forum can work in a similar way once it has been transferred to another owner - I'm not a fan of the way many other boards are run. Including ways to screw other users or bribe admins to lift bans runs against my community preferences.

It's vastly unfortunate that the JREF has decided to jettison the Forums, but at this point we can only work on solutions to maintain the community and transition it to a new, unbiased owner where it can continue to function, and, perhaps, get a much-needed software upgrade that will help the forums be stable and fast. Keep in mind that we, the community, have never had to pay a dime to register or use these forums.

I don't know what the operating costs of the forum are, and I'm not sure if that's something that can be divulged to give us some idea of what it takes to keep this meeting place running. I'd love to know, but if not, no big deal.

I for one would be willing to help hammer out transitional issues including revising the MA. I have experience with maintaining confidentiality (I work for a hospital as IT support for our electronic health record), so if I could be of any use, let me know.

The Forums have been a wonderful resource and I'd love to see it continue. The fact that it will no longer be under the JREF is of little consequence. Let's look at how we can use the opportunity to expand our outreach and bring in new members.

 

[phunk]

Tough luck.

That's a pretty terrible attitude to have about ignoring the part of the privacy policy that everyone cares the most about:

The JREF does not sell or share the information you are required to provide during registration with any other organisation.

 

[gregthehammer]

How did paperskater know that, and so fast?

I must have missed some posts of his that were particularly argumentative.

Really? I'm pretty much an active lurker on this site, that was my first thought when I saw Digital Dan's posting style, and then Bam! Paperskater posted.

 

[Professor Yaffle]

How did paperskater know that, and so fast?

I must have missed some posts of his that were particularly argumentative.

Some of us can sniff a sock from a mile off.

 

[Childlike Empress]

How did paperskater know that, and so fast?

I must have missed some posts of his that were particularly argumentative.

I smelled it as well with his first post I read. Nobody gives "advice" in such a verbose, self-centered and -righteous way as UncaYimmy. Well, almost nobody.

 

[Dumb All Over]

If you have an innovative idea for making a JREF Forum more streamlined and less sprawling in topics and content, for example, that would be a worthwhile proposal.

Now I am really confused. Are you relinquishing control of the forums or aren't you? If you are, why would you concern yourself with innovative ideas that you will have no future control over?

 

[steenkh]

If you have an innovative idea for making a JREF Forum more streamlined and less sprawling in topics and content, for example, that would be a worthwhile proposal.

This part of the clarification surprised me. Why is the JREF concerned about how the forum sprawls under new ownership? Could an innovative idea cause the forum to stay under the JREF?

 

[DrDave]

Some of us can sniff a sock from a mile off.

I don't know how people can do that! For me, all it takes is for a regular poster to change their avatar and I don't realise it's the same person.

 

[jsfisher]

Now I am really confused. Are you relinquishing control of the forums or aren't you? If you are, why would you concern yourself with innovative ideas that you will have no future contol over?

I would not read too much into the statement. That fact she went back to correct and clarify a misstatement in a prior post is a certifiably Good Thing^TM. This other bit I took as just "happy talk" filler and doesn't add information to the post (nor does it diminish the Good Thing^TM aspect, either).

 

[Belz...]

Not true. It's publicly available in the place that will be directly affected - the Forum. And has been announced on the web site.

It isn't the part of the forum with the greatest amount of traffic, I'd wager.

 

[Belz...]

I'll support a new forum financially, but the James Randi Educational Foundation has lost my trust.

Ditto. I considered donating several times in the past, but now the foundation can forget about it.

Yes, it keeps sounding like "We want to narrow our focus to skeptical outreach so let's cut loose the largest collection of skeptics on the internet".

Growing organizations look outward and broaden their focus dying ones look inward and narrow their focus.

The forum is an inestimable source of education and learning. Does the JREF know nothing about how many really smart and knowledgeable people we have here ? We learn stuff all the time. Educational foundation my eye.

Either my ideas are valid or they are not. I don't need to be a longtime member here to have good ideas on how something like this should be handled.

No but apparently you need to be not a sockpuppet.