Atheism Plus/Free Thought Blogs (FTB)

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Zelenius said:
I was actually hoping to see these ... launch their own version of TAM, to see how hilariously disastrous this train-wreck would be. Unfortunately, at the rate they're going, this just doesn't look possible anymore...
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The Central Scrutinizer said:
There would be zero attendees.
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It appears that there has already been one, and the room did not look exactly empty. Several of the faces seem somewhat familiar from e.g. FtB: http://www.flickr.com/photos/centerforinquiry/sets/72157630004212926/with/7317186890/

The next one will be held this May, with some names on the speakers list that even I recognize: http://www.womeninsecularism.org/
 
Diogenes said:
This thread might outlive their forum.
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I'd assume that the A+ forum will probably limp along in the same way Conservapedia does. With an overly strict set of mods and a select in-group that can get away with pretty much anything.
 
I don't know if A+ will survive or not. I'm fairly certain that if it continues as is it is now it will just be an echo chamber.

"Without deviation from the norm, Progress is not possible" --Frank Zappa
 
Ronja said:
It appears that there has already been one, and the room did not look exactly empty. Several of the faces seem somewhat familiar from e.g. FtB: http://www.flickr.com/photos/centerforinquiry/sets/72157630004212926/with/7317186890/

The next one will be held this May, with some names on the speakers list that even I recognize: http://www.womeninsecularism.org/
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Nice!

However...

I believe the statement you were responding to was that Atheism Plus conferences would not get traction. I don't see Atheism Plus in the linked pages, and the upcoming conference has R. Elisabeth Cornwell, executive director of Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science US. I'd imagine she'd be banned if it had been an official Atheism Plus event, given that opposition to Professor Dawkins was part of the genesis of the Plus splinter, and considering plussers' practice of suppressing dissent in their forum.
 
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Ronja said:
It appears that there has already been one, and the room did not look exactly empty. Several of the faces seem somewhat familiar from e.g. FtB: http://www.flickr.com/photos/centerforinquiry/sets/72157630004212926/with/7317186890/

The next one will be held this May, with some names on the speakers list that even I recognize: http://www.womeninsecularism.org/
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CFI runs that conference. A+ has nothing to do with it, other than some of their sympathizers are on the speakers list.
 
Wow. Someone compiled an A+ verbal abuse "best of list":

http://atheismplus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=716&start=1750#p66619

And then, someone mentioned that they just don't respond to people who talk to them like that, and the mod response was: (next page)

A+ mod said:
Ignoring people who aren't conforming to your standard of civility is exactly what tone policing is. The fact that you didn't explicitly tell anyone they need to be nicer before you'll listen to them doesn't stop it being tone policing.
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That is insane!!!! Holy crap! I haven't lurked there for a while or been following recent developments outside of some of what's posted here, but this is a whole new level of WTFBBQ.

Then, later, same mod:

Walking away is certainly preferable to explicitly telling them to be nicer but it's far from ideal. What you ought to do is consider the possibility that your failure to see any grounds for the other person's anger might, maybe, possibly be due to a lack of understanding on your part as opposed to unreasonableness on their part.
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Someone responds to the mod:

What an *******! So refusing to put up with verbal abuse is now tone policing? If Irk doesn't want to deal with someone, xe doesn't have to. Sort of like how people you don't want to deal with on this forum get banned. "Agree or be silenced" is somehow ok when "I don't want to engage people who are verbally abusive" is not ok?
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Mod response?

BAN!

Wow.
 
kellyb said:
Wow. Someone compiled an A+ verbal abuse "best of list":


Mod response?

BAN!

Wow.
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I was here before any significant moderation. When moderation increased I spoke out against it precisely because I was concerned about freedom of speech issues and how easily moderation could be abused. JREF understood this and they have taken admirable steps to be fair and tolerate people of all ideas and beliefs to hold court here everyday.
 
recursive prophet said:
Indeed it was, and the funniest part is when you scroll down and see the reaction to my attempt to insert a little reason into the discussion. I mean, earlier it was claimed by the lynch mob that whoever told wind they were trashing her off the boards was putting lives at risk irl. :eek:

I'm expecting a body count from the fallout over this appalling breach of privacy soon. Think about how thoroughly those invited into the sooper sekret forum must have been vetted given the level of paranoia that exists there? I never even learned the secret hand shake. :(

If getting an unsolicited PM could cause some there to take weeks to recover from, surely there must have been a few deaths owing to panic attacks learning their ++ safe hidden enclave had been breached, right?
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Bring on the fainting couch, they're falling like dominoes.
 
RandFan said:
I was here before any significant moderation. When moderation increased I spoke out against it precisely because I was concerned about freedom of speech issues and how easily moderation could be abused. JREF understood this and they have taken admirable steps to be fair and tolerate people of all ideas and beliefs to hold court here everyday.
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The weird thing is that its also the most OVERmoderated forum I've ever encountered. Ever. Anywhere.

You can't PM people without asking public permission first, they ban people over nothing all the time (a recent ban threat was to ban anyone who did not respond to a particular non-mod's post in a certain thread if they were going to complain about the moderation). You're not supposed to link to youtube without providing a transcript. If you defend a position that even MIGHT be perceived by someone as sexist/classist/etc etc etc that will get you banned.

But screaming at people in all caps with profanity and calling them "human urinals" is just hunkey dory! (As long as you're part of the ingroup, or the subhuman object is deemed by the ingroup to be worthy of your wrath, I suppose.)

It's one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.
 
AbsurdWalls said:
I think the mods (and other members of the secret forum) don't realise that you shouldn't really be making the rules of your forum up as you go.
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Not to mention that banning people for expressing ideas that are contrary to your own sort of defeats the whole purpose of a "forum" in the first place. You may as well just host a moderated blog by that point.
 
ponderingturtle said:
recursive prophet said:
Good synopsis John. I just took a glance and there were 14 users, counting guests at A+, lol. We should start a pool on when the lights go out there. I'll take April 1. :)

I'd also like to read what others here think is going on there. I mean, it is SO over the top the way the clique there marginalizes so many others in the name of protecting the marginalized. They've truly entered the realm of the surreal at this point. :boggled:
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Hmm this has me wondering if it performance art.
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I was thinking the same thing. Just look at the outrageously abstruse language in this sentence:

You were banned for continuing to insist that you were accused of intentionally doing something despite repeated attempts by multiple people to clarify to you that they didn't not think you had meant any harm but were trying to explain to you why they found your limerick problematic.
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Can these people really be serious? It's got to be a joke! :confused:
 
kellyb said:
The weird thing is that its also the most OVERmoderated forum I've ever encountered. Ever. Anywhere.

You can't PM people without asking public permission first, they ban people over nothing all the time (a recent ban threat was to ban anyone who did not respond to a particular non-mod's post in a certain thread if they were going to complain about the moderation). You're not supposed to link to youtube without providing a transcript. If you defend a position that even MIGHT be perceived by someone as sexist/classist/etc etc etc that will get you banned.

But screaming at people in all caps with profanity and calling them "human urinals" is just hunkey dory! (As long as you're part of the ingroup, or the subhuman object is deemed by the ingroup to be worthy of your wrath, I suppose.)

It's one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.
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If the goal is indoctrination and group think then their actions are consistent with the goals. In that sense their actions could be argued to be rational. I think A+ serves an important purpose though as an object lesson. Truth is not well served by censorship and favoritism. So, for those who are not familiar with Hitchens' magnum opus on free speech I give you the following:

 
Ani DiFranco had some prescient lyrics in Little Plastic Castle.

I said look at you this morning
You are by far the cutest
But be careful getting coffee
I think these people want to shoot us
Or maybe there's some kind of local competition here
To see who can be the rudest

Yeah, that's right, Ani DiFranco. I like totally appropriated the hell out of her, fourteen years ago. Foolish P-town music shop owner sold me her recent CDs without even doing a background check, and now she belongs entirely to me and all my old white cis hetero male buddies. Want her back? Meet me at Spiritus Pizza and we'll arm wrestle. I'll be wearing the "More Spoons Than You Can Possibly Imagine" t-shirt.
 
Zelenius said:
I haven't been following this stinky situation closely, until very recently. I can't get over what this pile of manure has turned into, nothing smells worse than it. I guess Atheism Pus was the next best thing to living in an isolation tank for the rest of your life to keep out that which offends, which in their case is everything.

I was actually hoping to see these manure-slinging clowns launch their own version of TAM, to see how hilariously disastrous this train-wreck would be. Unfortunately, at the rate they're going, this just doesn't look possible anymore, but they will continue to stink up the atheism and skeptic communities as long as they can. Of course, their failure isn't really their fault - it's those evil atheist misogynists and rapists who are responsible for the abysmal failure that is Atheism Pus. It's an atheist misogynist conspiracy!
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Great typo ! LOL :D:D
 
@Recursive Prophet. Hugs if you want them.

That's one of my favorite SJ-correct memes on their board - you have to make sure the person receiving the hugs is not suffering from HAD(Hug Associative Disorder).

@KellyB. [ceepolk] Information you are not privy to is none of your business. [/ceepolk off]

Another of my favorites. Great way to stifle any questions. To echo what JHunter said, if anyone thinks Darat is imperious they ought to have Ceepolk or Sub-Mor as moderators for twenty-four hours. We'd be delivering tanker trucks of Earl Gray tea to Chez Darat to beg him to come back.
 
recursive prophet said:
Thanks Stout, but don't underestimate the comic drama value sie have contributed! As TCS remarked earlier, the "jokes are writing themselves." I still only wish I could make up some of the stuff they come up with. :D
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Sometimes I have to look at the top of the page while I'm reading A+ just to remind myself that I'm not on cracked.com. A+ is almost as funny but on Cracked, you actually learn useful things.

Nothing too weird today save this bit from there Women in Secularism thread where a poster named thunk posts

****, I really want to go, but boarding school+ no actual means of travel cuz that's about my 17th birthday weekend means that would be Really. ***********. Hard.

(but, when there's a will, there's a way)
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and less than an hour later posts

Honestly, suncountess, drawing on my limited experiences as an ex-MRA, they think the status quo is already equal, or even biased against them. So when they see WiS take place, they think that it's some great imposition on their rights (really privileges) as men, and that it is their masculine duty to go in and stop those women from speaking and plotting to take away their rights.

Cuz, y'no, they're the oppressed ones.
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So he's at boarding school, he's 16 years old and he's an ex-MRA ?

at 16, an ex-MRA ?

Horsehockey !

Looks like this kid is trying too hard to fit in.

Anybody care if the women want to have their own secularism conference ?
 
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