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What's going on at JREF?!

Spiro

Scholar
Spiro
Joined
Aug 27, 2005
Messages
115
I'm a devotee of James Randi and have been for very many years. I love the JREF and its activities. But I've started to wonder why the organization seems to have lost its once admirable thrust. Randi's decision to stop posting his weekly Swift column was inevitable, but the current blog is a mere shadow of what used to be, with hardly anything new appearing.

Thanks to Pharyngula, the other blog I read regularly, I know there's a superb interview with Randi dated June 9th on the Big Think website http://bigthink.com/jamesrandi. In the course of some 34 minutes Randi, in top form, talks about his life and his career. So why isn't this link displayed in a blog on the JREF site. We have the short video of Randi on his way to Finland, so we know that Brandon or another of Randi's staff is currently posting, but no mention at all of the Big Think video.

TAM London was advertised for some time only on its own separate website. Only recently has the London meeting been publicized here on the JREF site (on the Amazing Meeting page) — and news of the upcoming TAM Australia has now been added. During his year as JREF President, Phil Plait was almost invisible in posts on the JREF blog. His successor, DJ Grothe, has put up a few items, but we are still a very long way from the days when Randi posted several items a week (all beautifully written and invariably interesting). Even Jeff Wagg, once a prolific poster, seems to have gone a lot quieter.

Surely the JREF website is its most important interface with the public at large? Shouldn't the homepage blog be vibrant, exciting and constantly updated? Swift and Pharyngula once were comparable in terms of their energy, but I feel energy has somehow been lost from the JREF site. What do you think?
 
Sure sign of a coming schism. "The New , Free & Degaussed JREF of Latter Day Stuff (Europe PLC) " is about to be break away. It will be led by the much taller and prettier Tracey King and will worship at the altar of True Scepticism (with 2 "c" s), as the Old Ones of Mu intended. Also Chips and fondue thursday's at Teek's place. BYOB.

Or they may just be busy with other stuff.
 
You might want to read the thread about What does the JREF do?
http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134679

Jeff Wagg discussed in Forum Management about a year ago better ways to integrate the forums and the main website, but other than a few links to blogs in this forum, nothing seems to have come of it.

There's also some talk in the MDC forum about what's going on with the challenge. I believe some changes were in the works, but I don't believe we've seen them yet.
 
Spiro said:
TAM London was advertised for some time only on its own separate website. Only recently has the London meeting been publicized here on the JREF site (on the Amazing Meeting page)
Click to expand...

That may have been a deliberate decision to keep the announcement low key. Last year's TAM London sold out in about an hour, and many people in the UK who wanted to go couldn't.
 
zooterkin said:
That may have been a deliberate decision to keep the announcement low key. Last year's TAM London sold out in about an hour, and many people in the UK who wanted to go couldn't.
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The fix for ensuring that the event is not booked out too quickly is to ensure that there are enough tickets available. I assume in London you can hire a room as big as you want.

But on the other hand decide to have a place four times as big as last year could mean that the tickets are sold out in four hours instead of one hour. Or it could mean that half the tickets are sold in two hours and not many people want the rest of the tickets.
 
rjh01 said:
The fix for ensuring that the event is not booked out too quickly is to ensure that there are enough tickets available.
Click to expand...
I think the concern may have been not that it sold out, but that certain groups didn't get a chance to buy tickets before it did. I assume, from the complaints, that those groups included forum members, particularly in the UK. The increase in the size of venue this year also helps to address the problems.
 
rjh01 said:
The fix for ensuring that the event is not booked out too quickly is to ensure that there are enough tickets available. I assume in London you can hire a room as big as you want.
Click to expand...

Actually, it turns out you can´t, as I recall last year´s discussions. There are only a few places bigger than the one TAM London was held at, and those are hideously expensive, if they are available at all.
 
rjh01 said:
The fix for ensuring that the event is not booked out too quickly is to ensure that there are enough tickets available. I assume in London you can hire a room as big as you want.

But on the other hand decide to have a place four times as big as last year could mean that the tickets are sold out in four hours instead of one hour. Or it could mean that half the tickets are sold in two hours and not many people want the rest of the tickets.
Click to expand...

Chaos said:
Actually, it turns out you can´t, as I recall last year´s discussions. There are only a few places bigger than the one TAM London was held at, and those are hideously expensive, if they are available at all.
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That was it. Tracy said that they looked at TAM Vegas, and considered all the options and the cash deposits required on different size places, and how much money was required, how much they would be out if the place didn't sell out, and so on, and picked what they thought they could handle on a deposit and be able to fill. They were as surprised as anyone at how rapidly they conference sold out (of course, she was criticized for not knowing!)

This year they found a larger venue. It cost more. Having booked places before, I know that if you undersell, you can be left with losing money.
 
As for Jeff Wagg's quietness, if you do a bit of sleuthing you'll find that Jeff no longer works for the JREF. I have very strong opinions on that particular and abrupt change, but I'll keep them to myself for now. *sigh*
 
Sorry. Now I feel like I'm rumor-mongering and that wasn't my intention. Just that things definitely are/have changed recently (and one change explains why Jeff might be a bit quiet).

And I want to say that I'm not trying to coax some sort of announcement or start any intrigue or conspiracy theories of something sordid. There's no evidence of that. It's a bit Of a whimper rather than a bang.

But he has announced his permanent move to Chicago and if you connect that and other dots and public comments, it's become quietly known. And... In hindsight I should have asked him before I came here and said anything (sorry, Jeff). But I'm not under any impression that it's meant to be a secret, just not widely discussed.

Now my proclivity for typing first and thinking second... That's definitely not a secret. :blush:
 
rjh01 said:
You left off one link the cache http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...index.php/staff.html&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au
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I didn't see the need to include a link to the cache. I only double-checked the cache in case my memory was wrong about him being listed in the past.

I would not worry too much about this. What UncaYimmy did in his post was far worse and I doubt that he will be saying he made a mistake in making the post.

UncaYimmy
Please remember
10 (how much worse your post was) X 0 (how bad the original post was) = 0 (how bad your post was)
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I have no idea what you are talking about. Tank stated that Jeff no longer works for the JREF but did not provide any evidence. In response I pointed to three verifiable facts.

* His Swift bio listing his job description as current
* His moderator status on the forum
* His removal from the Staff page

That's it. No conclusions. No innuendo. Just facts that, short of an official announcement one way or another, are inconclusive. Would you care to explain what you meant? Without math equations?
 
UncaYimmy said:
His Swift bio still lists him as working there:
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/swift-blog-biographies.html
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I'm guessing it's been changed since you looked at it, since it now says:
Jeff Wagg

Jeff Wagg is a long-time contributor to Swift, Dragon*Con, local skeptic groups and is a former JREF staffer. He is constantly asking the question "what does it mean to be a skeptic?" He believes the issue isn't whether science offers enough answers, but rather, does it offer enough questions? Jeff was involved in running several TAMs, and created the Amaz!ng Adventure program. He also insituted the $10,000 annual scholarship, and ran the $1,000,000 challenge for a few years. Jeff is one of the few staffers to have actually been a subject of a challenge.
Click to expand...
 
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Akhenaten said:
Whether it's good, bad or indifferent, it's certainly interesting because it means that the position of "Forum Manager" is vacant at the moment and presumably we're running on autopilot.
Click to expand...

John Madden would be perfect for the job.
 
Akhenaten said:
Whether it's good, bad or indifferent, it's certainly interesting because it means that the position of "Forum Manager" is vacant at the moment and presumably we're running on autopilot.
Click to expand...

He does still have mod/admin powers, and the Moderator Agreement still lists him as the representative of the JREF. If he is no longer fulfilling this function (for all we know, he could still be), then you are right.
...
Administrator actions (when acting as Administrator) can be appealed to the JREF's representative, this is Jeff Wagg.
All appeal decisions are final.
Changes

This agreement may be changed at any time and if you do not agree to be bound by any changes then you will notify an Administrator or Jeff Wagg and will immediately step down as a Moderator or Administrator.
Click to expand...

When the question was asked, Darat said it was one to be answered by the JREF, not the mod team, and closed the thread. I think I see where he's coming from on that, it's the JREF's responsibility to make the announcement, though presumably Darat must know who he now reports to.
 
zooterkin said:

When the question was asked, Darat said it was one to be answered by the JREF, not the mod team, and closed the thread. I think I see where he's coming from on that, it's the JREF's responsibility to make the announcement, though presumably Darat must know who he now reports to.
Click to expand...

Of course, considering that the person to contact at the JREF regarding the Forum was Jeff Wagg...
 
zooterkin said:
He does still have mod/admin powers, and the Moderator Agreement still lists him as the representative of the JREF. If he is no longer fulfilling this function (for all we know, he could still be), then you are right.


When the question was asked, Darat said it was one to be answered by the JREF, not the mod team, and closed the thread. I think I see where he's coming from on that, it's the JREF's responsibility to make the announcement, though presumably Darat must know who he now reports to.
Click to expand...

See this thread. http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=6304362#post6304362

Another piece of evidence that Jeff has left JREF.

Edit. the thing under has username is now Eponymous, but he still is a mod.
 
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rjh01 said:
See this thread. http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=6304362#post6304362

Another piece of evidence that Jeff has left JREF.
Click to expand...
I think we're well past the point of wondering if he has left the JREF, he has. What we don't know yet is who will be his replacement, and how the handover is being done.
Edit. the thing under has username is now Eponymous, but he still is a mod.
Click to expand...
I could have sworn I said much the same thing myself...
 
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