Atheism Plus/Free Thought Blogs (FTB)

[dasmiller]

Not wanting to be pedantic, but any reason to ban Scrut is fully justified.

I think the Forum Management thinking was "she banned Scrut, but that's not enough to make up for her rule violations."

 

[WillyWonka]

I think the Forum Management thinking was "she banned Scrut, but that's not enough to make up for her rule violations."

I would imagine that it was a very difficult decision to take by the Mods.

 

[Brainache]

I met Rebecca very briefly when she was in Sydney a while ago. I mentioned Scrut and all she said was "That guy really loves me".

If I'd been drunker, I might have asked her back to my place for coffee...

 

[devnull]

I would imagine that it was a very difficult decision to take by the Mods.

I dont think the mods made the call......

 

[arthwollipot]

The only thing I'd add about the banning incident is that Rebecca had been a mod in the past, but was no longer a mod when she was suspended. When she came off suspension, the software had restored her mod powers.

But it's nice to finally have confirmation of the theory I've long held that explains why she suicided by mod here, and also why she seems to despise the SGU forums.

Rebecca doesn't like forums. I was on SGUForums when she made the "pocket of dumb" comment, and it didn't go down well. But it was understandable when you take into account her (to me) obvious dislike of forums in general. Which is a bit strange, because a blog - which she seems to like - is just like a forum really, except that it's harder to navigate.

 

[zooterkin]

The only thing I'd add about the banning incident is that Rebecca had been a mod in the past, but was no longer a mod when she was suspended. When she came off suspension, the software had restored her mod powers.

But it's nice to finally have confirmation of the theory I've long held that explains why she suicided by mod here, and also why she seems to despise the SGU forums.

Rebecca doesn't like forums. I was on SGUForums when she made the "pocket of dumb" comment, and it didn't go down well. But it was understandable when you take into account her (to me) obvious dislike of forums in general. Which is a bit strange, because a blog - which she seems to like - is just like a forum really, except that it's harder to navigate.

The other difference is that the blog owner has a position of prominence, while in most forums all posters are on an equal footing. I wonder if that is a factor in why she doesn't like forums?

 

[WillyWonka]

The other difference is that the blog owner has a position of prominence, while in most forums all posters are on an equal footing. I wonder if that is a factor in why she doesn't like forums?

It seems the difference between democracy and dictatorship. From all I read, she also seems not to like being challenged on her ideas.

What is the"pocket of dumb" issue?

 

[arthwollipot]

It seems the difference between democracy and dictatorship. From all I read, she also seems not to like being challenged on her ideas.

What is the"pocket of dumb" issue?

It was linked upthread, but briefly, she referred (in a tweet) to the SGU forums as "a pocket of dumb in a sea of awesome".

 

[Mr. Scott]

Here's the latest hilarity from the A+ forum. Prominent atheist Matt Dillahunty created a sock account to verify whether or not people really were getting banned for just trying to openly debate on the forum, and subsequently got his post deleted for… openly debating on the forum.

Poor Matt, expecting the best in people. He had to learn the hard way.

(In case this incident disappears down the memory hole, what with the Soviet-style revisionism in this "movement," cashed versions of the thread can be found here and here.)

Reminds me of what happened in Guantanamo Bay detention camp^WP when Sean Baker^WP went undercover pretending to be an uncooperative prisoner and was beaten senseless.

he was beaten severely and that a soldier pressed his head down against the steel floor of the facility to the point where he became unable to breathe. Although Baker shouted out the safeword ("red") he had been given to stop the exercise and stated that he was a U.S. soldier, the soldier continued beating Baker's head against the floor and choking him. Only after ripping his prison jumpsuit in the struggle, revealing that he was wearing a battle dress uniform and government-issue boots underneath, did the beating stop

 

[Acleron]

http://twitpic.com/b4c7ny

 

[Mr. Scott]

http://twitpic.com/b4c7ny

That's not sexist because hot dogs (like douches) are unhealthy.

 

[RebeccaBradley]

Is A+ dead? Some observers are already writing the epitaphs.

This one is by John Loftus, who pulled out of FtB some time back, in protest at the way it was going, and has since been mocked and demonized on Pharyngula:
http://skepticink.com/debunkingchri...e-lessons-learned-from-the-demise-of-atheism/

This one is by Bluharmony, long demonized by FtB etc.
http://skepticink.com/skepticallyleft/2012/10/14/a-to-ashes/

This one isn’t an epitaph, but it makes some hard-hitting criticisms of A+, and backs them up with links. Lots of interesting stuff there. Prepare to spend an hour following them up.
http://skepticink.com/avant-garde/2012/10/13/atheism-plus-we-are-atheists/

I think John and Blu are probably right - but the corpse is still twitching, of course.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I predicted it wouldn't last until the end of the year. Maybe I was overly optimistic.

 

[westprog]

Is A+ dead? Some observers are already writing the epitaphs.

This one is by John Loftus, who pulled out of FtB some time back, in protest at the way it was going, and has since been mocked and demonized on Pharyngula:
http://skepticink.com/debunkingchri...e-lessons-learned-from-the-demise-of-atheism/

This one is by Bluharmony, long demonized by FtB etc.
http://skepticink.com/skepticallyleft/2012/10/14/a-to-ashes/

This one isn’t an epitaph, but it makes some hard-hitting criticisms of A+, and backs them up with links. Lots of interesting stuff there. Prepare to spend an hour following them up.
http://skepticink.com/avant-garde/2012/10/13/atheism-plus-we-are-atheists/

I think John and Blu are probably right - but the corpse is still twitching, of course.

If it does fall apart, it will be because of the tendency to turn on each other. However, I don't see any reason why it should. They're a self-contained little group, with their own language* and customs. They like to discuss with each other, and to shun people who disagree. There are plenty of like-minded people around, so I expect them to continue to tell each other how right they are for years and years.


*I noted with particular interest the discussion on the A+ forum about how we don't use racism to refer to racial prejudice any more - it now only applies to white people. Sadly the thread seems to have gone so I can't link.

 

[Humes fork]

I predicted it wouldn't last until the end of the year. Maybe I was overly optimistic.

McCreight has left the ship, it didn't really lift with Watson. The rest are even more marginalized.

 

[Humes fork]

The skinny on her banning is that she was accidentally given admin privileges because of a software glitch and promptly used this privilege to ban and delete the accounts of people she didn't like, including her "arch enemy" Scrut (The Central Scrutinizer).

This was before my time obviously. I'm curious, why did she hate Scrut?

 

[Brainache]

This was before my time obviously. I'm curious, why did she hate Scrut?

Scrut will obviously be able to answer his better, but to me it looked like Scrut didn't respect her "Skeptic Cred". She hates it when people don't love her.

I was here for some of the time she was on the forum and I don't remember seeing her ever write about anything other than herself. I only ever encountered her posts in Community and they were all "Me Me Me!" I thought she was funny and wrote well, but I could never understand why so many people thought she was such a great skeptic.

Scrut was up-front with his opinions, she didn't like that.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

This was before my time obviously. I'm curious, why did she hate Scrut?

Scrut will obviously be able to answer his better, but to me it looked like Scrut didn't respect her "Skeptic Cred". She hates it when people don't love her.

I was here for some of the time she was on the forum and I don't remember seeing her ever write about anything other than herself. I only ever encountered her posts in Community and they were all "Me Me Me!" I thought she was funny and wrote well, but I could never understand why so many people thought she was such a great skeptic.

Scrut was up-front with his opinions, she didn't like that.

It was all tongue in cheek. We're friends IRL.

But I still hate her.

 

[Walter Ego]

This was before my time obviously. I'm curious, why did she hate Scrut?

I don't know. Ask him. He's posting on this thread. I didn't even know who Rebecca Watson was until a few months ago. I know more about her now than I want to know.

 

[Brainache]

It was all tongue in cheek. We're friends IRL.

But I still hate her.

Ok. So it was a bit like Hokulele and Tricky's little sparring matches? I missed that aspect of it I guess, but I was just a fresh-faced kid on the forum in those days.

Sorry if I misrepresented you. Carry on.