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Merged RD Forum shutting down

Sven said:
I can't believe the animosity I'm witnessing. People lost something that was dear to them and aren't able to post in their regular forum precisely because that's what they lost, and they get told to get a life and stop whining?

If you don't care and it doesn't concern you then why are you commenting on this topic?
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You call this animosity? That's just sideline sniping...

:D
 
No, I wouldn't call statements like "What the Hell is drama over the Richard Dawkins forum doing here? Get a life.…" sideline sniping. Our definitions may differ.
 
I would probably have agreed with you not that long ago, but then I became a moderator and learnt what true animosity is.

:D (note smiley. It tends to indicate when a person is not intending to be taken entirely seriously....)
 
hmm... from the outsider looking in perspective, this part seems to be the most unreasonable, the most likely to have just been an overzealous admin's angry response:

A few accounts have been deleted along with their posts due to the nature of their posts. We're sorry that a few had to ruin it for the many.
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Deleting every post someone has ever made is okay because they made a few "bad" posts recently? Really?

We understand that for some of you it was a place to hang out and converse with like minded people but we are not looking to be a social network. There are many other sites that provide this service.
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This part is understandable on the one hand. They don't want to be a social network. That's fine. On the other hand, they apparently didn't care about the reality, that their forum had in fact become a large social network, whether they wanted it to be or not. As their members were using the site in that way, dismissing it so abruptly is a good way to lose those people's support. From a PR stand point, that's just a dumb move.
 
I agree; the deleting of all posts of people they banned struck me as a petty act of spite. They acknowledged that people saw their posts as valuable, by giving them time to back them up, then deleted the history of anyone who was critical. It's not a standard practice to delete all posts of banned members (unless they are spammers) and no reason for it as far as I can see apart from spite - or maybe as a warning to others to keep their mouth shut.

Not a nice way for a forum to end.
 
Not only did they delete those accounts and posts, they deleted the admin logs that showed they did.
About backing up posts, if you try to back up the forum using wget you get redirected to a rickroll site since early this morning.
 
So how does one go about backing up all their posts on a forum?

ETA: It is relatively easy for me to download my PM's, but I don't see an easy way to do it with my posts.

Linda
 
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cj.23 said:
Because 30,000 posts are gone. And many of these, especially by Darwinsbulldog, were serious weighty essays on science, society and evolution, which are irrecoverable now. This is the 21st century equivalent of book-burning. We can still access the forum: copies are boing made of everything by teams of diligent volunteers - but their posts are gone forever, in a pointless act of digital vandalism. WHy if the forum was locked was it ever necessary to delete them? :(

j x
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I might point out that the information is not likely irretrievably gone. There are no doubt backups that could be used to extract the data. The problem would be:

1. It's on or around Dawkins.net servers, therefore in the hands of the "enemy", so to speak. But then so was the entire forum itself. It is not yet proven that the real owner is the enemy.
2. You'd need a database wizzo to write appropriate software to extract it. That would be a easy one for any number of people on this forum, let alone Dawkins, even if it required illegally reverse-engineering the database info. Unless it was encrypted.
 
fls said:
So how does one go about backing up all their posts on a forum?

ETA: It is relatively easy for me to download my PM's, but I don't see an easy way to do it with my posts.

Linda
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Forum software itself rarely offers that option, you have to use third-party programs like HTTrack or wget.
 
Sven said:
I can't believe the animosity I'm witnessing. People lost something that was dear to them and aren't able to post in their regular forum precisely because that's what they lost, and they get told to get a life and stop whining?

If you don't care and it doesn't concern you then why are you commenting on this topic?
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Welcome to the JREF. Target rich, sniper approved.
 
Sven said:
I can't believe the animosity I'm witnessing. People lost something that was dear to them and aren't able to post in their regular forum precisely because that's what they lost, and they get told to get a life and stop whining?

If you don't care and it doesn't concern you then why are you commenting on this topic?
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Hey, this is our forum; you came to us with this, we didn't come to you. If you choose to post it, it's open season for anybody's thoughts, whatever they may be.

The JREF nearly shut down the forum once, because it was becoming a headache (by some accounts). It didn't shut down, ultimately; but the mere fact that it was even considering doing so has caused people to leave in disgust. We've been down your road and already know what's at the end of it.

You may have thought of the RD forums as a "community", but the RDF's statement pretty much makes it clear that they never intended it as such and aren't interested in running that kind of site. Be gracious and go start the community you always wanted on your own free-from-being-erased website.
 
Vorticity said:
In case it hasn't been noted, I'd just like to point out that RD is on board with the actions of his admins:
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RD quotes a post from another forum there (rationalia) and doesn't actually quote the message that was sent to the moderators. It doesn't mention deleting the accounts and posts of moderators because they voiced their discontent in a reasonable way.
 
Sven said:
Notice how I signed up for the JREF forums almost a year before you did? :P
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Notice how he has over 6,000 posts and you have fewer than 20?
It doesn't mean much if you get a membership card and never show up for the meetings.
 
Checkmite said:
Hey, this is our forum; you came to us with this, we didn't come to you. If you choose to post it, it's open season for anybody's thoughts, whatever they may be.

The JREF nearly shut down the forum once, because it was becoming a headache (by some accounts). It didn't shut down, ultimately; but the mere fact that it was even considering doing so has caused people to leave in disgust. We've been down your road and already know what's at the end of it.

You may have thought of the RD forums as a "community", but the RDF's statement pretty much makes it clear that they never intended it as such and aren't interested in running that kind of site. Be gracious and go start the community you always wanted on your own free-from-being-erased website.
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I didn't come to you with anything, I'm replying to regular posters here that don't seem to understand that some people are upset because something they've worked very hard for is being taken away from them.

About the RDF's statement that they never intended the forums to be a community (which is a self-contradicting statement imo, either that or they don't understand what a internet forum is), here's what RD himself had to say back in 2008:

"“It is a community, and that is a valuable part of it. Many of our forum threads have an atmosphere of friends going out for a drink and chatting. I think that is valuable, and I don’t think we should insist on sticking to serious topics. That would be a good way to stifle the sense of community, and that would be a real shame.”"

Sure sounds like it was never their intention for it to be a community, right?
 
What does the number of posts have to do with him saying "welcome to the jref" when I've been a member for almost 3 years?

Maybe I should have added more emoticons to my post?
 
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