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Merged RD Forum shutting down

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:

http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=110356
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That's a very dishonest post by Dawkins.
Dawkins implies that:
a) They sent a polite letter informing folks about the RD.net overhaul.
b) They got rude, nasty responses like the one Dawkins quoted in response to (a).
c) They responded to (b) with an early shut-down of the forum, deleting posts and preventing people from staying connected to each other.

IN FACT what happened was:
a) They sent the letter informing folks about the RD.net overhaul.
b) They got a negative, but usually civil and reasoned reaction.
c) They responded to (b) with an early shut-down of the forum, deleting posts and preventing people from staying connected to each other.
d) Rude, nasty responses like the one Dawkins quoted appeared on other forums in response to (c).

I hope reasonable people can see the difference. It doesn't surprise me that Dawkins can't.
 
Sven said:
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?
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If you haven't been attending the meetings, it's perfectly reasonable for people to say "welcome" when you actually show up -- regardless of what date appears on your membership card.
 
Checkmite said:
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 have sympathy Checkmite; this si anot a JREF issue, but

However if the Richard Dawkins forum was NOT a social network or a community, perhaps RD should have been a little clearer than when he wrote on the forum about the forum:

Richard DAwkins said:
“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.” (October 2008)
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He wrote a great deal more in exactly the same vein – you can to the forum and read his own words. Perhaps having “Join the Richard Dawkins Social Network” which was on the front page: the network was hosted at http://www.richarddawkins.net/social was a bad idea?

So if the RDF was not trying to run a Social network, perhaps they might have considered not having Richard Dawkins say publicly on said forum that they were, and setting up a social network?

cj x
 
Apologies if this has been posted already..been trying to regroup

..a very clear explanation from someone on the frontline and inside the backroom of what went down.

Death of the Dawkins forum – The world’s busiest atheist forum closes
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http://realityismyreligion.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/locked-entry-will-open-soon/

People are royally pissed including myself a poster with 10k of posts some of which took an hour to write and support.....:mgbanghead

and ongoing regrouping and discussion here

http://rationalia.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=75
 
Also to quote RD

Imagine that you, as a greatly liked and respected person, found yourself overnight subjected to personal vilification on an unprecedented scale, from anonymous commenters on a website. Suppose you found yourself described as an “utter twat” a “suppurating rectum. A suppurating rat’s rectum. A suppurating rat’s rectum inside a dead skunk that’s been shoved up a week-old dead rhino’s twat.” Or suppose that somebody on the same website expressed a “sudden urge to ram a fistful of nails” down your throat. Also to “trip you up and kick you in the guts.” And imagine seeing your face described, again by an anonymous poster, as “a slack jawed turd in the mouth mug if ever I saw one.”



Me: You really take this kind of thing seriously. O'rly. I thought you had some ****ing skin
 
AvalonXQ said:
That's a very dishonest post by Dawkins.
Dawkins implies that:
a) They sent a polite letter informing folks about the RD.net overhaul.
b) They got rude, nasty responses like the one Dawkins quoted in response to (a).
c) They responded to (b) with an early shut-down of the forum, deleting posts and preventing people from staying connected to each other.

IN FACT what happened was:
a) They sent the letter informing folks about the RD.net overhaul.
b) They got a negative, but usually civil and reasoned reaction.
c) They responded to (b) with an early shut-down of the forum, deleting posts and preventing people from staying connected to each other.
d) Rude, nasty responses like the one Dawkins quoted appeared on other forums in response to (c).

I hope reasonable people can see the difference. It doesn't surprise me that Dawkins can't.
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It's quote mined from Rationalia too, as you say the original RDF thread was civil but vocal. Then Josh :

a) Removed PM Functionality
b) Deleted tens of thousands of science posts
c) removed signatures that attempted to give people another place to meet
d) Locked the forums and turned off search completely to make it nigh impossible to archive any content.
e) specifically forbade mods from helping people to arrange to go to a new forum
f) redirected archival programs to a Rick-roll


which resulted in the vitriol at Josh being posted on Rationalia. Not exactly fair enough, but extremely different to the way RD portrays it in his whine about the bad things people said about his friend.

Proof is here :

rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=9149&p=355615#p355577

add an http and a www in the usual way to get it to work as i still can't post links.
 
Cleon said:
There ya go. (You can post linkage after you've made 15 posts.)
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Thank you kindly.

I actually first registered here because I was in a huge debate at RDF with a guy called 'Limbo' about Psi, and 'Goats and Sheep' but I came here and discovered an enormous thread doing the exact same here so it seemed a bit superfluous to be doing it on two sites at the same time :D Edited to add - to the exact same guy, Limbo.

I imagine some of you know of him, I don't know if he still posts here, he gave up trying to convert us.
 
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95theses said:
Thank you kindly.

I actually first registered here because I was in a huge debate at RDF with a guy called 'Limbo' about Psi, and 'Goats and Sheep' but I came here and discovered an enormous thread doing the exact same here so it seemed a bit superfluous to be doing it on two sites at the same time :D

I imagine some of you know of him, I don't know if he still posts here, he gave up trying to convert us.
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Not really sure if Limbo is still posting. (Don't visit General Skepticism much) But I'm wondering what you think the rational behind this move by RD was? One of the statement by the admin struck me hard that they were trying to create a comment section more open to a wider range of people (paraphrase from memory). If that is what they want then what they are going to get is Youtube commentary and 4chan drivel.
 
95theses said:
Thank you kindly.

I actually first registered here because I was in a huge debate at RDF with a guy called 'Limbo' about Psi, and 'Goats and Sheep' but I came here and discovered an enormous thread doing the exact same here so it seemed a bit superfluous to be doing it on two sites at the same time :D

I imagine some of you know of him, I don't know if he still posts here, he gave up trying to convert us.
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Goats?

You came to the right place.:)
 
95theses said:
Thank you kindly.

I actually first registered here because I was in a huge debate at RDF with a guy called 'Limbo' about Psi, and 'Goats and Sheep' but I came here and discovered an enormous thread doing the exact same here so it seemed a bit superfluous to be doing it on two sites at the same time :D Edited to add - to the exact same guy, Limbo.

I imagine some of you know of him, I don't know if he still posts here, he gave up trying to convert us.
Click to expand...


Don't worry 95Theses, I'll take over - I'm Jerome x
 
vwgub said:
But I'm wondering what you think the rational behind this move by RD was? One of the statement by the admin struck me hard that they were trying to create a comment section more open to a wider range of people (paraphrase from memory). If that is what they want then what they are going to get is Youtube commentary and 4chan drivel.
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They already have that on the comment section of the front page. The forum you had to register for... mind oyu I think you had ot register for comments too, just less modded...
 
Hokulele said:
I have a funny feeling this will make TAM 8, er, a bit more likely to be dramatic.
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Dunno, RD failed to show for TAM London. Mind oyu so did I - no money - but I was never down as a guest!

j x
 
vwgub said:
Imagine that you, as a greatly liked and respected person, found yourself overnight subjected to personal vilification on an unprecedented scale, from anonymous commenters on a website. Suppose you found yourself described as an “utter twat” a “suppurating rectum. A suppurating rat’s rectum. A suppurating rat’s rectum inside a dead skunk that’s been shoved up a week-old dead rhino’s twat.” Or suppose that somebody on the same website expressed a “sudden urge to ram a fistful of nails” down your throat. Also to “trip you up and kick you in the guts.” And imagine seeing your face described, again by an anonymous poster, as “a slack jawed turd in the mouth mug if ever I saw one.”
Click to expand...


Yeah happens to me whenever i post on the rationality of theism, and that's just the mods! :D

cj x
 
Also WTF

What kind of person say this about themselves.

RD:as a greatly liked and respected person
 
vwgub said:
What kind of person say this about themselves.

RD:as a greatly liked and respected person
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I think he's referring to his webmaster (and the person who caused all of this as far as I can tell), Josh Timonen.

Edit: And no, I don't consider his IT guy and cameraman to be greatly liked and respected.
 
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