Dawkins sues Josh Timonen

[tattuchu]

Great. I bought an RDF tee shirt and a bunch of DVDs. Looks like the money went right in Josh's pocket
What's with this greedy scumbag anyway? Making nearly a hundred thousand a year wasn't enough, FFS? WTF?!

[cowiz]

This is what happens when a scientist goes into business - clueless!!

A similar thing happened at a company I worked for. The company accountant embezzled $750,000 - yes read that again - she was sentenced to one day in prison, 3 months of house arrest and restitution of $250 per month.

She stole from the 401(k) of her friends, she put our jobs at risk, and she got 1 fucking day in prison - which she did not serve as the judge said there was no point! What the fuck.

So Josh might just get away with it, even if found guilty if his judge is of the same opinion.

The first opportunity I get to rip off a company for $750,000 I'm taking it.

[tattuchu]

No jail time, Pawz? WTF?!!!

[cowiz]

No jail time, Pawz? WTF?!!!

Yes, unbelievable.

[orpheus]

Words fail me, so:

[Equivokate]

[hackenslash]

I can't find a copy of RD's 'Outrage' letter ..I ??

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.”

What do you have to do to earn vitriol like that? Eat a baby? Gas a trainload of harmless and defenceless people? Rape an altar boy? Tip an old lady out of her wheel chair and kick her in the teeth before running off with her handbag?

None of the above. What you have to do is write a letter like this:

Dear forum members,

We wanted you all to know at the earliest opportunity about our new website currently in development. RichardDawkins.net will have a new look and feel, improved security, and much more. Visits to the site have really grown over the past 3 1/2 years, and this update gives us an opportunity to address several issues. Over the years we've become one of the world's leading resources for breaking rational and scientific news and original content. We are focusing on quality content distribution, and will be bringing more original articles, video and other content as we grow.

The new RichardDawkins.net will have a fully-integrated discussion section. This will be a new feature for the site, similar to the current forum, but not identical. We feel the new system will be much cleaner and easier to use, and hopefully this will encourage participation from a wider variety of users.

We will leave the current forum up for 30 days, giving regular users an opportunity to locally archive any content they value. When the new website goes live, you are welcome to submit these posts as new discussions. The forum will then be taken down from the web. You will not loose your username on the new system.

The new discussion area will not be a new forum. It will be different. We will be using a system of tags to categorize items, instead of sub-forums. Discussions can have multiple tags, such as "Education", "Children", and "Critical Thinking". Starting a new discussion will require approval, so we ask that you only submit new discussions that are truly relevant to reason and science. Subsequent responses on the thread will not need approval—however anything off topic or violating the new terms of service will be removed. The approval process will be there to ensure the quality of posts on the site. This is purely an editorial exercise to help new visitors find quality content quickly. We hope this discussion area will reflect the foundation's goals and values.

We know that this is a big decision. We know some of you will be against this change. We ask that you respect our decision and help make this transition as smooth as possible.

We're confident that these changes will improve the site experience and we look forward to seeing what you do with the new system.

Many thanks again.

Josh Timonen,
Andrew Chalkley
The Richard Dawkins Foundation

You will notice that the forum has in fact been closed to comments (not taken down) sooner than the 30 days alluded to in the letter. This is purely and simply because of the over-the-top hostility of the comments that were immediately sent in. Note that there is no suggestion of abolishing the principle of a forum in which commenters can start their own threads. Just an editorial re-organization, which will include a change such that the choice of new threads will be subject to editorial control. Editorial control, mark you, by the person who, more than any other individual, has earned the right to the editor’s chair by founding the site in the first place, then maintaining its high standard by hard work and sheer talent. The aim of the letter is to describe an exciting new revamping of our site, one in which quality will take precedence over quantity, where original articles on reason and science, on atheism and scepticism, will be commissioned, where frivolous gossip will be reduced. The new plan may succeed or it may fail, but I think it is worth trying. And even if it fails, it most certainly will not deserve the splenetic hysteria that the mere suggestion of it has received.

Surely there has to be something wrong with people who can resort to such over-the-top language, over-reacting so spectacularly to something so trivial. Even some of those with more temperate language are responding to the proposed changes in a way that is little short of hysterical. Was there ever such conservatism, such reactionary aversion to change, such vicious language in defence of a comfortable status quo? What is the underlying agenda of these people? How can anybody feel that strongly about something so small? Have we stumbled on some dark, territorial atavism? Have private fiefdoms been unwittingly trampled?

Be that as it may, what this remarkable bile suggests to me is that there is something rotten in the Internet culture that can vent it. If I ever had any doubts that RD.net needs to change, and rid itself of this particular aspect of Internet culture, they are dispelled by this episode.

If you are one of those who have dealt out such ludicrously hyperbolic animosity, you know who should receive your private apology. And if you are one of those who are as disgusted by it as I am, you know where to send your warm letter of support.

Richard

[Feck]

Thank you !

[hackenslash]

That reminds me, where is Chalkers in all of this?

[Tero]

Somehow, it is a little...I don't care. I never supported the foundation. I support Richard by buying a few books.

[AncientMuse]

Oh this is priceless shit I tell ya.

Another snippet from http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/10/22/31283.htm:

Timonen's "significantly older" girlfriend, defendant Maureen Norton, allegedly used at least $100,000 of the charity's money to upgrade her Sherman Oaks home before she put it on the market.
A recent real estate listing describes improvements such as a "custom backyard pool and spa area with a wonderful waterfall and glass block fire pit plus custom seating for the ultimate outdoor living and entertaining experience," according to the complaint.

... ahhh christ, it hurts

[FBM]

"In his 18-page complaint, Dawkins describes himself as "the world's best known and most respected atheist."" I keep on reading over this bit and giggling.

I dunno, he may be the worlds best known atheist for all i know

I can't think of anyone more well-known (pass on the 'respected' part). Who am I missing?

[Hermit]

If Mr. Dawkins can get the old forum back up and running the way it was, and have a good system for running it...

Don't hold your breath. Dawkins will not ever admit that closing the forum was a mistake. And why should he? The forum's closure and Timmonen's alleged embezzlement are two totally unrelated issues.

[Azathoth]

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/5365 ... ist?page=1



get it before it's modded

[Feck]

If Mr. Dawkins can get the old forum back up and running the way it was, and have a good system for running it...

Don't hold your breath. Dawkins will not ever admit that closing the forum was a mistake. And why should he? The forum's closure and Timmonen's alleged embezzlement are two totally unrelated issues.

They do have one thing in common, they have both caused bad publicity for Richard and they both have Josh's fingerprints on them .