Clueless wankers R U.

[Jason]

That's what I get for ignoring them heh. I figured they were plotting their next public outrage event, but a support network sounds innocuous. I'm not opposed to many of their stated goals either, but, at least for the short while I was paying them attention, these shared beliefs were used by them in what was clearly intended to be a divisive "you're one of us or one of them"-type of power grab. They were aggressively trying to gain influence in the secular community by means which were hypocritical at best.

If they're not all about that crap now, then that's cool with me.

[Robert_S]

That's what I get for ignoring them heh. I figured they were plotting their next public outrage event, but a support network sounds innocuous. I'm not opposed to many of their stated goals either, but, at least for the short while I was paying them attention, these shared beliefs were used by them in what was clearly intended to be a divisive "you're one of us or one of them"-type of power grab. They were aggressively trying to gain influence in the secular community by means which were hypocritical at best.

If they're not all about that crap now, then that's cool with me.

That "with us or against us" thing was mainly an FtB guy named Richard Carrier.

I've no love for a PZ or him.

Plenty of us despise Apelust for what it is - a pit of depraved, self-regarding, egotistical, machievellian, nasty, rude, malicious, spiteful, hate-filled malicious and malevolent assholes.

I've met some people who post there. They were nice people.

But let's say there are a lot of people who match your description. What would it benefit anyone to have their attention turned to this forum?

[Cormac]

That's what I get for ignoring them heh. I figured they were plotting their next public outrage event, but a support network sounds innocuous. I'm not opposed to many of their stated goals either, but, at least for the short while I was paying them attention, these shared beliefs were used by them in what was clearly intended to be a divisive "you're one of us or one of them"-type of power grab. They were aggressively trying to gain influence in the secular community by means which were hypocritical at best.

If they're not all about that crap now, then that's cool with me.

That "with us or against us" thing was mainly an FtB guy named Richard Carrier.

I've no love for a PZ or him.

Plenty of us despise Apelust for what it is - a pit of depraved, self-regarding, egotistical, machievellian, nasty, rude, malicious, spiteful, hate-filled malicious and malevolent assholes.

I've met some people who post there. They were nice people.

But let's say there are a lot of people who match your description. What would it benefit anyone to have their attention turned to this forum?

Their attention has been turned to this forum.

I don't waste my time with them, but where I see them being characterised as something positive, I'll offer my opinion - an opinion I base on having observed them in action over an extended period.

Just like PZ, many of them are opportunistic bullies, and as with all bullies, one should stand up and at least denounce them openly.

[Rum]

I 'spect they are quite nice once you get to know them.

[Cormac]

I 'spect they are quite nice once you get to know them.

I saw enough of their behaviour to know that, at least those in charge, are fairly malevolent. I can't abide bullies, nor those who seek to replace one tyranny with another.

[Jason]

Do they do mass weddings or are they opposed to the idea of binding a woman to a man contractually on the grounds that it is sexual slavery perhaps? I bet they do mass joinings of some kind. They have to. Right?

[Jason]

I 'spect they are quite nice once you get to know them.

I saw enough of their behaviour to know that, at least those in charge, are fairly malevolent. I can't abide bullies, nor those who seek to replace one tyranny with another.

That's why I think my initial impression of them is good enough to know I don't want anything to do with something that has it's roots in that. It's like if Nazism was allowed to continue, but was 'reformed'.

[PsychoSerenity]

Yep I've been living in a bubble, hadn't heard a thing about it. But it looks like anyone using that block-bot will be living in a bunker. There's a detailed analysis of it here, and from that, one of the main problems:

Inappropriate Blocks, Especially for Anyone Unfamiliar with Atheism+

-

However, just a casual scan down the list of Level 2 and Level 3 blocks reveals people, many of whom I know personally, who are deeply involved in the atheism, skepticism, secularism and humanism movements all around the world. They include:

A Research Fellow for a U.S. think-tank who is also deputy editor of a national magazine, and author of numerous books
A Consultant for Educational Programs for a U.S. national non-profit
A long-time volunteer for the same national non-profit
An organizer for a state-level skeptic group in the US
A past president of a state-level humanist group in the US
A former director of a state-level atheist group in the US
An Emmy and Golden Globe award winning comedian
A TED Fellow
Co-founder of a well known magazine of philosophy and author of several books
A philosopher, writer and critic who has authored several books

These are not anonymous trolls. They are not likely to be arrested anytime soon. Most of these people regularly speak at national conferences to audiences from several hundred to over a thousand people. Starting from the publicly available block list you can click the names to go directly to their Twitter feeds, I see little evidence that these people are attacking, threatening or spamming anyone.

Anyway, I always thought the main problem with A+ was they never decided if they were trying to be a safe, nurturing environment, for those that sadly have good reason to be particularly sensitive to certain issues, or an outspoken campaigning activist group that was going to tackle abuse head on. By trying to do both from one platform they ended up just attracting more abuse to all the people that were most sensitive to it. I would have hoped that they'd mostly sorted themselves out by now, but as I said, I've not been paying any attention to what they've been doing lately.

[Cormac]

Yep I've been living in a bubble, hadn't heard a thing about it. But it looks like anyone using that block-bot will be living in a bunker. There's a detailed analysis of it here, and from that, one of the main problems:

Inappropriate Blocks, Especially for Anyone Unfamiliar with Atheism+

-

However, just a casual scan down the list of Level 2 and Level 3 blocks reveals people, many of whom I know personally, who are deeply involved in the atheism, skepticism, secularism and humanism movements all around the world. They include:

A Research Fellow for a U.S. think-tank who is also deputy editor of a national magazine, and author of numerous books
A Consultant for Educational Programs for a U.S. national non-profit
A long-time volunteer for the same national non-profit
An organizer for a state-level skeptic group in the US
A past president of a state-level humanist group in the US
A former director of a state-level atheist group in the US
An Emmy and Golden Globe award winning comedian
A TED Fellow
Co-founder of a well known magazine of philosophy and author of several books
A philosopher, writer and critic who has authored several books

These are not anonymous trolls. They are not likely to be arrested anytime soon. Most of these people regularly speak at national conferences to audiences from several hundred to over a thousand people. Starting from the publicly available block list you can click the names to go directly to their Twitter feeds, I see little evidence that these people are attacking, threatening or spamming anyone.

Anyway, I always thought the main problem with A+ was they never decided if they were trying to be a safe, nurturing environment, for those that sadly have good reason to be particularly sensitive to certain issues, or an outspoken campaigning activist group that was going to tackle abuse head on. By trying to do both from one platform they ended up just attracting more abuse to all the people that were most sensitive to it. I would have hoped that they'd mostly sorted themselves out by now, but as I said, I've not been paying any attention to what they've been doing lately.

What fresh hell is this?

[PsychoSerenity]

What fresh hell is this?

It's what the OP was about. Though looking back at the thread it appears I'm the only one that actually bothered to find out.

[fishie]

Wait they those crazy tree hugging hippy atheists? The ones with the group hugs? And the coloring in group sessions? The ones that wanna stick one if those + things on me? Wif a nail gun? That them

[Cormac]

The only positive thing I see about this blockbot thing is that sooner or later it will be used against the Apelusters, and suddenly they will see why free speech and (real) freethought are central tenets of skepticism.

[Cormac]

What fresh hell is this?

It's what the OP was about. Though looking back at the thread it appears I'm the only one that actually bothered to find out.

The OP was very incoherent.

[Cormac]

Wait they those crazy tree hugging hippy fascist atheists? The ones with the group hugs? And the coloring in group sessions? The ones that wanna stick one if those + things on me? Wif a nail gun? That them

[Jason]

At least their evil leaders are as inept as they are evil. Insulating themselves against criticism will just cut their public profile.