Poll about the impact of the purge

[heyjude]

And how much of a dog's dinner was the other site? Front page looked like fucking Ryannair.

Lol, I've just been onto Ryanair to check, and that's a pretty good comparison.

Haha.... I've always thought the front page was rubbish. It's really only one slightly evolved step up from this

[Lion IRC]

I watch the New Atheist body politic keenly.
I think Mr Dawkins is getting tired - and maybe just a little disillusioned.
Could it be that he had hopes and dreams which simply weren't turning out as well or as fast as he may have liked?
Is New Atheism a Pandoras Box he wishes someone else had opened?
I have consistently spoken and written about the "deep rifts" which inevitably arise when people start to hijack New Atheism - make it a "Brand" - a "Religion"
Look at the Deep Rifts in Chicago thread on Pharyngula.
My opinion of him hasn’t changed. He is human like the rest of us.
Retirement? Reclusion? Regret?
Imagine Mr Dawkins doing a CS Lewis. (Or a Berlin Wall)
Lion (IRC)

[Randydeluxe]

Geez. Can't even have a few days without the haters piling in.

[anthonzi]

I'm going for the "NAZI" vote for now, but I really can't imagine that Dawkins was responsible or aware of some of the more distasteful actions of his administrators.

[living easy]

Is he going to call us all petulant children again ?

Can someone explain the circumstances surrounding this for me?

[95Theses]

After some consideration, I'm going to stick to my opinion for years that Richard is basically a really nice guy, probably too nice for his own good. I suspect that he see's the best in people and is probably a little naive with who he trusts. Richard seems to think Josh is a tech wizard, probably because he has no experience building websites or operating camera's himself, and listens to Josh tell him how awesomely lucky Richard was to have found him. the reality is that if he was unable to implement a search function for 7 months he didn't deserve to be a tech weenie for RDF. The software is free for gods sake, thousands of forums use it, and it's not like there aren't bigger forums with functioning searches.

I've worked in a situation before with a guy a the top who was a really great guy, but who put far too much trust in a snivelling little toad of a number 2. Said manipulative number 2 basically poured utter arse gravy upstairs about how awesome he was while treating everyone below him like utter shit, while constantly reminding everyone how much the boss loved him and how it would be career suicide to try and speak to the No1 guy direct. For people like this they think the most important thing is how they are viewed by the person above them, and they have little to no regard for anyone under them. it's a pathetic form of idolisation, more suited to religion than reason.

So, until I hear otherwise, I'm going to say I think Richard has just been taken for a ride by this twat Josh, but that his insistence on seeing he best in people means Josh might just get away with this. Who knows what he's telling richard, but i can guarantee at no point is he saying 'Yeah, I made a bit of a mess of this'

[JimC]

Is he going to call us all petulant children again ?

Can someone explain the circumstances surrounding this for me?

This occured over a year ago, when some favorite parts of the old RDF forum (Vets and the old OT) were dismantled, against strenuous protests. It caused many RDF posters to migrate (and caused a rather unfortunate internal civil war), and many ended up here, after some other experiments... In the heat of battle, RD briefly appeared, and that was his comment to some dissident posters at the time...

[Sisifo]

After some consideration, I'm going to stick to my opinion for years that Richard is basically a really nice guy, probably too nice for his own good. I suspect that he see's the best in people and is probably a little naive with who he trusts. Richard seems to think Josh is a tech wizard, probably because he has no experience building websites or operating camera's himself, and listens to Josh tell him how awesomely lucky Richard was to have found him. the reality is that if he was unable to implement a search function for 7 months he didn't deserve to be a tech weenie for RDF. The software is free for gods sake, thousands of forums use it, and it's not like there aren't bigger forums with functioning searches.

I've worked in a situation before with a guy a the top who was a really great guy, but who put far too much trust in a snivelling little toad of a number 2. Said manipulative number 2 basically poured utter arse gravy upstairs about how awesome he was while treating everyone below him like utter shit, while constantly reminding everyone how much the boss loved him and how it would be career suicide to try and speak to the No1 guy direct. For people like this they think the most important thing is how they are viewed by the person above them, and they have little to no regard for anyone under them. it's a pathetic form of idolisation, more suited to religion than reason.

So, until I hear otherwise, I'm going to say I think Richard has just been taken for a ride by this twat Josh, but that his insistence on seeing he best in people means Josh might just get away with this. Who knows what he's telling richard, but i can guarantee at no point is he saying 'Yeah, I made a bit of a mess of this'

I don't share that holistic image of Richard Dawkins, or of any other contemporary scientific, as that distracted genius looking through the optic microscopy of his house laboratory... As a scientist, as a professor and now as a celebrity, he is a team manager. At 70, he is not the one pouring liquids in flasks, nor even reading the scientific journals himself. He manages and directs a team to work out his guidelines, and at most, he would supervise the results. The director and manager works the strategy and sometimes the tactics. If he has a trusted #2, he might delegate the tactics.
What it has happened in RDF has not been a flawed tactic. It has been the implementation of a radical change of strategy, and those decisions emanate from Direction.

Emotional damages aside and from a mere project management analysis, the RDF movement has been, unquestionably, one of the most inept; in terms of IT management, PR, marketing, communication, and brand building.
This can just mean that either the decision maker is an inept, or that he is an inept team manager.

And a last thing is please, people, stop the "he is so busy...". We are not talking about the CEO of Toyota, or the President of the European Bank. He is just a writer (although "complier of evolution related texts" would suit him better) and a semi-retired university professor, giving one conference here, another one there. He is not running between 8 meetings a day, and delivering 5 reports a day, like many and many do to build a career. You can find zillions of examples of celebrities and professionals who show that there is not such thing as "to busy to...", especially when it's related to their customers or fan base.

[Xeno]

I watch the New Atheist body politic keenly.
I think Mr Dawkins is getting tired - and maybe just a little disillusioned.
Could it be that he had hopes and dreams which simply weren't turning out as well or as fast as he may have liked?
Is New Atheism a Pandoras Box he wishes someone else had opened?
I have consistently spoken and written about the "deep rifts" which inevitably arise when people start to hijack New Atheism - make it a "Brand" - a "Religion"
Look at the Deep Rifts in Chicago thread on Pharyngula.
My opinion of him hasn’t changed. He is human like the rest of us.
Retirement? Reclusion? Regret?
Imagine Mr Dawkins doing a CS Lewis. (Or a Berlin Wall)
Lion (IRC)

Wishful thinking. There still ain't no god Lion, and the forum change does not imply any recantation by RD. From my POV, I discovered RD was an atheist, oh, more than 30 years after I was.

What he does with his forum is up to him, whether I chance to like it or not.

[RaspK]

Geez. Can't even have a few days without the haters piling in.

Funny thing being, in this case, that one particular hater is making his damn hardest to make others believe (in his ignorance or to satisfy his own self-righteousness, given that we don't fall for such claptrap?) that he is doing this out of love. Still, he isn't the first, neither alone, nor will be the last.

Someone else said it better than I did, though.

As to the recent events, it was something that I would expect, given that RD seems to trust Josh more than he should; even we, who had to tolerate much of his shenanigans, still didn't expect something as radical as this. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it is not as if he is not responsible for it to the extent befit the circumstances and his place in them... I would appreciate discussing this with him directly, because I can understand that everybody can be lead by "subordinates," so to speak, but that doesn't relieve him of the errors of judgement such situations clearly display.

[tnjrp]

What he does with his forum is up to him, whether I chance to like it or not.

+1

I've learned long since that forums are transitional things much subject to sufferance and whimsy of those actually paying the bills for their upkeep. Thus, while I symphatize with anyone who may have lost something truly important to them in whatever form, I personally don't really take any of them very seriously. Not even RDF, even tho I spend much too much of my time there. Maybe I'll manage to do with a little less here... Life to live and all that old shit jazz, you know.

[anthonzi]

What he does with his forum is up to him, whether I chance to like it or not.

The immediate closure of the forum was almost certainly not his own decision...

[Spearthrower]

I watch the New Atheist body politic keenly.
I think Mr Dawkins is getting tired - and maybe just a little disillusioned.
Could it be that he had hopes and dreams which simply weren't turning out as well or as fast as he may have liked?
Is New Atheism a Pandoras Box he wishes someone else had opened?
I have consistently spoken and written about the "deep rifts" which inevitably arise when people start to hijack New Atheism - make it a "Brand" - a "Religion"
Look at the Deep Rifts in Chicago thread on Pharyngula.
My opinion of him hasn’t changed. He is human like the rest of us.
Retirement? Reclusion? Regret?
Imagine Mr Dawkins doing a CS Lewis. (Or a Berlin Wall)
Lion (IRC)

Deep rifts in what, precisely Lion? It's left dangling rather nebulously.

Do you think we all belong to an organisation like a Church that has tenets we all adhere to?

If you attend to your history, you can find atheistic thinking from some of the earliest European records, all the way up to the present, give or take a few centuries when they were, understandably, a bit afraid of being outspoken.

You seem to ask a lot of loaded questions, but offer very little reasoning behind them. A lot of insinuation that you couldn't support in your wildest dreams.

[Coito ergo sum]

I am very intrigued to see if the recent actions from RD staff have had a repercussion on the image held by his fan base... Elaborate if you can...

I still don't know exactly what is going on, and what prompted the change.

Is there a good summary somewhere that I missed? The stuff I read on RDF was the usual vague crap that evades explaining any details, and espouses benevolent motives for the future.

[Mazille]

I am very intrigued to see if the recent actions from RD staff have had a repercussion on the image held by his fan base... Elaborate if you can...

I still don't know exactly what is going on, and what prompted the change.

Is there a good summary somewhere that I missed? The stuff I read on RDF was the usual vague crap that evades explaining any details, and espouses benevolent motives for the future.

Once again: Peter Harrison's blog haz it all: http://realityismyreligion.wordpress.co ... open-soon/