Announcement about RDF Part 3.

[Calilasseia]

Oh lovely. Now the shit is really going to hit the fan big time.

Dembski and Ham will be in fucking joygasm mode.

[laklak]

This is total bollocks, it's suppuratingly rancid and bubotic cortical faeces of the most festeringly noxious and odoriferous order.

[calum]

Andrew Brown's blog on the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... n-comments

[RPizzle]

Oh lovely. Now the shit is really going to hit the fan big time.

Dembski and Ham will be in fucking joygasm mode.

Seems the guardian isn't too thrilled with us.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... n-comments

Nor

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhil ... eists.html

But

http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/ ... -fans.html

isn't so bad.

[Skinny Puppy]

Excellent letter and I agree with everything you said except about returning to that ‘oasis’.

Richard has shown with his recent post (Outrage) that he is either not in the loop or is doing everything that he’s professed to be against over the years. I give him no leeway whatsoever, now or in the future.

He spent years denouncing the very thing he’s engaged in now. Regardless of what he does in the future, he’s besmirched his name forever in my books. I class him now into the same category as I do rabid Christian fundamentalists that only see what they want to see and only say what they themselves want to hear.

He has lost touch with reality and is simply preaching unfounded, un-researched and unacceptable dogmatic rhetoric, yet he condemns Christians for the same narrow-mindedness that he himself is now showing.

wow...so richard is hung, drawn and already quartered. why don't you guys just drag him to the top of a hill and crucify him?

I didn't agree with the wording of dawkins "outrage" letter, but, I don't think I've witnessed such fickleness in my life. everyone's queuing up to stab richard and josh in the back....

some community. eh?

I fixed it for you.

wow...so richard the forum members and moderators are is hung, drawn and already quartered. why don't doesn’t Richard you guys just drag him all of you to the top of a hill and crucify him you?

I didn't agree with the wording of dawkins "outrage" letter, but, I don't think I've witnessed such fickleness from Richard in my life. everyone's Richard’s queuing up to stab richard and josh his followers in the back....

some community leader. eh?

that was wittily done, Skinny Puppy. the only problem I have with it is that some elements of the RDF have hung themselves. I notice that many of the (what I consider) more intelligent contributors to the RDF, such as pz myers and others are either keeping quiet or rallying in support of richard.

the words, empty vessels, noise and most springs to mind.

Please be good enough to read this.

Just addressed another ignoramus over at Pharyngula ...

I don’t know you Chauncey Gardner, but are you familiar with Calilasseia? he is a force to be reckoned with! I followed his many posts on RDF… what part of what he wrote there do you disagree with?

Please be so good as to give us your view on what he wrote and where his logic has failed?

[Mr.Samsa]

@Skinny Puppy: Mr Gardner is a sockpuppet from RDF (and probably other places too). His posts are created to serve two goals:

1) To state the opposite of whatever you say, and
2) To piss you off as much as possible.

He is actually rather talented, as I've discovered in a number of other threads. Reason is useless though, he knows what he's doing.

[Chauncey Gardner]

I don’t know you Chauncey Gardner, but are you familiar with Calilasseia? he is a force to be reckoned with! I followed his many posts on RDF… what part of what he wrote there do you disagree with?

Please be so good as to give us your view on what he wrote and where his logic has failed?

I agree with what he said about development...the RDF team could have handled the communication much better.

leaving that aside...he's obviously very and he's making the same mistake you and many others are making...i.e. he says: What part of "thousands of posts were deleted needlessly and mendaciously" do you not understand?

Unless he's gone through thousands of posts meticulously in a very short space of time, he doesn't know if they were deleted needlessly and mendaciously. I don't know if they were deleted needlessly and mendaciously. You (Skinny Puppy) don't know if they were deleted needlessly and mendaciously. only Josh and the RDF team know. Yet you and that guy have hung drawn and quartered Richard and the RDF team.

I'm not saying he's wrong. I'm saying that unless he's a omnipotent omnipresent supernatural being he couldn't possibly know what happened and why. Not just the deleted posts, but, the PM functionality switched off, signatures disabled and some moderators having their privileges revoked.

In other words...he's part of the mob rule that has spread to this forum. I don't subscribe to mob rule. I subscribe to rational thinking, skinny pupppy. Stabbing richard/josh in the back based on speculation is not rational thinking in my opinion.

[Chauncey Gardner]

meant to say he's obviously very Angry. (editing posts is buggy on this forum)

[Chauncey Gardner]

@Skinny Puppy: Mr Gardner is a sockpuppet from RDF (and probably other places too). His posts are created to serve two goals:

1) To state the opposite of whatever you say, and
2) To piss you off as much as possible.

He is actually rather talented, as I've discovered in a number of other threads. Reason is useless though, he knows what he's doing.

@skinny puppy. Mr. Samsa is spot on....best to go here: http://www.rationalskepticism.org/ and persuade others to join that forum instead.

oh..wait a minute..I meant to say, Mr Samsa is wrong. He's trying to attack me because I refuse to become a cheerleader for stabbing richard and josh in the back based on speculation and hearsay.

[hackenslash]

Now you're just talking shit. Many of us were actually there when the accounts of the posters in question were deleted, and they represent many thousands of posts.There was no good reason for deleting those members, other than to silence them, and the further cutting off of all lines of communication furthered that end.

I bear Josh no malice, but the exposition and debunking of lies and misinformation, along with insidious censorship of unpopular opinions, are precisely what motivate us all.

[Matt H]

He is trolling.

[Chauncey Gardner]

Now you're just talking shit. Many of us were actually there when the accounts of the posters in question were deleted, and they represent many thousands of posts.There was no good reason for deleting those members, other than to silence them, and the further cutting off of all lines of communication furthered that end.

I bear Josh no malice, but the exposition and debunking of lies and misinformation, along with insidious censorship of unpopular opinions, are precisely what motivate us all.

That's your opinion and I've read similar comments posted elsewhere. I prefer to reserve judgement until I know the full story. you don't know for a fact that those posts were deleted because of "insidious censorship". I don't know why they were deleted. you also don't know why certain moderators had their privileges revoked.

People are angry at the moment...and I think people are clouding their judgement. Best to wait until the dust settles and the red mist clears before sticking more knives into the backs of richard and josh...

It's mob rule at it's worst.

Incidentally...there's a new forum here: http://www.rationalskepticism.org/

Afaik richard dawkins and josh won't be able to practice insidious censorship on there so it might be an idea to join up.

[Chauncey Gardner]

He is trolling.

There's a new troll free forum here Matt: http://www.rationalskepticism.org/

[debunk]

Found some more bloggers discussing the issue:

http://www.heathen-hub.com/blog.php?b=241
http://www.heathen-hub.com/blog.php?b=242
http://epicpancakes.wordpress.com/2010/ ... fs-demise/
http://epicpancakes.wordpress.com/2010/ ... -rdf-post/

[edit] Any chance there's an ignore function hidden somewhere?

[Calilasseia]

I don’t know you Chauncey Gardner, but are you familiar with Calilasseia? he is a force to be reckoned with! I followed his many posts on RDF… what part of what he wrote there do you disagree with?

Please be so good as to give us your view on what he wrote and where his logic has failed?

I agree with what he said about development...the RDF team could have handled the communication much better.

Actually, my tropical fish could have handled this better.

leaving that aside...he's obviously very and he's making the same mistake you and many others are making...i.e. he says: What part of "thousands of posts were deleted needlessly and mendaciously" do you not understand?

Unless he's gone through thousands of posts meticulously in a very short space of time, he doesn't know if they were deleted needlessly and mendaciously.

This is errant nonsense. The posts that were deleted were NOT restricted to the very few posts criticising the cack'-handed manner in which this affair was handled, instead, the entire member's presence on the forum was expunged, including thousands of posts containing expositions of valid science of the very sort that Richard Dawkins claims to be in favour of seeing on his website. In other words, Timonen was acting in direct violation of his boss's openly, explicitly and publicly stated wishes with respect to the website and its content, by destroying the very material that his boss would wish to see published on his website. What part of this elementary concept do you not understand?

I don't know if they were deleted needlessly and mendaciously. You (Skinny Puppy) don't know if they were deleted needlessly and mendaciously. only Josh and the RDF team know.

Wrong. See above. All it takes to arrive at this conclusion is the ability to apply basic reading comprehension and some functioning brain cells. I'm not making "assumptions" here, I'm stating the above based upon the known evidence. Mazille, the moderator who was deleted, was organising a science writing essay competition over at RDF, a competition in which I participated, and which was intended to be another means of extending RD's mission. That material was destroyed by Timonen, and consequently, Timonen was acting in direct contravention of his master's official and publicly stated mission. If you are unable to see this given the above facts, then what are you doing here on a forum populated by rationalists?

Yet you and that guy have hung drawn and quartered Richard and the RDF team.

Bollocks. We have expounded upon substantive issues that raise serious questions, first about the competence and character of Josh Timonen, and second, about the judgement, or lack thereof, of Richard Dawkins himself. Given that Dawkins handed plenary powers to this overgrown schoolboy, who then engaged in wilful abuse of those powers, and I have just cited relevant evidence for this, one has to ask what sort of a brainstorm RD had when he moved to support this feckless wastrel with that frankly bizarre "announcement" over at what's left of RDF. I take it you can read, can you?

I'm not saying he's wrong. I'm saying that unless he's a omnipotent omnipresent supernatural being he couldn't possibly know what happened and why.

The above exposition renders this latest assertion of yours null and void.

Not just the deleted posts, but, the PM functionality switched off, signatures disabled and some moderators having their privileges revoked.

Care to provide an explanation, other than rampant spite, petulance, venality and immaturity coupled with a truly venomous streak of vindictiveness on the part of Timonen, that fits the known facts and is parsimonious?

In other words...he's part of the mob rule that has spread to this forum.

Bollocks. What part of examining the hard evidence from reality do you not understand that is taking place here? Or are you merely going to erect more fatuous, droolingly encephalitic and asinine assertions, because it gives you some sort of cheap thrill to troll this place?

I don't subscribe to mob rule. I subscribe to rational thinking

I therefore suggest you start applying some. Beginning with a proper perusal of the above.

skinny pupppy. Stabbing richard/josh in the back based on speculation

Care to provide a more parsimonious and better evidenced explanation than the one arrived at above?

is not rational thinking in my opinion.

The hard evidence renders your opinion worthless.