Announcement about RDF

[Ayaan]

Not as many comments regarding Topsy's post as I thought there would be.
http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtop ... 0#p2752164
Maybe people didn't read it all the way through.

The bit about them getting rid of all the current staff?

Edit: snap with Ayaan.

Looks like it's being quoted over there now.....

This post seems to capture the essence of what the RDF staff was told.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

[klr]

Wow. Just wow. That's even more severe than I had suspected. And completely out of order.

[klr]

Just reading the sordid details now. My flabber is well and truly ghasted.

[Rum]

Spammed a bit over there. Be prepared to assist survivors!

[Twoflower]

Why do I always have to go to class whenever the drama starts?

[hackenslash]

Since it's probably going to get deleted before much longer, here's the post to the mod forum:

Dear forum moderators,

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

We know that this is a big decision. We know some of you moderators will be against this change. We ask that you respect our decision and help make this transition as smooth as possible. These decisions have all been approved by our organization, and we ask that you don't add to our work by causing trouble.

We will not be migrating moderator roles to the new discussion site. Again, we're sure this might come as a shock, and we hope you don't take it personally. We can't thank you enough for your contributions to the old forum. The new system will not require a large team of moderators, as the discussion area will be more focused. We encourage you to contribute to the new discussions area, and are welcome to flag inappropriate activity for review.

Please understand that this transition is going to be a lot of work for us. I'm sure as you read this, you will have a lot of questions and concerns. We also know that this is a change from what we had been discussing previously. This announcement does not require a response, but we wanted you to be aware. Please do not email Richard with complaints, we have discussed this transition thoroughly with him, and he is currently on tour in Australia and New Zealand. Please do not attempt to inflame the users, start any petitions, or "relocate" groups of users to a separate forum. Do not use any of the data held by the foundation (such as email addresses) through the control panel to cause any trouble. Any behavior of this kind will not be tolerated. We don't expect you to do these things, but we say all of this only to discourage any well-intentioned moves that would only frustrate the situation.

Many thanks again.

Josh Timonen
Andrew Chalkley
The Richard Dawkins Foundation

[klr]

Spammed a bit over there. Be prepared to assist survivors!

Every cloud and all that. No harm in letting people know there's somewhere else.

I have to say I've long suspected that the interests of the forum community at RD.net were not a priority. Now we have proof, and in spades.

On a not entirely unrelated matter: Is the "Front Page" going to continue on its merry way?

The permanent loss of content is one of the things that galls me. This time, there is no valid rationale whatsoever for removing content.

[Bella Fortuna]

Since it's probably going to get deleted before much longer, here's the post to the mod forum:

Dear forum moderators,

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

We know that this is a big decision. We know some of you moderators will be against this change. We ask that you respect our decision and help make this transition as smooth as possible. These decisions have all been approved by our organization, and we ask that you don't add to our work by causing trouble.

We will not be migrating moderator roles to the new discussion site. Again, we're sure this might come as a shock, and we hope you don't take it personally. We can't thank you enough for your contributions to the old forum. The new system will not require a large team of moderators, as the discussion area will be more focused. We encourage you to contribute to the new discussions area, and are welcome to flag inappropriate activity for review.

Please understand that this transition is going to be a lot of work for us. I'm sure as you read this, you will have a lot of questions and concerns. We also know that this is a change from what we had been discussing previously. This announcement does not require a response, but we wanted you to be aware. Please do not email Richard with complaints, we have discussed this transition thoroughly with him, and he is currently on tour in Australia and New Zealand. Please do not attempt to inflame the users, start any petitions, or "relocate" groups of users to a separate forum. Do not use any of the data held by the foundation (such as email addresses) through the control panel to cause any trouble. Any behavior of this kind will not be tolerated. We don't expect you to do these things, but we say all of this only to discourage any well-intentioned moves that would only frustrate the situation.

Many thanks again.

Josh Timonen
Andrew Chalkley
The Richard Dawkins Foundation

And all we wanted was a fucking search engine that worked, fer crissakes...

[anna09]

I don't find it all that surprising, ever since the last "incident" it's been way more controlled and less and less enjoyable. I haven't even browsed over there in a long time.

Forums aren't supposed to be places where you should feel the need to be on your best behavior or be too intimidated to post.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

As a historian may I just say, "Night of the Long Knives, II".

[95Theses]

Not as many comments regarding Topsy's post as I thought there would be.
http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtop ... 0#p2752164
Maybe people didn't read it all the way through.

The bit about them getting rid of all the current staff?

Edit: snap with Ayaan.

Looks like it's being quoted over there now.....

This post seems to capture the essence of what the RDF staff was told.

Err hi!

That was me. I just registered here because of all that nonsense.

[Don't Panic]

Not as many comments regarding Topsy's post as I thought there would be.
http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtop ... 0#p2752164
Maybe people didn't read it all the way through.

The bit about them getting rid of all the current staff?

Edit: snap with Ayaan.

Looks like it's being quoted over there now.....

This post seems to capture the essence of what the RDF staff was told.

Err hi!

That was me. I just registered here because of all that nonsense.

Welcome aboard.

[Ayaan]

Not as many comments regarding Topsy's post as I thought there would be.
http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtop ... 0#p2752164
Maybe people didn't read it all the way through.

The bit about them getting rid of all the current staff?

Edit: snap with Ayaan.

Looks like it's being quoted over there now.....

This post seems to capture the essence of what the RDF staff was told.

Err hi!

That was me. I just registered here because of all that nonsense.

Glad to have you. Appreciated the post. It really was the essence of what the staff was told.

[95Theses]

Well this could be about to turn interesting.

The entire Mod team appears to have just quit en-masse leaving no moderation apart from Josh for the next moth.

Could get fruity :

I'm only concerned with preserving a place for atheists, agnostics, doubters and theists to engage in rational discussion. The forum has grown from nothing to become the busiest atheist forum on the Internet so it seems to provide that place for people.

The forum staff have been willing to engage in any changes but have also been very protective of the forum. This has probably resulted in the announcement that moderator roles won't be migrated to the new site. The staff have basically been a bit bolshy on behalf of the forum (which you'd expect) and this probably hasn't been well received.

Whatever happens next, the staff will stay and try to keep things going for everyone until their staff permissions are removed.

I can't tell you what will happen to all the emails re: logging on problems etc until I have a reply to my enquiry about that.

No answer to the above. Staff have decided that we will no longer be answering general emails or responding to reports. Apologies if this hampers your enjoyment of the forum but the team here (past and present) have worked 24/7 to keep the forum going and as their (past and present) volunteer efforts are reduced to a "thanks but we don't need you now", there's not much point in staff continuing with their forum work as it's all going to be taken down from the Internet.