Announcement about RDF Part 2.

[Katherine]

When a man sledges over a snow-covered sett, the badgers will be sure to revolt! :twisted:

Methinks I have a new chew toy!

[Jerome23]

Incidentally despite my loyal support of the JREF over the years there was a certain ambivalence (at times hostility from many) towards RD.net there -- remember the JREF has been around a VERY VERY long time, and sees other sites as johnny-come-latelys maybe. It has died off with time, but people used to take the piss out of me for mentioning iRD.net, or indeed any reference to non-JREF websites in a similar vein. It's all rather parochial. That has certainly changed in recent months, and Darat a top bloke and an admin seems sympathetic, as are others. However the JREF is a little hardnosed compared to the old RD.net culture...

j x

[HughMcB]

That Sledge guy is a jackass. He doesn't understand what it means to lose thousands of posts because his posts are just full of bullshit. If I were him, I wouldn't understand why people were upset about losing their shit either. But he obviously fails to realise that not all people are brainless dopes like him, and actually contribute things of substance to the internet.

P.S What a jackass.

Yip, I came to the same conclusions myself.

Fucking wanktard!

[hotshoe]

Has anyone posted Timonen's most recent edit to his fuck-you message:

Update: 2010-02-23
A few points to clear things up.

We originally posted a private message to the moderators only asking them not to use the information in the foundation's database to cause trouble, email Richard en masse, ask all of the users to go to a separate forum, or anything like that. We take the privacy of the users' data held by the foundation seriously—to that end the data shouldn't be used to solicit and promote other services. This is not what our users signed up for. This was only directed toward the small group of moderators, who had the access to the administration panel. Against the foundation's wishes, they turned around and posted this message publicly in the forum, and many people misinterpreted this to be directed at regular users. We were not telling the regular users what they could and couldn't do, they were all welcome to move to a separate forum. This public posting of personal communication, along with several inappropriate posts made by our very own moderators, convinced the foundation to close the forum down and make it read-only.

We had hoped to keep the forum functioning until the transition to the new site. Having no forum for 30 days is not what we had hoped would happen. But without being able to trust our own moderators for the forum's final month before the transition, we were left with no other option. A few accounts have been deleted along with their posts due to the nature of their posts. We're sorry that a few had to ruin it for the many.

The decision to revamp the forum was made by The Richard Dawkins Foundation. We are looking to make a new discussion area that is easier for people to find quality content related to our mission. We understand that for some of you it was a place to hang out and converse with like minded people but we are not looking to be a social network. There are many other sites that provide this service.

As the foundation continues to grow, there will be changes. But our focus will always be to promote reason and science. We are working to get the new site up as soon as we can, and we will keep you posted on the estimated launch date.

The Richard Dawkins Foundation

(color mine, of course)

Liar, liar, pants on fire

[Jerome23]

oh one more thing: when a user is banned on the JREF, I seem to recall - but I may be wrong - that all of their posts are immediately deleted from the site. So they are unlikely to be sympathetic to our complaint: it's a long time aspect of their forum culture and taken for granted. I could be wrong though -- I'm sure others have more experience there than me, but I was there with OBC and Undercover Elephant when RD.net was first set up (i'm cj.23 there)

j x

[hackenslash]

Peter:

Thank you. I finally got around to reading and commenting on your blog entry. A beautifully put and concise version of events. I have added a link in my youtube vid.

[ficklefiend]

...However the JREF is a little hardnosed compared to the old RD.net culture...

j x

Hmm, I was checking it out earlier along with all the other skeptic/atheist forums that people have been talking about, but I don't really follow Randi enough to fly under his banner.

[Durro]

I just went to RDF and managed to send a PM to Richard Dawkins. It is as follows ;-

Dear Richard,

As one of your (now ex-) Moderators, I wish to express my dismay at the way Josh and Andrew have behaved and shut the forum down.

A decision was made to try and improve the situation with the faltering forum and the Moderators were led to believe that a revamped forum with different software to phpBB would solve most or all of the forum performance issues. We were told for several weeks that we would have input into any new forum system, and that the current forum's content would be moved across to a new and better performing software platform. We were told that we would be able to help test-drive the new forum and help work out kinks in the system. It was going to be an extension of the front page and lose some of its forum feel, but we were assured that it would be largely business as usual with some minor changes.

The Mods put their heads together and came up with lists of functionality that needed to be preserved and issues regarding transfer of data. We kept getting non-committal and vague reassurances that changes weren't too far off and that we'd be involved when the time came. The Mods tried to stress the importance of the forum's culture and relationships and how we didn't want to see them lost. A week or two ago, Chalkers (Andrew, the tech weenie) commented that we didn't need a Tech Support section, as members could be directed to an external software FAQ site. We pointed out that the Tech Support forum was mostly about rule interpretation, challenging warnings or suggesting improvements and other feedback from the membership, and wasn't a simple "how to operate the software" tech forum. This was met with silence.

Right up till Monday 22nd Feb, the Mods were being reassured that positive change was forthcoming and that we'd be involved at the right time.

Instead, we have had a fait accompli thrust upon us at no notice, and when the membership and Moderators were quite rightly aggrieved, Josh apparently took it upon himself to shut down the forum. He has also erased several posts made by Moderators on the public forum and erased complete threads in which your very loyal and enthusiatic membership were expressing their shock at the sudden turn of events. We all found ourselves locked out of the forum with no notice and it's only a quirk of the system that may allow me to send you this PM.

I will also note that Josh quite condescendingly ordered the Moderation team to not contact you, to not express any dissent and to not make waves. His methods are very heavy handed, offensive and have caused great offence to many members, a lot of whom will not be returning to any future forum that you may be setting up.

I view this as tragic, as the discussion forums were a vehicle for knowledgable members to propagate and continue your fine work in spreading rational thought. We saw many many fence sitters wavering in their faith come down on the side of reason, and converted dozens and dozens of faithful from their superstitions. Some of the posts were remarkable examples of good science, logic and reason, and now all this has been lost.

The forum also had a wonderful community feel about it and catered for a range of people from all backgrounds from all over the world. Many dipped their toes in socially, and ended up becoming involved in great discussions about faith, philosophy, current affairs and science. Members have actually met each other via this forum and forged wonderful friendships. Sciwoman even met her fiance through this site.

I think that you are greatly diminishing the broad appeal of the forum by moving to a strictly science based front page comments section. You are risking losing many many supporters and the good work that they do, both on your behalf and in your good name.

Josh and Andrew's apparent lack of understanding of the forum dynamics and the depth of feeling within the 85,000 strong membership is pitiful, and they have not done you any favours with their actions.

Perhaps we may meet soon, as I am attending your Brisbane event for the book expo and I'm also flying to Melbourne for the atheists conference, where 5 Moderators and some 20 other RD.net members have arranged (through this site) to meet up. I'm sure that they would like the opportunity to make their feelings known, given the chance.

I am very saddened in the events today. The membership and moderators have been dismissed with apparent casualness and you have lost many supporters.

My e-mail address is sdurro@hotmail.com

Steven Durrington
(Durro)
(ex-)Forum Moderator

Wonder if I'll get anything back ?

I've got 25 pages of this thread to catch up on. Be back later.

SD

[life]

I REAAAAALLY don't know why Stalin comes to mind?!?

[virphen]

Wonder if I'll get anything back ?

I wonder if you and all your posts will get deleted .

[Bella Fortuna]

I read somewhere here yesterday that anyone contacting Richard automatically had all their posts deleted.

[Harmless Eccentric]

Wonder if I'll get anything back ?

I wonder if you and all your posts will get deleted .

Hmm. Given that we can no longer search, I wonder how you would know if all of your posts were deleted?

[ficklefiend]

We understand that for some of you it was a place to hang out and converse with like minded people but we are not looking to be a social network

You know, only a few thousand of us..

[charlou]

Hey guys, another survivor checking in. For some reason Firefox keeps logging me out right away when I log in, anyone know why? I have to use IE to post now.

Anyway, what happened with the RD.net forum was ridiculous, and I hope Richard doesn't know the details, or else I have lost a lot of respect for him. On another note, thanks for welcoming newcomers. I don't know if this is the place for me yet (I enjoyed a lot of the argumentative aspects of RD.net, and I don't know if the community here is going to be the same or not) but thanks for giving me a place to hang out none the less. I'll try not to ruin the carpet while I hang around getting the feel of the place .

Thank you and you're most welcome.

[Valden]

Has anyone posted Timonen's most recent edit to his fuck-you message:

Update: 2010-02-23
A few points to clear things up.

We originally posted a private message to the moderators only asking them not to use the information in the foundation's database to cause trouble, email Richard en masse, ask all of the users to go to a separate forum, or anything like that. We take the privacy of the users' data held by the foundation seriously—to that end the data shouldn't be used to solicit and promote other services. This is not what our users signed up for. This was only directed toward the small group of moderators, who had the access to the administration panel. Against the foundation's wishes, they turned around and posted this message publicly in the forum, and many people misinterpreted this to be directed at regular users. We were not telling the regular users what they could and couldn't do, they were all welcome to move to a separate forum. This public posting of personal communication, along with several inappropriate posts made by our very own moderators, convinced the foundation to close the forum down and make it read-only.

We had hoped to keep the forum functioning until the transition to the new site. Having no forum for 30 days is not what we had hoped would happen. But without being able to trust our own moderators for the forum's final month before the transition, we were left with no other option. A few accounts have been deleted along with their posts due to the nature of their posts. We're sorry that a few had to ruin it for the many.

The decision to revamp the forum was made by The Richard Dawkins Foundation. We are looking to make a new discussion area that is easier for people to find quality content related to our mission. We understand that for some of you it was a place to hang out and converse with like minded people but we are not looking to be a social network. There are many other sites that provide this service.

As the foundation continues to grow, there will be changes. But our focus will always be to promote reason and science. We are working to get the new site up as soon as we can, and we will keep you posted on the estimated launch date.

The Richard Dawkins Foundation

(color mine, of course)

Liar, liar, pants on fire

Er..

A few accounts have been deleted along with their posts due to the nature of their posts. We're sorry that a few had to ruin it for the many.

WHAT?!

I make three protest comments on the from page. The FRONT page.
I also complained, twice, in the long 28+ Changes thread, none of which were all that bad. (First one was a quote of Galls image of the dude fliping the bird)

There was NO need to delete all my fucking posts. I didn't ruin anything, it as all you, Josh.
I'm not the one that deleted five members completely from the forum.
I'm not the one that told the mods to "behave" as if they're children.
I'm not the one that closed down the entire forum, putting it into read mode only.
I'm not the one that took off everyone's signatures.

I am not the one that made the forum commit suicide.

(Can anyone tell I'm not pleased?)