Announcement about RDF Part 2.

[heyjude]

The loss of a few thousand informational posts is a shame but nothing compared to the whole site getting trashed. It is like burning down a city library far as I’m concerned.

The loss of that repository of knowledge... it's hard to even comprehend. :pissed:

I've written an email to PZ Myers and enclosed a link to Peter Harrison's blog. He is supposed to meet with Richard Dawkins soon. Who knows....

[Ilovelucy]

If Richard writes back to you, ozewiezeloose, let us know what he says.

Will do. The PM is still in my outbox so a) Josh-off hasn't deleted it, and b) Richard hasn't read it yet.

S.

Myself, Starr, Durro and many others have definitely had our messages read a fair while back, you can tell this because it will go from you outbox to "sent messages". So unless you've finally discovered the exact way that life began, I wouldn't hold my breath for a reply.

[Ilovelucy]

PS The JREF really as full of a bunch of lifeless, joyless douchebags isn't it?

[Durro]

Yes, I managed to get a PM thbrough to Richard Dawkins' personal inbox and it was opened. However, I have not had the courtesy of a reply. I provided my personal e-mail to him for contact purposes and I've checked RDF a few times. Nothing.

Durro

[ozewiezeloose]

Myself, Starr, Durro and many others have definitely had our messages read a fair while back, you can tell this because it will go from you outbox to "sent messages". So unless you've finally discovered the exact way that life began, I wouldn't hold my breath for a reply.

I'm not holding it. But I felt like I needed to express my disappointment to Richard.

[Ilovelucy]

Yes, I managed to get a PM thbrough to Richard Dawkins' personal inbox and it was opened. However, I have not had the courtesy of a reply. I provided my personal e-mail to him for contact purposes and I've checked RDF a few times. Nothing.

Durro

So it's safe to say he's in the loop about all that has happened. We all supplied the information about how we have been treated and the duplicity involved. The thing that really gets me is that he may indeed have read our version of things and then seen the latest update where everything is blamed on us. I understand that he is very busy at this point, but from this point on his silence is speaking volumes.

[Durro]

I didn't phrase my message as eloquently or as comprehensively as Peter Harrison did on his blog, but yes, the basic synopsis of events and concerns about the treatment of the membership by Josh & Andrew were put to Richard.

I'd still like to know his personal e-mail though. Please PM me anyone that can provide it.

Durro

[Agrippina]

Won't it be terribly funny if Sky News latches onto this and spends a whole day revisiting it and interviewing all the mods. Very funny! I'll have my kids going WTF did you say to start that? And I'll crawl under the covers and pretend to know absolutely nothing about it.

[InYourFaceNewYorker]

If it's still in your outbox, it means that Richard hasn't logged into his PMs to read it yet.

And guys, please give him time. We really don't know everything that's going on. Maybe you're right, maybe he is being ridiculous about this. But as I said before, you just don't know.

J.

[JimC]

Yes, I managed to get a PM thbrough to Richard Dawkins' personal inbox and it was opened. However, I have not had the courtesy of a reply. I provided my personal e-mail to him for contact purposes and I've checked RDF a few times. Nothing.

Durro

So it's safe to say he's in the loop about all that has happened. We all supplied the information about how we have been treated and the duplicity involved. The thing that really gets me is that he may indeed have read our version of things and then seen the latest update where everything is blamed on us. I understand that he is very busy at this point, but from this point on his silence is speaking volumes.

When you have said to your knights "will somebody rid me of this turbulent forum" you quietly go on with something else for a while...

[SnowLeopard]

[Agrippina]

Serve 'em right if the new thingy doesn't take off and all 85,000 come over here.

[klr]

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

"The big lie is the one they all believe ..." - attributed to Hitler or Goering

"An Englishman will burn his bed to catch a flea" - Turkish saying

There was no need to delete the forum accounts to stop users from posting front page comments, none at all. They could simply have removed any offending comments and sent a "cease and desist" email. And the fact that front page was so compromised is their own fault to begin with. It's simply not fit for purpose.

[SnowLeopard]

I think I just managed to send a successful PM to besleybean (is she on Ratz?).

No. She declined to join during the first purge and she didn't seemed swayed now. (from my recollection)

Yes, I think you're right. Shame - she's great.

She said to me that she might join.

[klr]

And just in case it hasn't been mentioned, either Josh or Andrew (Chalkers) while logged on as "Admin" have gone through and erased the records of their admin actions. All of the deleted posts, deleted threads, summary banning of specific members and deletion of their entire post history, locking out of the Mods, shutting down the PM system, etc etc, has now been removed from the Admin logs. Unfortunately for Josh/Andrew, one of the recently evicted Forum Admin staff was still able to access the Forum and saw the cover up of their grievous actions happening. It smells very much as though they are deleting evidence of their heavy handed and patently unfair actions.

And to clarify one other issue, non of us ex-Mods resigned. We did our best to try and inform the membership what was really happening behind the scenes and Topsy, Mazille, Gallstones and Darwinsbulldog to name a few had posts not only removed but deleted by Josh/Andrew. We tried desperately to communicate with Josh/Andrew, but our pleas for explanations went unanswered and about 40 minutes after the membership was shut out, the entire Mod team were too. We couldn't PM, post, edit posts or perform mod actions. We were able to view the Mod and Admin logs (The latter for the 4 admin guys only) but not do anything except add a comment in a member's usernotes - a few of us left Andrew/Josh some love letters and requested communication, which have been ignored as well. We did not resign. We were shafted like the rest of the membership, but at least tried to go down fighting.

Durro

Not surprised. I hope you tell RD that. Erasing the logs won't do them any good anyway, if anything it only makes their situation worse. Everyone knows what has happened, and there can only be two people responsible. The alternative is that the genuine forum admins themselves would do it as a form of sabotage. Flora (Topsy) has in fact just deleted her own posts, but she has stated it clearly here, and given her reasons. I don't blame her either.