In Praise of Josh Timonen

[Bella Fortuna]

I have both tits and coffee, and will be baking later.

So you'll have one in the oven today?

Yes, which is going to get smeared with icing and nommed - I am a good atheist, y'know.

[johnawlock]

Prior to last Friday I had no insight into the way in which the RDF (on which I posted Dec 2008-Mar 2009) was organised behind the scenes so I can only speak from a user's experience. I had hoped reading this thread would give me some further insight but it has reminded me rather of why I stopped posting on RDF. I have certain sympathies with Salviati's viewpoint and experience (I was once disappeared from a wildlife forum because of a comment I made about the presenting skills of Kate Humble's dog; to justify his mistake the site administrator then spent time going through my posts looking for evidence of 'innuendo' and came up with a passing reference to "Belvoir Castle in Rutland". "Beaver" - "rut" get it? Pathetic? yes. But it was his site and as a lot of people here are finding out that counts for a lot...)

But I digress. I too see the process as being analogous to the Flood myth - one of those cathartic events that all burgeoning organisations go through occasionally where they have to clean up their act. I posted mainly in the Faith & Religion forum and from my perspective RDF had developed a bear pit culture that seems much in evidence here. I don't suppose those who had knocked up thousands of posts even saw this - cultures develop over time - but to a newcomer it was all too clear and with all due respect the moderation left something to be desired e.g. consistency and fairness. I did learn something about the adaptive radiation of internet trolls - I'm sure there's a paper/doctorate in there for someone.

Equally I decry the retrospective deletion of people's posts/threads by those with the access privileges to do so. Not only is it unethical, it will make a great deal of work for those trying to rebuild the archive version of RDF and it is a pity that such an approach (hiving off a read-only version of RDF) wasn't considered up-front by RDF's management who I suspect are motivated by a costs issue as much as by any ideological intent on this. Any business analyst worth their salt would have presented this as a possible solution. It's a standard in the business world.

As to Josh Timonen - I never knew of the man's existence until Friday. In the picture I have built up since then I see him as being a bit like Smeg the incompetent admin demon in the excellent cartoon series "Bob the Devil & Bob" (which I recommend to even the most dyed-in-the-wool atheist for its scenario of an indolent God and a Devil unable to take advantage being let down by the incompetence of his outfit's infrastructure; yours for a few bucks on ebay.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God,_the_Devil_and_Bob It certainly looks like a Smeg job.

[Adrinius]

Memento mori, RD.net

[Blondie]

RDF had developed a bear pit culture

I don't know about the rest of your post, but I agree with this bit I quoted - if you mean it in a "throw the Christian to the lions" kind of way. The average quality of argumentation on the RD.net forums had become very poor IMO. I actually found it more entertaining to play God's advocate on occasion and rip their "logical" rebuttals apart - and I'm an atheist!

[Don't Panic]

All of our most important d'eclairations are about these subjects. But I can't believe we're STILton about bakery, when we should be talking about dairy products. Wensleydale going to shift towards cheese, that's what I want to know.

That was terrible.

In spite of the temporary amnesty on puns due to the influx of new members who were unfamiliar with our rules, this post has been deemed to be beyond the pale by me, and a warning has been issued.

[Thinking Aloud]

... from my perspective RDF had developed a bear pit culture that seems much in evidence here.

If it's in evidence here then it's possibly because most of the active RDFers decamped to here and vented prior to moving on to their own new place elsewhere. This forum, which has been in existence for over a year, has its own culture and bears little resemblance to RDF under normal circumstances.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

... from my perspective RDF had developed a bear pit culture that seems much in evidence here.

If it's in evidence here then it's possibly because most of the active RDFers decamped to here and vented prior to moving on to their own new place elsewhere. This forum, which has been in existence for over a year, has its own culture and bears little resemblance to RDF under normal circumstances.

"this forum" and "normal" in one sentence. Now I've seen it all.

[normal]

... from my perspective RDF had developed a bear pit culture that seems much in evidence here.

If it's in evidence here then it's possibly because most of the active RDFers decamped to here and vented prior to moving on to their own new place elsewhere. This forum, which has been in existence for over a year, has its own culture and bears little resemblance to RDF under normal circumstances.

"this forum" and "normal" in one sentence. Now I've seen it all.

I'm sure you must have seen that plenty of times before?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

... from my perspective RDF had developed a bear pit culture that seems much in evidence here.

If it's in evidence here then it's possibly because most of the active RDFers decamped to here and vented prior to moving on to their own new place elsewhere. This forum, which has been in existence for over a year, has its own culture and bears little resemblance to RDF under normal circumstances.

"this forum" and "normal" in one sentence. Now I've seen it all.

I'm sure you must have seen that plenty of times before?

Yeah, but it was not normal even then.

[klr]

... from my perspective RDF had developed a bear pit culture that seems much in evidence here.

If it's in evidence here then it's possibly because most of the active RDFers decamped to here and vented prior to moving on to their own new place elsewhere. This forum, which has been in existence for over a year, has its own culture and bears little resemblance to RDF under normal circumstances.

And I've seen other "free thinker" forums - not part of the "RDF universe" - that would would make either of these forums look like a Victorian garden party.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

... from my perspective RDF had developed a bear pit culture that seems much in evidence here.

If it's in evidence here then it's possibly because most of the active RDFers decamped to here and vented prior to moving on to their own new place elsewhere. This forum, which has been in existence for over a year, has its own culture and bears little resemblance to RDF under normal circumstances.

And I've seen other "free thinker" forums - not part of the "RDF universe" - that would would make either of these forums look like a Victorian garden party.

JREF, for one.

[Mousy]

All of our most important d'eclairations are about these subjects. But I can't believe we're STILton about bakery, when we should be talking about dairy products. Wensleydale going to shift towards cheese, that's what I want to know.

That was terrible.

In spite of the temporary amnesty on puns due to the influx of new members who were unfamiliar with our rules, this post has been deemed to be beyond the pale by me, and a warning has been issued.

My very first warning. But you doughnut understand, bad puns are bread into me - Tigger does it too!

[Don't Panic]

All of our most important d'eclairations are about these subjects. But I can't believe we're STILton about bakery, when we should be talking about dairy products. Wensleydale going to shift towards cheese, that's what I want to know.

That was terrible.

In spite of the temporary amnesty on puns due to the influx of new members who were unfamiliar with our rules, this post has been deemed to be beyond the pale by me, and a warning has been issued.

My very first warning. But you doughnut understand, bad puns are bread into me - Tigger does it too!

Yes, and he gets warnings for them too.

Just like you got for that post too.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

My very first warning. But you doughnut understand, bad puns are bread into me - Tigger does it too!

Yes, and he gets warnings for them too.

Just like you got for that post too.

Fascisti!

[Mousy]

Yes, and he gets warnings for them too.

Just like you got for that post too.

Could you get any cruller? You're showing nothing but scone for me.