Apology from Richard Dawkins (Yes Really).

[NineBerry]

Some things change, some don't

http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtopic.php?t=3108

[kiore]

I dropped a couple of comments in there thanking him, but pointing out that there are still unresolved issues. Most importantly though, I would like to ask people who are thinking about going back there to think long and hard about whether they want anything to do with a site managed by the same twits who fucked everything up last week. My view is, that as a matter of principle, I won't have anything to do with the place until I hear of a sacking/demotion, or at the very least an apology from the website admin team. I would like others to adopt this position as well in the hope that we might get an apology out of them.

Not just last week these "twits" have the midarse touch, can't wait for the encore..
No chance that Timonen will suffer much he's the golden boy after all.

[klr]

Some things change, some don't

http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtopic.php?t=3108

I get worried when the big boss starts heaping buzzword-laden praise on someone. It usually means that they don't know what's actually going on. The long-term results are ... predictable.

[pErvinalia]

I dropped a couple of comments in there thanking him, but pointing out that there are still unresolved issues. Most importantly though, I would like to ask people who are thinking about going back there to think long and hard about whether they want anything to do with a site managed by the same twits who fucked everything up last week. My view is, that as a matter of principle, I won't have anything to do with the place until I hear of a sacking/demotion, or at the very least an apology from the website admin team. I would like others to adopt this position as well in the hope that we might get an apology out of them.

Not just last week these "twits" have the midarse touch, can't wait for the encore..
No chance that Timonen will suffer much he's the golden boy after all.

Hmm. I wonder how long till the next "incident"...?

[klr]

I dropped a couple of comments in there thanking him, but pointing out that there are still unresolved issues. Most importantly though, I would like to ask people who are thinking about going back there to think long and hard about whether they want anything to do with a site managed by the same twits who fucked everything up last week. My view is, that as a matter of principle, I won't have anything to do with the place until I hear of a sacking/demotion, or at the very least an apology from the website admin team. I would like others to adopt this position as well in the hope that we might get an apology out of them.

Not just last week these "twits" have the midarse touch, can't wait for the encore..
No chance that Timonen will suffer much he's the golden boy after all.

Hmm. I wonder how long till the next "incident"...?

Well, I would be staggered if chalkers had any future input other than at the purely technical level (if he's lucky enough to survive). No more finger on the button please.

[Ilovelucy]

I dropped a couple of comments in there thanking him, but pointing out that there are still unresolved issues. Most importantly though, I would like to ask people who are thinking about going back there to think long and hard about whether they want anything to do with a site managed by the same twits who fucked everything up last week. My view is, that as a matter of principle, I won't have anything to do with the place until I hear of a sacking/demotion, or at the very least an apology from the website admin team. I would like others to adopt this position as well in the hope that we might get an apology out of them.

Not just last week these "twits" have the midarse touch, can't wait for the encore..
No chance that Timonen will suffer much he's the golden boy after all.

Hmm. I wonder how long till the next "incident"...?

You mean when the front page gets replaced by the new RD.net? I'm sure people will be very excited. Though Richard may bring in some extra bodies to plan it and not leave it to the wacky, 2008 internet meme japery of Andrew Chalkey.

[Valden]

I dropped a couple of comments in there thanking him, but pointing out that there are still unresolved issues. Most importantly though, I would like to ask people who are thinking about going back there to think long and hard about whether they want anything to do with a site managed by the same twits who fucked everything up last week. My view is, that as a matter of principle, I won't have anything to do with the place until I hear of a sacking/demotion, or at the very least an apology from the website admin team. I would like others to adopt this position as well in the hope that we might get an apology out of them.

Not just last week these "twits" have the midarse touch, can't wait for the encore..
No chance that Timonen will suffer much he's the golden boy after all.

Hmm. I wonder how long till the next "incident"...?

You mean when the front page gets replaced by the new RD.net? I'm sure people will be very excited. Though Richard may bring in some extra bodies to plan it and not leave it to the wacky, 2008 internet meme japery of Andrew Chalkey.

Wait, they're changing the front page too?

[klr]

I dropped a couple of comments in there thanking him, but pointing out that there are still unresolved issues. Most importantly though, I would like to ask people who are thinking about going back there to think long and hard about whether they want anything to do with a site managed by the same twits who fucked everything up last week. My view is, that as a matter of principle, I won't have anything to do with the place until I hear of a sacking/demotion, or at the very least an apology from the website admin team. I would like others to adopt this position as well in the hope that we might get an apology out of them.

Not just last week these "twits" have the midarse touch, can't wait for the encore..
No chance that Timonen will suffer much he's the golden boy after all.

Hmm. I wonder how long till the next "incident"...?

You mean when the front page gets replaced by the new RD.net? I'm sure people will be very excited. Though Richard may bring in some extra bodies to plan it and not leave it to the wacky, 2008 internet meme japery of Andrew Chalkey.

Wait, they're changing the front page too?

Well, I assume AC wasn't just brought in to push some buttons ...

[Ilovelucy]

I dropped a couple of comments in there thanking him, but pointing out that there are still unresolved issues. Most importantly though, I would like to ask people who are thinking about going back there to think long and hard about whether they want anything to do with a site managed by the same twits who fucked everything up last week. My view is, that as a matter of principle, I won't have anything to do with the place until I hear of a sacking/demotion, or at the very least an apology from the website admin team. I would like others to adopt this position as well in the hope that we might get an apology out of them.

Not just last week these "twits" have the midarse touch, can't wait for the encore..
No chance that Timonen will suffer much he's the golden boy after all.

Hmm. I wonder how long till the next "incident"...?

You mean when the front page gets replaced by the new RD.net? I'm sure people will be very excited. Though Richard may bring in some extra bodies to plan it and not leave it to the wacky, 2008 internet meme japery of Andrew Chalkey.

Wait, they're changing the front page too?

The whole site is being integrated into one RD.net. The main articles will still show in the feed, but members will be able to start their own threads too, if they are deemed worthy. It's all change though. This is what I was led to expect from our mod centre interactions with Chalkey. Good old honest Chalkey.

[klr]

...
The whole site is being integrated into one RD.net. The main articles will still show in the feed, but members will be able to start their own threads too, if they are deemed worthy. It's all change though. This is what I was led to expect from our mod centre interactions with Chalkey. Good old honest Chalkey.

I'm overwhelmed by the obvious sincerity of your response.

[pErvinalia]

I dropped a couple of comments in there thanking him, but pointing out that there are still unresolved issues. Most importantly though, I would like to ask people who are thinking about going back there to think long and hard about whether they want anything to do with a site managed by the same twits who fucked everything up last week. My view is, that as a matter of principle, I won't have anything to do with the place until I hear of a sacking/demotion, or at the very least an apology from the website admin team. I would like others to adopt this position as well in the hope that we might get an apology out of them.

Not just last week these "twits" have the midarse touch, can't wait for the encore..
No chance that Timonen will suffer much he's the golden boy after all.

Hmm. I wonder how long till the next "incident"...?

You mean when the front page gets replaced by the new RD.net? I'm sure people will be very excited.

What do you mean people "will be" very excited. "We are ALL very excited"TM-JoshTimonemenon

[Valden]

The whole site is being integrated into one RD.net. The main articles will still show in the feed, but members will be able to start their own threads too, if they are deemed worthy. It's all change though. This is what I was led to expect from our mod centre interactions with Chalkey. Good old honest Chalkey.

Lol the Front page posters must not be very thrilled with that either then.

[Skinny Puppy]

Some things change, some don't

http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtopic.php?t=3108

Please! In fairness to us, if you post that type of thing, do 3 things.

1 – Post a warning sign that the contents are not suitable for children.
2 – Supply airline barf bags. I just laid my supper all over my keyboard. It’s a gaming keyboard too (Logitech G15), now who’s paying the cleaning bill?
3 – Warn one and all that Josh is getting a verbal blow job. Many here don’t want that mental image burnt into our minds.

I know you’re trying to help, but remember, there are young kids on this forum and they shouldn’t be subjected to steaming piles of horseshit and verbal blow jobs.

[jez9999]

Some things change, some don't

http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtopic.php?t=3108

I get worried when the big boss starts heaping buzzword-laden praise on someone. It usually means that they don't know what's actually going on. The long-term results are ... predictable.

Hello everyone; this is my first post to rationalia.com, and I'm rather sad to be joining the online atheist community at a time of such distress.

I thought I'd register on the RD.net forum, and get chatting with the community. Then I read about the debacle that's taken place over the last week.

Though Richard's apology is welcomed, I have to agree with klr and NineBerry in the strongest possible terms. Richard has heaped praise on Josh to almost frightening levels, even dedicating his latest book (which I bought!) to him, on a page which maybe I'll now rip out. Now, I think this level of praise for someone who is, at the end of the day, nothing more than a reasonably skilled web admin, is unhealthy. It seems to me that Richard doesn't quite 'get' it. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I could do what Josh has done with RD.net. It's not rocket science, it's just a busy website. Millions of people (me included) can run these things, and probably millions have the time and inclination to do so, even if Richard himself has neither the skill nor the time. Looks like Josh just 'got there first' with RD.net.

This would be OK if it weren't for the guy's recent behaviour. From what I can tell, it's been disgraceful, and Josh himself has issued no kind of apology for it. He comes across to me as a thin-skinned, mean-spirited dictator, who doesn't bat an eyelid at the destruction of an online community. As long as he is running the show over at RD.net, I won't touch it with a bargepole. And it looks like he will be, because Richard, though I respect him as a scientist, has FAR too much respect for him, and appears to have lost rational sight of the guy's actions. Why Josh has behaved in such a downright arrogant way is hard to say... I'm going to have to fall back on that old cliche: power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. This guy had (and has) absolute power over RD.net. I'm afraid that all I can say is that I'm glad I hadn't really gotten into the RD.net community yet, because if I had I'd no doubt be feeling pretty depressed and angry now.

Richard has really failed to understand what makes an online community tick, and the new "you get to post a thread if ye Gods approve" system they're setting up isn't going to cut it. Internet discussions are often about spontaneous, lively debate. It's also important to have some degree of offtopic discussion in an online community, as people will want to do that too. The new RD.net forum won't have that either, it seems. I think it will be a lot less popular than the old forum, but we'll see. Apparently, Richard thinks this is a good system because some things posted on the old forum may have given 'bad publicity' to his foundation. Sorry Richard, but: nonsense. Anyone who looks at random people's quotes on an open forum and somehow associates them with the organization who hosts the forum should rightly be ridiculed.

So, having rambled enough, I'll stop about here. Hope to be a fruitful part of many discussions on Rationalia in future, and here's hoping that the large majority of the former RD.net forum community find their way here or to rationalskepticism.org! What are the admins of these 2 forums like? More level-headed, I hope.... any chance of these being shut down and posts obliterated?

[Crazyfrog]

Totally agree with above post.

An apology is a good start, but will that alone restore my respect for Dawkins? Absolutely not. It takes more than an eloquently worded public statement (which RD’s very skilled at) to undo what happened here. The technical staff behaved in very inappropriate ways but, according to Dawkins, Josh is still “one of the most talented people I have ever met”. Maybe he has technical talents but Josh’s change management/leadership/people skills are abysmal, please keep him locked in the server room. There are also many more unanswered questions.

What I take away from this is that RD is very self-centred and will say whatever is necessary to further his own ends. He didn’t hesitate to shaft his forum community when he thought it was to his advantage, then when he realised the extent of the PR mess it’s backtrack, backtrack, backtrack.

I need a lot more convincing that his response is genuine and not forced by circumstances.