klr wrote:CJ, you seem to be poster non grata on the front page. Your second comment has been nuked as well, even though others are still in situ.
Indeed, CJ's comments have gone. I will post mine here so I can copy/paste then back until I am banned.
They said they would leave the forum up for 30 days so members could save important threads for future reference. There were literally thousands of excellent contributions from all different kinds of people on the forum (believers and non-believers alike), with some especially enlightening scientific discussions from the likes of Calilasseia, Peter Harrison and more. I feel Richard and Josh have never truly grasped just how excellent the forum was. The trouble seemed to start about a year ago when feral OT was removed; many of us, including myself, supported this as we recognised the forum carried Richard Dawkins' name and needed a measure of decorum and reason. Little did we know it was merely a precursor to this.
Some of you might say, "Calm down, they are just upgrading the system." But they aren't. They've sacked the staff, the hardworking volunteers who support the community and keep out the trolls. They sacked them without so much of a by your leave - their sternly worded letter warned them not to 'stir up discontent' or encourage members to go to other websites. This move was astonishly authoritarian and undeserving of an organisation which is supposed to be one of reason and respect.
I still cannot understand the behaviour of Josh on this matter, as I've always liked him and respected his work for the RDFRS, particularly the excellent videos he makes, but his role in setting up this organisation is no excuse for what he has done to this community. The RD.net project has grown in leaps and bounds over the past four years, we've all come to this site to participate in discussion about Richard Dawkins, reason, science, religion and the world as a whole, and many of us have learned a great deal from the resources made avaliable on the forum. It is such a shame for it to end now. Do not make the mistake of thinking what is coming will be any better; the kind of discussion that Josh and Richard intend to take place here from now on will be strictly controlled. Indeed, I think this post will be removed very quickly, as will CJ's, but here it is anyway.
avatarblitz442: The reason we have brought this here is because we can't save some of the better discussions. The forum has been disabled. Now, it could be simple maintenance, the server was overloaded and needs to be reset. But with everything that has just come out, I really don't think so. The staff have been sent packing, and at least one post made by a former moderator was removed. A long thread had started where members were voicing their concerns and talking about where the community should go to. We were told we had 30 days to save whatever posts we wanted before the reset happened, but now that isn't going to happen. One thing is for sure, the forum won't be coming back as it was before it went down, because there is nobody left to moderate it.
As someone who has been inspired by Richard Dawkins to find out more about science and to not be afraid of expressing my atheism, I'm really disappointed with it all. I've given my share to RDFRS too, through donations. We all have, heck, the staff have done way more, and they were roughly brushed aside. We were told we were not to contact Richard at all. What kind of message does that send? Certainly not one of misunderstanding.
Apparently the forum is coming back up, but in a read-only state. I expected this, after all, with the staff leaving there wouldn't be anyone left to moderate it. At least this way we can get our old posts. That is something, at least.
But still, who's fault is this? Not the community; the community was thriving. Now the community is dead, moving on to other forums. This site will have a replacement, no doubt, but one with strict controls and without the staff who helped make the old forum so great. I hope the atheist community as a whole will see what has happened here as a travesty; needless change that has destroyed the RD.net community.
Furthermore, this doesn't provide any closure. 30 days will have given people time to decide where to go next, perhaps share memories of the forum before it closed for good. Now we've been alienated from the RDFRS. It all seems such a colossal waste. Josh said he expected this change to be 'frightening'... well, a lot of this grief could have been avoided if he only took the time to explain more about the forthcoming changes, and not to brush off the staff in such a brusque fashion. It couldn't have come at a worst time, with Richard being abroad. If Richard had made a video and maybe taken a few questions, and more importantly, invited the forum staff to stay on, there'd be a lot less anger among the forum refugees right now.
