Anyone following whats happening on RDF.net?

DeVore

I was never one for the Richard Dawkins forum myself (its rather a busman's holiday for me ) but the recent events seem.... wow. Nuts.

They basically closed the forum and told all their mods to go forth and procreate.

Wow. I've actually lost a bit of respect for Dawkins now, though I guess being a world class biologist doesnt stop you from being a poor "people person". Still... I expected better rigourous thinking from him then some ad hominae attack on free speech.

The only winners will be the religious fundies of course... you dont see them arguing amongst themselves.


DeV.

bnt

Not so fast. RD has a guy (Josh Timonen) who does all his internet-related stuff; RD has to take Josh's word on things like this, and back his decisions, because he's not a webmaster and relatively new to this "social networking" stuff. The way Josh dismissed the moderators was abrupt and insulting, and that's when the badmouthing started - not before. Read what one of the moderators has to say: here and here.

RD has now apologised for what happened: Times Online. When a lot of people put a lot of effort in to maintaining a site, you do not simply tell them to sod off, as Josh (not RD) did at first.

Zombrex

It sounds like the moderator just got sick of moderating

Happens all the time on Boards.ie, the problem with RDF seems to be that unlike Boards.ie there wasn't this culture of user moderation, so the moderator decided to just tell everyone to feck off.

I would imagine they are still feeling their way through running a forum.

iUseVi

My theory is that Dawkins didn't want to be seen associated with some (small percentage) of the stuff that was posted. Maybe he doesn't get that every forum comes attached with trolls, and they are part of the landscape.

DeVore

No, BNT has it right... I've been reading this stuff all day... before I posted my post.

My criticism of RD came from his first post which he has now retracted. That Josh bloke sounds like a total assh*le.

All the same, its a really bad way to treat the moderators, its not a case that they were introducing moderatorship there, they have always had it... they were going to move to a "comments only" model on main articles (which isnt anything like a forum and wont have a community spirit). Now they have relented but are going to pre-moderate threads.

I wouldnt expect they will get many moderators back and they better be ready to do a lot of the work themselves and to lose a lot of page impressions.

DeV.

iUseVi

DeVore wrote: »

My criticism of RD came from his first post which he has now retracted. That Josh bloke sounds like a total assh*le.

I was under the false impression that he was a volunteer, but now I find out hes getting paid? Yeah total assh*le indeedy.

EDIT: well...nothing against people earning a living, I just thought he was donating his free time to it.

Dave!

iUseVi wrote: »

I was under the false impression that he was a volunteer, but now I find out hes getting paid? Yeah total assh*le indeedy.

EDIT: well...nothing against people earning a living, I just thought he was donating his free time to it.

No he does all sorts of media related stuff for the RDF as far as I know, not just the forum, so he gets paid

This business about the forum being shut down has been talked about on every science blog in the world, it's a pain in the bollix cos my Google Reader is full of it I haven't had the will to read anything about it cos I don't really care that much

It appears to have reached a relatively peaceful resolution now anyways

Dades

Dave! wrote: »

It appears to have reached a relatively peaceful resolution now anyways

Nothing more peaceful than a locked forum. :pac:

I can see the religious response...

"Trouble in paradise, huh?!"

branie

all that over a few trolls?

robindch

branie wrote: »

all that over a few trolls?

Crumbs, hope the bold Josh never becomes a mod here. He wouldn't last a week.

antiskeptic

DeVore wrote: »

The only winners will be the religious fundies of course... you dont see them arguing amongst themselves.

Hardly. Apart from being told that my just-deceased father must have long been ashamed of me (on, as luck would have it, the RDF discussion forum) about the worst bile I've seen spewn forth occurs at CARM.org's discussion forum - most notably in the Calvinism/Arminianism section.

The vitriol from those identifying themselves (and the objects of their anger) as brothers in Christ takes the breath away.

Xluna

Wow this is pretty shocking. I hav'nt lurked on there in ages. Do you lot think it will ever be an open forum again? Is it possibly that website might even close?

DeVore

The website wont close but the community is shattered as far as I can see. Trust is not something that comes back lightly. The mods/admins were treated terribly and as volunteers I doubt they will be rushing back to build the community again, especially on such dodgy ground.


DeV.

robindch

antiskeptic wrote: »

CARM.org

Ye gods -- an entire forum devoted to creationism. Abandon all hope, etc, etc.

All the same, it's interesting to see on a site seemingly controlled by protestant-leaning fundies, that the most popular forums are catholicism, evolution and atheism.

Even odder to see a fundie website offering tuition in something called "Critical thinking".

Weird.

DeVore

This: http://realityismyreligion.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/locked-entry-will-open-soon/

seems to explain the whole thing....

DeV.

Fanny Cradock

Dades wrote: »

I can see the religious response...

I think that there has been a fairly considered response from the religious folk I've encountered. We have also been discussing it over on our side of the divide. If a forum can reach the critical mass required to build a self sustaining community, then I guess there is always a chance of it self-destructing. I disliked RD.net for a number of reasons, but it is sad that it has come to this.