LibriumArcana.Games

It's been a few days since I should have posted this, but here goes. BTW: the phrase "meltdown" is not hyperbole nor is it an exaggeration.

Link.

Death of the Dawkins forum – The world’s busiest atheist forum closes

<snip>

The whole article is way too long to post here, but basically what happened was this:

• Richard Dawkins didn't run his site personally, being non-net savvy. Instead, he hired a guy called Josh Timonen to be his Tech administrator.
• The moderation staff was not paid, they were voluntary workers.
• The Tech admin staff and Dawkins were not involved with the running of the forum.
• The forum got about ten times larger than the front page.
• For a long time, the forum had severe server issues and the Tech staff had failed to provide feedback from the complaints, much less solutions.
• Eventually, the Tech staff says they are going to design a re-vamped site, which would supposedly solve these issues. The moderators are nervous, but get promises that they will be kept in the loop and will be listened to.
• The Tech staff announces that they are about to launch the new site, and sorry, there won't be a forum there, but a glorified comment section, with "tags".
• The moderators and users get different accounts of what was going on, and initially, the wrath of the users was in part directed at the moderators. Then, one of the moderators shares the message they received with the general users, and the forum promptly gets shut down.
• Several longstanding members, including aforementioned moderator have their accounts deleted, and the complaints thread gets deleted also.
• Signatures with advertisements for other forums where people could go instead get deleted.
• Richard Dawkins himself weighs in, angrily berating the community for the attacks made against the Tech staff during these events, apparently not knowing that the quotes he used were from another forum all together, and only posted AFTER the forum had been shut down.

Sadly, it seems that the largest rationalist community on the web has just self-destructed. Many of these members had nowhere else to go, and lived in countries where it is impossible to voice a rationalist worldview without risk. Thousands of posts have been deleted forever.


Here's the followup article: link


The situation has made its way into Times Online. The same deceptions were being repeated by the Tech staff, apparently, but the user comments there tell a different story.

I'll be frank. I don't like Richard Dawkins at all and I don't like his organization. This despite being an athiest.

Nevertheless, it's never a good day when a major and thriving discussion forum falls apart, whatever the topic. The loss of data and community is irreplaceable. It's a pity that they couldn't get their acts together to preserve it.

It sounds like they got screwed by their tech staff.

I'll second Havoc's opinion on pretty much on a whole. Not a fan of Dawkins, but it's always sad when a community crashes, especially when one person's stupidity and hubris are apparently behind it. Here's hoping they can figure something out.

I have an appreciation for irony. A supposed 'rational' forum full of rational human beings succumbs to some pretty petty emotions and bitchiness. If they could liquify this and sell it I'd drink it every day. Call it 'schadenfreude'.

The sad thing is Richard Dawkins seemed to weigh in on the wrong side of things. I respect the man's work but if he's gonna throw his weight in the ring at least bet on the right horse. (argh holy mixed metaphors batman!)

Stofsk wrote:(argh holy mixed metaphors batman!)

If you don't have anything nice to say, get out of the kitchen!

... wait...

General Havoc wrote:

Stofsk wrote:(argh holy mixed metaphors batman!)

If you don't have anything nice to say, get out of the kitchen!

... wait...

Don't tell Gordon Ramsay.

And people who live in glass houses sink ships.

*shrugs* Drama happens. It always happens. Stick two people together and there will be drama somehow. It doesn't matter how smart/stupid/noble/selfish/whatever an organization is, but there will always be politicking and jockeying for position and backstabbing and people being butthurt and other such stupid petty bullshit. That was why I was never allowed to join the band sorority or fraternity in college. That was why the SDN Senate went down. People are assholes.

Split thread tangent here.

Mayabird wrote:*shrugs* Drama happens. It always happens. Stick two people together and there will be drama somehow. It doesn't matter how smart/stupid/noble/selfish/whatever an organization is, but there will always be politicking and jockeying for position and backstabbing and people being butthurt and other such stupid petty bullshit. That was why I was never allowed to join the band sorority or fraternity in college. That was why the SDN Senate went down. People are assholes.

How did a nice girl like you ever get to be so cynical?

How did a nice girl like you ever get to be so cynical? Smile

She grew up in Georgia. Don't you read the tell me a story thread?

Heh, I know. I was being funny.