OK, so who is going to volunteer to go over the thescienceforum's admin's house, cuff him in the back of the head and tell him to get the dangblasted server back up?
Is it the server? Not just a software malfunction? Or the hosting not paid? I would be happy to feed him to Trump's maw.
I don't know who's the registered owner there, but wasn't there a banner notice in the physics section saying there's a linked site 'The Physics Forum'? I notice that site is still up and running.
I was banned from that forum after PM'img a moderator:"Fuck Off!". I don't care for that forum. Is dwydor still a mod? (That wasn't the PM.)
Dwyddyr is immoderate by nature and/or by habit. (perhaps, the inmates are running the asylum?) Perhaps Dwyddyr is incapable of moderation?
He has me on ignore here... I did say he was a "COWARD", but maybe he never got the message. (Engineers would have physics envy I presume.)
Dywyddyr's refreshing style of moderation is one of the main reasons I belong to that forum (another being the presence of a fellow chemist from my university, with whom I shared tutors and lecturers). But the software maintenance there has been non-existent for a long time now. The owner seems to be untraceable. It's been looking as if it will conk out for a quite a while now.
It's nice of you to give him a pass. While I appreciated his intellect, I found him to be mean, petty, and obnoxious. If a moderator's chore is to moderate; I found him wanting in that capacity. ............. "refreshing", how so?
Smoking out and getting rid of cranks and trolls very rapidly. For example, several incarnations of Reiku were disposed of in a matter of days. Here it can take months.
That 's right. www.thephysicsforum.com Same owner,just seemingly more robust and still standing so far. No idea why the owner /admin declines to respond to attempts to contact him. It has been that way for years.
I withdrew from the Physics Forum a long time ago, after they refused to post my Youtube link to a recorded lecture by Robert Hazen at the Carnegie Institute for Science. The message I received is that PF does not allow links to "unreliable sources". I wrote back, asking how a recorded lecture in front of some of the greatest scientists in the world can be regarded as "unreliable", and invited the mods to review the content of the lecture before rejecting it out of hand, but was stonewalled. So, in view of such insult to my intelligence and discretion, I have not visited that site for years now. Too exclusive and prejudicial for my taste. While I recognize that Youtube allows posting of a lot of woo and pseudo science, I see it more as a large library and if one searches critically, there is much interesting and valuable information to be found. For one, there is a wealth of music from all over the world available for downloading. Unreliable? That makes no sense at all. OTOH, I find The ScienceForum a much more hospitable place to learn and sharpen my mind, and I am happy if on occasion I can contribute to an interesting topic. There are enough "learned fellows" here to keep me in line. I like it here!!!!
Because there are often so many sockpuppets. At present we are dealing with another similar troll, and I have lost count of just how many we have banned. We often cannot know until they post and sometimes it can take a while to determine it is that person. It isn't intentional and it's not like we cannot be bothered. More often than not, it is because we have to be sure first. In the past, the previous software allowed us to see a better history with IP's and sockpuppets. The current software does not have those features, which can make it tricky. From what I understood, there was an issue with an admin who basically went all psycho or something along those lines a long time ago, and then the whole thing went offline because there was something with the owner or something along those lines. Was a while ago now. And then it came back. Is it offline again? It could be down for software upgrade?
I loved it when he took over moderating Human Sciences when I quit a long time ago. He was terrific. It was a shame he stopped being a moderator here. But I am hardly impartial. Dyw is one of my favourite people on this site. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Golly I didn't realise you had lost the ability to compare IP addresses. That must make things quite difficult. I suppose now you have to make judgements based on likelihood, rather than unambiguous proof. Yes there was an admin who went all pyscho. Someone called Howard, if I recall correctly. There was also a troll (Russian, I think) who got banned and retaliated by screwing with the software. I don't think it has been 100% ever since that incident - it's been novichokked, I think. It seems that most of the same cast of characters can now be found at thescienceforum . org , but without Dywyddyr's inimitable (and on occasions very funny) moderating style.
