I visit the Richard Dawkins forum every now and then. Today, I visit and the first thing I find is that search (even of your own posts) doesn't work. The next thing I see is this: And the original announcement: ------ What has happened, as far as I can tell, is that the entire forum has been closed down virtually without notice, and all moderators and admins have been unceremoniously dumped from their positions. The entire content of the forum, built over several years, looks like it will be trashed, except for those parts dedicated members manage to salvage in the next 30 days. As an administrator of sciforums, my reaction to this is that I'm somewhat flabbergasted. I can't think of many worse ways to migrate to a new format. And the disrespect shown to long-term contributors there is quite jaw-dropping. Essentially, it looks to me like the staff at the Richard Dawkins Foundation don't have much of a clue about what a forum community like that one (or sciforums) is - what its value is or what it means to its members. I hope we never see anything like this happen to sciforums.
I'm not surprised really. I kinda expected it would go that way. I stopped frequenting the forum last year. I never posted there, btw.
I'm not surprised either, being that Richard Dawkins comes across to me as pompous, arrogant, and intolerant. Oh, wait... never mind! That's just the nasty religionists. I get dem twos confuzed sumptimes... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
He's not personally responsible for the forum imploding. But that its imploded, is a good example of the consequences of his ideological failures. Or better yet, of his unrealistic expectations. It will be interesting to see what ver 2.0 looks like. I shudder to think that he's writing childrens books.
:scratchin: I don't really follow the guy, but :jawdrop: Atheistic vitriol, in fairytale format... Instead of the old witch trying to lure the children into the oven to cook them, it's a misguided mother who tries to lure children into the delusional world of Bible camp.
Oh, Daddy Dawkins, people don't REALLY believe that, do they? No, child. Thank goodness it's just a story.
I don't think either of you are aware of who shut it down. The shut down has nothing to do with atheism. But hey, SAM, thanks for being as predictable as usual.
To anybody else who wants to use this thread to rant about religion or atheism: take it somewhere else. This thread is (a) information for those who give a damn, and (b) a discussion of the way the owners of that forum went about this, and the ethics or lack thereof of their actions. I'm really not interested in religious hijackings of this thread. And if you're on an anti-Dawkins crusade, you can join SAM in one of her many other threads on that topic.
Dear James R: I'm not trying to derail anything. I just couldn't prevent myself from making those comments. What seemed to be big problem that they had to do that? Not having been to the site, I ain't got no clue.
I don't understand why the old website had to left unattended in the first place. If they would have kept it running as usual they could just close it down when the new website is ready. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Disregard for the opinions of mods and members. Admins with a "vision" of what a perfect forum should be [one that excludes the opinions of mods and members]
But there is no forum at the moment. I don't understand.. It's not like they have to put in any extra effort to keep the old one open. One would almost think the owners of that website are a bunch of sociopaths. I guess the internet can have that effect on people though. After all, it's not real people you're dealing with, it's just screen names..
I don't think it is his "ideological failures" that caused the forum to be shut down as it has been. Seems to me that it was caused by a few who decided to trash the forums with outrageous posts. The sad thing about this is that there are many members on that forum who posted diligently and contributed a lot to it overall. That their contribution will now be lost forever is a shame.
Yeah it was a shame that mods and members made outrageous comments when they heard the forum was to be trashed. How inconsiderate of them. Good thing the admin now locked down the forum and made it read only, before they embark on trashing it. It would be such a pity if the next 30 days were consumed by more outrageous opinions. So much better to not hear them.
I know this is a difficult concept for you to understand. But a lot of people actually contributed a lot to that forum, on both sides of the religious and atheist divide. It is a shame for those individuals that the decision was made to completely shut down the forum because of a few who trashed it. I know, I know, the thought of atheism is outrageous to you and that you consider atheists to be the scum of the earth and that their opinions should not factor at all.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But that is just you. What? Do you think the forum was shut down to stop theists from posting?Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! What is a shame is that people took that 30 day period to destroy the time and contributions that others have put into that forum, be they atheist or theist. It is they who have paid the ultimate price, all because of a few individuals who have have no respect for others.
But Bells, isn't the real issue that it was left unattended? Try leaving SciForums unattended for a few days.. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I'd hate to imagine. Even with it attended as it is, we still get our fair share of twits. It should never have been left unattended. But that is really beside the point here. The whole point is that people should be adult enough to not trash the place, in that people should have some level of self control. It is obvious that is not the case and never will be because as we have seen here many times, many people do not have any self control and seem to think that they should be able to post whatever they like and damn the consequences.
I think the forum got trashed because it was left unattended. If they didn't leave it unattended it wouldn't have been trashed. The whole point of having moderators in place is to prevent certain people from trashing the place.
Sciforums has been left unattended quite a bit in the glory days [hence the glory days] The real issue is that the admin "decided" that the forum would be changed to a new tags based non-forum, the old forum deleted and a new system set in place. Since mods were also upset it seems to be a prima facie decision presented to them. It would be the equivalent of Plazma or James announcing there would be no more sciforums in 30 days, all old archives and posts would be deleted and you have 30 days to reclaim whatever you consider valuable here and then, if you want, present it in the new awesome nonforum which will be provided to you subject to the decisions of the admin [i.e. new rules of what is considered appropriately scientific and rational]/ What do you think would happen at sciforums if this was announced?
Huh? When was this? They have every right to change the website. It was just done in an incredibly blunt way. They should have kept it open and perhaps, after the new one was launched, keep the old one indefinitely as a read-only. I also think 30 days is a very short notice. Perhaps people would have been far less outraged if the forum were to be closed a year from the notice. That would have given them some time to become accustomed to the idea. No doubt some people would cause mayhem.
