(2022-01-24, 06:24 PM)Larry Wrote: [ -> ]I sent you several notes that the forum was being destroyed by your and jim's proselytizing the trump fox news train. Subsequently the form has become a nasty bitter right wing rag - too bad! So here you are again. I can understand peoples trepidation although I generally value your input regarding science and parapsychology.
Well, first of all, it was and is up to Alex to decide if certain topics are off-limits on Skeptiko. We didn't always see eye to eye, and Alex was sometimes pretty hard to get hold of.
As a moderator, I was free to also post on the forum as a user - which I did. The moderators do the same here.
After my Skeptiko experience I tend to think it is better to keep certain subjects away from PSI forums - politics, climate change, 'intergenerational sex' (yes someone on Skeptiko wanted to discuss that), etc.
I'd really like to let the matter drop now - or move the discussion to a PM.
I'm glad you are here, David. I have no hard feelings from Skeptiko even though a really unique and at times beautiful thing was basically destroyed by poor moderation. Not only speaking of you. Paquette was also atrocious.
I'm glad for everyone who posts here. Much love to all.
(2022-01-25, 03:40 AM)chuck Wrote: [ -> ]I'm glad you are here, David. I have no hard feelings from Skeptiko even though a really unique and at times beautiful thing was basically destroyed by poor moderation. Not only speaking of you. Paquette was also atrocious.
I'm glad for everyone who posts here. Much love to all.
To be fair I think both mods were simply following Alex's guidelines.
I say this without rancor, I wish Alex well and he is/was on his own journey. I think there was a brief period where we were both in the same area in CA, I actually wouldn't have minded grabbing a drink with him.
(2022-01-24, 06:24 PM)Larry Wrote: [ -> ]I sent you several notes that the forum was being destroyed by your and jim's proselytizing the trump fox news train. Subsequently the form has become a nasty bitter right wing rag - too bad! So here you are again. I can understand peoples trepidation although I generally value your input regarding science and parapsychology.
I must admit that the Trump thing somewhat shocked me and it has soured my opinion which is probably not going to be redeemable. But the fact that alt-right stuff became a popular topic was the thing I complained about which duly got me banned (by David, of course even if under direction from Alex). I didn't think that the direction of that forum should veer off into politics and conspiracies when the only reason I was there was my interest in Psi related matters. The same is true of this forum.
I should stress that I am interested in politics and have very strong feelings when it comes to Trump, etc., but it wasn't because I was so strongly anti-Trump that caused me to complain ... it was because there are other forums and internet venues where those arguments can be aired.
(2022-01-25, 04:29 AM)Kamarling Wrote: [ -> ]I must admit that the Trump thing somewhat shocked me and it has soured my opinion which is probably not going to be redeemable. But the fact that alt-right stuff became a popular topic was the thing I complained about which duly got me banned (by David, of course even if under direction from Alex). I didn't think that the direction of that forum should veer off into politics and conspiracies when the only reason I was there was my interest in Psi related matters. The same is true of this forum.
I should stress that I am interested in politics and have very strong feelings when it comes to Trump, etc., but it wasn't because I was so strongly anti-Trump that caused me to complain ... it was because there are other forums and internet venues where those arguments can be aired.
Well curiously you seem to want to drag me into a political discussion here - so if Ninshub wishes to remove your post and this that is fine by me.
I am also interested in politics, but I find all the various labels, Left, Right, Far Right, Alt-Right, etc just about meaningless. Their meaning shifts over time and gets deliberately manipulated by politicians.
What is important to me, is that I am very, very anti-war.
I am old enough to remember very clearly the numbing fear we all felt in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
(Truncated at Ninshub's request)
David
(2022-01-24, 10:19 PM)David001 Wrote: [ -> ]Good, because I am not going to be an administrator, even if someone begs me to do the job!
David
I can only think of two or three members with such diabolical intent towards me
that they would beg you to become a moderator, David. But they shall remain nameless
(2022-01-25, 11:12 AM)David001 Wrote: [ -> ]Well curiously you seem to want to drag me into a political discussion here - so if Ninshub wishes to remove your post and this that is fine by me.
I made it clear that I don’t want to discuss politics here and it clearly needs little to no dragging to get you started. Nor does it take much for you to grasp the opportunity to once again prompt Ian to moderate at your suggestion.
There is little doubt in my mind that this rigid ‘PSI only forum’ stance held by certain key members is being used to support both their own wishes and a means of keeping the forums image ‘pure’. They have very strong opinions on certain topics, the opposite of many such opinions are voiced or such views questioned by myself and others. I feel sure that if I and others were pushing a pro trump/ pro vaccine/ pro lockdown etc line in the hidden forums - then the forum would be at peace. I guess if that were my stance then certain ‘founder members’ and others would likely ignore any intrusion into the main forum by me and rules would not be as strictly enforced. Imo ‘the rules’ should be slightly flexible as in practice they often are.
Very rigid enforcement doesn’t sit well with the original spirit of this forum imo.
(2022-01-25, 11:12 AM)David001 Wrote: [ -> ]Well curiously you seem to want to drag me into a political discussion here - so if Ninshub wishes to remove your post and this that is fine by me.
I am also interested in politics, but I find all the various labels, Left, Right, Far Right, Alt-Right, etc just about meaningless. Their meaning shifts over time and gets deliberately manipulated by politicians.
What is important to me, is that I am very, very anti-war.
I am old enough to remember very clearly the numbing fear we all felt in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In 2016, and again in 2020, I was pretty convinced that Trump would keep us out of war. Sadly Biden was selected as president in 2020, and as I feared, we are drifting dangerously close to another war.
My partner was born in what was then known as Eastern Europe, and she knows a lot more of the details of the politics out there - which are not really as they are portrayed in the West. She also has family who are uncomfortably close to any possible action.
If the war turns nuclear, we are all uncomfortably close to any possible action.
David
Could you simply edit your own post? You coud simply say you're very, very anti-war without getting to explanations that go into explicit political content.
(2022-01-25, 12:07 PM)Stan Woolley Wrote: [ -> ]There is little doubt in my mind that this rigid ‘PSI only forum’ stance held by certain key members is being used to support both their own wishes and a means of keeping the forums image ‘pure’. They have very strong opinions on certain topics, the opposite of many such opinions are voiced or such views questioned by myself and others. I feel sure that if I and others were pushing a pro trump/ pro vaccine/ pro lockdown etc line in the hidden forums - then the forum would be at peace. I guess if that were my stance then certain ‘founder members’ and others would likely ignore any intrusion into the main forum by me and rules would not be as strictly enforced. Imo ‘the rules’ should be slightly flexible as in practice they often are.
Very rigid enforcement doesn’t sit well with the original spirit of this forum imo.
I have no doubt that you have no doubt in your mind that that is the motivation.
I'll speak about own motivations a bit later. In the meantime I would say "If you were pushing" is part of the problem, rather than the "what" you pushing. Campaigning/proselytizing/crusading posts - especially about a topic that isn't about psi - are problematic in my view in a discussion forum, especially if they are not about the topic related to the forum's subject. Limiting the embedded content was thought of as a way to limit these type of non-discussion but rather, usually, merely "alerting" posts (
This is happening! And the media is hiding it! Don't you people realize! This is so evil! Shame on you!) from viewpoints that are absolutely convinced about their own rightness and the other's wrongness. And once, again, have nothing to do with psi.
This, and the activity of the forum getting more monopolized into these off-topic content to begin with, are my personal motivations.
This doesn't mean I have a special status over the founders, but just to address how you think it's because you and others have a particular stance on the topic of vaccines that the founders are motivated the way they are: I was the one who had the initial idea of this forum, and I remember exchanging with Doug was who was the first person I proposed it to. The idea was to have a, yes, "purely" psi forum, and not to have space for that other type of content. Doug was in agreement in spirit, but practically he thought it would be a problem recruiting some of the Skeptiko members who were such much into outside-psi and more usually conspiracy theory or other topics - so that the forum would not get off the ground. So the motivation was always there on my part, rightly or wrongly.
Well so I think I have explained my motivations a bit.