Banned from skeptiko.

I wouldn't personally criticize Alex myself. I think it's clear, or that's what I'm getting at from glancing at his answers, is that it's always been about his personal journey. So understandably that is limiting for many others, and his "community" is at the mercy of wherever his personal journey takes him. So it's a podcast and a forum (from what I gather, which I will admit is very limited now) where the driving force is Alex's concerns, questions, investigations, as opposed to a general topic, like psi for example.

Part of my personal motivation as one of the people who wanted to start this forum was to no longer be at the mercy of the whims of an individual as to what could happen to that forum. Like living under a threat of "existential forum annihilation" if you will.

I think Skeptiko at its best was groundbreaking. Alex let a lot of discussions carry on in addition to the discussions about his podcasts. That gave the forum greater depth, and people could spark off at a slight tangent - as I did to discuss the remarkable evidence that random mutation and natural selection can't explain evolution. Something like that also happens here - indeed we have very few interviews as such.

Perhaps we should still value Skeptiko in the sense that it did spawn this forum, and it showed us that politics and science (of any sort) don't play well together.

David

[Ninshub]

I'm not sure whether Michael Larkin was banned or simply gave up.

I've been having a look and I think it's the former, given my reading of what I surmise is his last post there and Alex's response to him:
https://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/r...ost-168028

You look at the list of the long-time members and they're all gone! Except Silence. Appropriately named in this instance (and others!).

Of course Michael is always welcome to contribute here, if he's interested. Great poster.

I've been having a look and I think it's the former, given my reading of what I surmise is his last post there and Alex's response to him:
https://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/r...ost-168028

You look at the list of the long-time members and they're all gone! Except Silence. Appropriately named in this instance (and others!).

Of course Michael is always welcome to contribute here, if he's interested. Great poster.

As I have said before, I don't think Alex has full control over his forum. Rather than ban people he tells them to set up an interview with someone who will obviously not agree, and freezes them until they agree - i.e. we lose the privilege to reply to posts (or start threads etc). Strangely enough, this does not stop us 'liking' posts, which I do occasionally.

I also see the following banner when I connect in recent times:

"Your account is currently awaiting approval by an administrator. You will receive an email when a decision has been taken."

The fact that members appear frozen but not banned

The place has also stalled - the last interview was posted on Jun27 - I guess websites are not immortal

I can contact Michael, and I'll pass on your sentiment.

David

[Ninshub]

The place has also stalled - the last interview was posted on Jun27 - I guess websites are not immortal

And somehow we have a community, that though perhaps not immortal or unchanging, has been able to survive for a good while from website to website.

I'm rather ashamed of myself that I was never banned from Skeptiko but have had a temporary ban from PQ. Still, at least I trod on somebody's toes here, so I have marked that up on my score board for posterity.

I'm rather ashamed of myself that I was never banned from Skeptiko but have had a temporary ban from PQ. Still, at least I trod on somebody's toes here, so I have marked that up on my score board for posterity.

I have always seen you as someone who doesn't know what to believe - and maybe worries too much about it.

David

One thing that Skeptiko should tell us, is that as time passes people may start to age, or even become mentally unstable when dealing with these subjects. I'm not sure how this website could protect itself from that, but that may be because I don't know how exactly this website is controlled at this level - nor do I really want to!

Alex explored some fairly dirty subjects, and I still wonder if he offended someone important.

Maybe those who control this website should at least consider what might happen if one of you lost the plot!

David

One thing that Skeptiko should tell us, is that as time passes people may start to age, or even become mentally unstable when dealing with these subjects. I'm not sure how this website could protect itself from that, but that may be because I don't know how exactly this website is controlled at this level - nor do I really want to!

Alex explored some fairly dirty subjects, and I still wonder if he offended someone important.

Maybe those who control this website should at least consider what might happen if one of you lost the plot!

David

I don't know what's going on with Alex if anything. I can see his point of view on banning me, I replied to his question because I felt he deserved an honest answer, but I can see how just reading it without seeing my attitude and hearing tone of voice could make him think I was trying to provoke a confrontation. But once you're banned there is no way to reply so I never had a chance to explain. I've noticed this phenomenon occurring elsewhere people ask a question and then they get upset because they don't like the answer and some how they see it as the other person instigating something when they asked the question first.

But I don't mind being banned - I never liked the podcast. I was not interested in listening to debates with materialists who know nothing about the paranormal. And the subjects in recent years are not of interest to me. When Alex had an interesting guest materialist or not on I would go to youtube and find a video of them talking about their field of speciialization and I would like that much better than listening to Alex expound on his views or complaining that the materialist doesn't know about a subject outside their area of exertise: the paranormal. I lost a lot of respect for Alex when he started using the rhetorical tactics of the pseudoskeptics - ridicule, ad hominem attacks, etc when he couldn't argue on the facts. And most of what I was posting on the forums there lately was adding to old threads when I saw something relevant on the internet. 

At one time skeptiko was a community that being part of was important to me, but it hasn't been that way for a long time.

But, David, just to add to your list of things that can go wrong with a forum, there is also the phenomenon of the obsessed cult leader becoming paranoid and cracking up. (As I said I don't know what is going on with Alex if anything, I'm not implying this applies to him).

I don't know what's going on with Alex if anything. I can see his point of view on banning me, I replied to his question because I felt he deserved an honest answer, but I can see how just reading it without seeing my attitude and hearing tone of voice could make him think I was trying to provoke a confrontation. But once you're banned there is no way to reply so I never had a chance to explain. I've noticed this phenomenon occurring elsewhere people ask a question and then they get upset because they don't like the answer and some how they see it as the other person instigating something when they asked the question first.

But I don't mind being banned - I never liked the podcast. I was not interested in listening to debates with materialists who know nothing about the paranormal. And the subjects in recent years are not of interest to me. When Alex had an interesting guest materialist or not on I would go to youtube and find a video of them talking about their field of speciialization and I would like that much better than listening to Alex expound on his views or complaining that the materialist doesn't know about a subject outside their area of exertise: the paranormal. I lost a lot of respect for Alex when he started using the rhetorical tactics of the pseudoskeptics - ridicule, ad hominem attacks, etc when he couldn't argue on the facts. And most of what I was posting on the forums there lately was adding to old threads when I saw something relevant on the internet. 

At one time skeptiko was a community that being part of was important to me, but it hasn't been that way for a long time.

But, David, just to add to your list of things that can go wrong with a forum, there is also the phenomenon of the obsessed cult leader becoming paranoid and cracking up. (As I said I don't know what is going on with Alex if anything, I'm not implying this applies to him).

What bugged me was that the question as to whether or not disease causing viruses had been proved to exist was really interesting (though not directly related to psi). The very question seemed to spook him - even in private discussions. We have obviously known each other for many years, and I would have expected him to explain his position in a bit more detail. Several others got banned just by continuing to discuss the subject!

David

I've been having a look and I think it's the former, given my reading of what I surmise is his last post there and Alex's response to him:
https://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/r...ost-168028

You look at the list of the long-time members and they're all gone! Except Silence. Appropriately named in this instance (and others!).

Of course Michael is always welcome to contribute here, if he's interested. Great poster.

Thanks for the compliment!

I was thinking about Skeptiko and thought I'd check here to see if its apparent demise (little posted there in the last few months) was being discussed, and I see it is, although I'm a little bit late to the party.

I was banned for anyone in doubt. I guess my last post was too much for Aex's now-fragile self-image. It's interesting Skeptiko's gone to pot recently -- it was once such a great hangout where one could say all sorts of things without fear of being banned.

I still don't know for certain why Alex banned me -- I was as restrained as I could be in my last post. The guy seems so fanatically for the existence of viruses despite his lack of understanding of biology and the at least plausibility of my position. I have put together a concise summary of my views on the topic (2000 words) if anyone's interested. I haven't posted it here because I never know what's allowed or where to post things. You compliment me, Ninshub, and that is much appreciated, but when I first joined I got a negative reaction and so haven't really felt welcome here right from the beginning, hence I have only posted rarely.