Purpose of this new forum

Hi everyone.

I'm not sure what the big dustup at Skeptiko was, but for me, I hope this forum doesn't go down the Pizzagate rabbit hole. I am *so very much not interested* in that kind of bad nonsense, and if that's going to be a new regular discussion topic here, I will be out the door *so fast* you won't see the soles of my shoes.

Regards, Nate

I second that Nate. 

I have a feeling that since that sentiment was one of the drivers behind the creation of this site, you won't see that happen here. We'll see.

Hi Nate,

Why you would leave? You would not have to read any thread you are not interested in, but your threats to leave might end up preventing people like me, who are interested, from having that discussion here. 

Why are you trying to impose your tastes on other people?

I think that's over-egging the pudding Jim.

The Skeptiko forum lost many members over a period of time, and of course new members joined. Those things are not threats, just practicalities. People join or leave a forum based upon its main sphere of activity. If the busiest threads are politics/conspiracy theory it doesn't take a genius to see how that affects members willingness to join or leave.

Here we have an opportunity for a fresh start, a chance to  shift the emphasis. Let's not throw away that chance.

"Over egging the pudding"... Love that phrase! That earned a LIKE from me. 

My two cents is: I'll definitely be avoiding the CT and politics threads as I have negative interest in such discussion here,, and as long as that kind of topic doesn't pervade the whole place, I don't care much...

Just for the record, in case anyone is keeping score (as we probably should be doing in order to figure out our focus) , I am interested in "continuity of consciousness" and associated psi topics. And am especially interested in veridical proof of such.

When we have a few more members, how about building a poll that we especially encourage new members to take, that captures what they are interested in? Not to say the site needs to take on all the subjects that new members want, but at least collecting some info might be helpful. You know the old saw about process improvement: "if you don't measure it, you can't improve it". I assume the site infrastructure supports this. Most do.

I would also suggest that an intro of sorts be offered and specifically mentioned to new members (some sites refer to this as a "sticky note") that explains what the overall point of the site is and isn't. Maybe that already exists,,, I'll check.

Reading this thread I see there is a line which is drawn for various individuals, unfortunately that line is in different places for all of us.

I _tend_to go with Jim Smith here, as my own thinking is that you can't divide spirituality from politics and other things we might not be keen on hearing. I agree that the main focus should be on the PSI related stuff, nde, reincarnation etc, but to limit it to that type of topic wouldn't work imo.