The Skeptiko forum and us

[Ninshub]

Anyway, point is, I think this place is great, am grateful to those who make it happen, and would be very sad to see it dwindle or close.

I feel pretty certain in saying it won't close. Part of my motivation for having the idea to start a place like this, beyond the points already brought up both about the "adversity" and also a lot of what Chris has just mentioned, not liking the fact that our community and forum existence was dependent on the whim of one podcast owner. Alex may one day decide to stop his podcast and shut down the forum, or just the latter, and I didn't like feeling at the mercy of that. The "adversity", besides being distasteful for what it was, was also a reminder of that.

I get the united community notion, but I think its not worth the risk to consolidate under Alex's "banner" so to speak.  The risk of him going rogue and destroying the community is just too real.  After all it was those actions of his that led to this forum.

Add in another vote for Gabriel to join us here.  I'm a big fan of his contributions.

I also still have an enormous problem with the way Skeptiko moderates skeptics and Alex's apparent disdain, or in the least apathy, towards substantive discussion between proponents and skeptics.

I said it at the time that Skeptiko was crashing and burning, but for me a forum that does not permit (or discourages) discourse between members of two opposing sides is not a forum worth being a part of. No matter whatever issues I might have with certain posters, and no matter what disagreements there are, I would take a forum with Paul, Linda, steve, Bart, malf, Arouet, etc over one that does not 100 times out of 100.

As far as I can tell from Skeptiko, it appears to me that at the very least PQ's environment with regards to discussions between opposing sides is far more vibrant than anything going on at Skeptiko. I think that alone provides immeasurable value.

I prefer psiquest because it's a pure forum that focuses more on actual scientific topics rather than the latest interview. Sometimes I wish I could post here more than I do but I just can't. I do my best to ignore the debates over things like evolution and whatnot as I see them as totally pointless, generally focusing more on trying to generate more information of my own. Sometimes I wish more people did that, posting more of their own experiences, experiments, etc. The debates over what is and isn't real are so pointless, focus more on creating what you want out of what you have. That's my philosophy.

I pretty much check out psience quest every other day, and skeptiko. I'm glad both forms exist, but I prefer it here, as the spirit (heh..) and intent towards civil and good-willed discussion is more apparent. I did notice that it's been a bit quieter around these parts lately, also on skeptiko too.  Basically, pretty happy to see these forums continue as I greatly enjoy the interaction between skeptics and proponents; it's fascinating to see humans interact with each other, eh?! 

I don't post much myself, as I don't really have anything to add, unless it's more of a personal experience, or when I go through a 'spirit phase', when I'm more open to psychic experience than usual, which does happen from time to time. But I'm all grown up now, and studying science/engineering at the minute; interestingly, I have had less of these psychic experiences since doing that...

Anyway, kudos to the Admins that keep this forum running! It's a source of comfort to log in here and speak/observe with like-minded folks, even if sometimes I do not agree at all with them! 

Love it here. Wish I had more time to contribute but real life is pretty intense as is. Feel like there's a real opportunity for growth of alternative ideas.

It seems threads will arise that catch on fire for a bit, and once it dies down, things are quieter for a bit. Maybe there is a way to harness that energy?

Side note from my old forum days: if you want to make a forum feel more alive, you can consolidate some of the boards, and trade a bit of topic organization for liveliness. Something about a forum with half of the message boards feeling dead can drag down the feel.

Either way, keep on keepin' on.

[Ninshub]

Thanks for the feedback about consolidating the sub-forums. Something to think about!

I haven't been posting for months, but that is related to work and not Skeptiko's decaying corpse. Just peeked the "old stomping grounds" and it seems that there are less conspiracy/religion topics in the podcast section.  Good for them, but...

If I'm compelled to contact Alex by email, it will only be to offer a few choice words... Never to apologize for commenting on something that was obvious. So, if this forum goes down, that is the end of my incursion on these waters.

Haven't posted in many many months....well, once the other day. Come by for a look every once in a while and wanting to engage but when I see a lot of threads sitting weeks with no activity, its like why bother, I can tell no ones gonna reply.

Maybe let others know this place exists by spreading the word in other forums where people also share knowledge in a similar disciplined way as in this one. This place shouldn't necessarily rely on a relatively small skeptiko user base. It'll starve to death. lol

I don't post 'over there' myself.

Haven't posted in many many months....well, once the other day. Come by for a look every once in a while and wanting to engage but when I see a lot of threads sitting weeks with no activity, its like why bother, I can tell no ones gonna reply.

Activity does seem to vary quite a lot from day to day. There was a time a week or two ago when it was difficult to keep up with all the stuff that was being posted.