The Skeptiko post-trauma thread

He did a similar thing on the podcast this week. One of his guests gave an accurate summing up of AWARE, only for Alex to shout him down and ramble on about Parnia's personal musings and then Van Lommel's. How can you have a serious discussion with someone like that? He makes it impossible to come to any conclusion that's different to his own.

He is still discussing NDEs? A bit hypocritical after forgetting about the love/acceptance and basically telling anyone that disagreed with his decision to shove it. I think that there is something to Max's "charm attack" comment and this is just another facet of it.

PS- And of course, leave it to our feline friend to push NDEs into a conversation about aliens.

The problem is... That it's not over yet. We are still receiving people that we knew at Skeptiko and who are being banned. The attitude adopted by David here doesn't help either.

Isn't it the same old story though. If you don't like threads about Skeptiko then why would you even look at them? Maybe some people do want to bitch and kvetch.

Why not just ignore those couple of threads. The vast majority of threads here are about other subjects.

Let's tell that fairly.

Actually, you had taken to being extremely rude to me on a series of occasions, knowing (or suspecting) that I would not intervene on my own account. Alex saw what you were writing, and asked you to contact him before resuming posting - which you decided not to do so. One brief discussion was all you needed to return (I guess you still can if you want).

I don't get paid to moderate the forum, I do it because I very much appreciate what that forum is about, but neither did I enjoy being regularly criticised in public for the actions I took. What few people realised, was that I spent quite some time emailing certain users, trying to get them to moderate their behaviour - you only saw the end result. I pointed out on several occasions that anyone was free to PM me about anything they were unhappy about. You did not do so.

My aim is to help SKEPTIKO get back on its feet again.

David

David, this post just about says it all (for me anyway) about you and your strange ideas about moderation and your "divine" right to practice it.

" I don't get paid to moderate the forum, I do it because I very much appreciate what that forum is about"

And we don't ? But you think your interpretation of what Skeptiko was about should trump (No pun intended) everyone else's ?  I believe most of the posters on Skeptiko appreciated what the forum was about, at least until you decided to offer your "services"  (which Alex supported of course).  It was a very unique place of discussion, it had a few problems (so what) but it was by and large pretty neat, it did have something of a "community" feel about it and it also had a relaxed atmosphere (mostly) and a sense of humour. You got rid of that, David.  

I first began to suspect there was something strange going on when you started sending me PM's telling me to tone down my posts. Tone what down ?? I'd already done that months ago but I thought maybe it was just a glitch, maybe the power had gone to your head so at first I put up with it. Then for some bizarre reason you started calling me childish or insinuating my behaviour was childish while at the same time lauding the contribution of other posters such As Small Dog (the fake anaesthetist)  

I'm married with two grown sons, nearly sixty years old and 'Uncle Dave' is giving me advice on how to behave myself LOL .... on a parapsychology forum (or it was).  I found that quite amusing, the irony is, it was lost on you, I even correctly guessed (because your behaviour was such a nailed on caricature of one) that you'd been a school prefect (probably a very effective one..if you like that kind of thing) ...and you were quite proud of that ! It was then that I finally got it. That's probably your 'psychological type,'  school prefect, or Captain Mainwaring...at least that's how you come across to me. The problem is, successful forum's don't thrive on orders and coercion. Not the last time I looked anyway. Best of luck with it.   

As regards Alex, I don't know what's happened there but he still has my best wishes for the things he's done in the past (the pre-Dave era)

Isn't it the same old story though. If you don't like threads about Skeptiko then why would you even look at them? Maybe some people do want to bitch and kvetch.

Chuck, I've been trying to play a constructive role here (as I did on your forum). That included trying to publicise the forum, but at the moment if new people come here the first thing they'll see is a thread with 55 posts entitled "Disgusted with behaviour of some members of this forum". Ironically, that was the result of someone "bitching and kvetching" about Skeptiko, I believe.

As it happens, I pretty much agree with your views about moderation. My own preference is for people to post what they like, with minimal interference. All I did was suggest people should show a bit of self-restraint, so that more contributors like K9! wouldn't feel alienated. Whether they do that is, of course, entirely up to them. I'm sorry if my opinion irritated you.

Mabye we should have a poll to let people vote on whether we should talk about skeptiko or not?

I give up.

The problem is... That it's not over yet. We are still receiving people that we knew at Skeptiko and who are being banned. The attitude adopted by David here doesn't help either.

Hear, hear ! (I agree)

I give up.

No. I get it. No one wants to see a whole bunch of people bitching and moaning about their unfair treatment. But i think a certain amount of settling is going to occur. We are all different. Some people are really well adjusted and couldn't care less and just want to move forward. Other people need to lick their wounds a little bit. And some people just like gossip and pot-stirring. 

I guess we have to ask how much moderation is going to play a role in these kind of micro-focusing issues. 

Personally I think in a week or two the skeptiko posts will be long forgotten. I would imagine that if a particularly interesting podcast comes up we may talk about it and then the criticisms may start again when some people over there act like idiots.

I don't want to create any animosity here, but I do want to speak my opinion without feeling like I'm constantly rubbing people the wrong way or ruffling feathers.