Posted: Feb 28, 2010 8:50 pm
Our old forum contained many excellent discussions on reason and science and related topics, and we certainly don’t want to lose the facility for those. However, it also contained some threads that were potentially harmful to the website’s (and therefore the Foundation’s) reputation. Our goal is to retain the valuable aspects of the old forum, the parts that actively promote the causes for which the website was set up; whilst losing those parts that do not.
This is essentially what led to the Great Purge of '08, and I still find it depressing - patronising and puritanical, and with an eye not on a community of friends but reputation. Sure, there's no problem with a site having an overall ethos and specific goals, but surely to goodness it doesn't have to revolve around that every single second of every single day, without a separate corner for people to chat in about whatever nonsense they like?
If you don't want that sort of thing, I'd suggest you don't have a 'General discussion' or an 'Off-topic' section and then act like a petulant child when people take those titles at face value and discuss generally and chat about off topic things. It rankled then and it rankles now.
Pauline nailed it:
Pauline wrote:For me I prefer a community with free uncensored discussion - be it serious or frivolous. Decided by the community.