An Apology by Richard Dawkins

[natselrox]

Just to remind ourselves, there are bigger and better things at stake here.

[pensioner]

Without us peasants shouting and screaming we would never of got that apology. What about all the posts that we have lost? What about some of the members of the forum who have disappeared? How about making a statement to the press to say you were wrong when they quoted you. I will not hold my breath.

[jerome]

I have commented to say I accept the apology, but to ask for the restoration of the deleted posts. I can do nothing else: it's a religious duty to me to forgive. Sometimes I really wish I was an atheist...!

j x

Atheists can forgive too.

I know, I know, I'm not scoring points, I'm joking!

[Darkchilde]

I accept the apology by Prof. Dawkins.

I don't know whether I'll contribute to the new discussion area; it seems to me that it will more be like the front page, just extending the writing of articles to various users. I prefer the forum setting, always have; I don't think I've ever even written a comment on the front page anyway.

[jerome]

Exactly Pensioner. Still, as I keep saying, I did not have high expectations of RD, so any thing he does for the reparation is a unexpected and welcome to me!

j x

[Crocodile Gandhi]

I have commented to say I accept the apology, but to ask for the restoration of the deleted posts. I can do nothing else: it's a religious duty to me to forgive. Sometimes I really wish I was an atheist...!

j x

Atheists can forgive too.

Indeed. I even forgave my neighbour for yelling at me after I had eaten her baby.

[Logicel]

Apology accepted.

[MedGen]

Just to remind ourselves, there are bigger and better things at stake here.

But I don't have a soul!

Oh and dropping in Batman quotes - not cool nats.

[virphen]

I have commented to say I accept the apology, but to ask for the restoration of the deleted posts. I can do nothing else: it's a religious duty to me to forgive. Sometimes I really wish I was an atheist...!

j x

I beat you to making the point on the deleted posts, I hope it doesn't get lost in the flood of "yay, we're all friends again" posts (as much as I like that sentiment).

Is living easy a member here? Can I call him a graceless fuckwit of a troll without sanction, or am I about to get a warning, because he is a graceless fuckwit of a troll.

[alienpresence]

It's a good start. I'm more excited about this new option though. I give him credit for taking full responsibility and archiving the old one, but his continued defense of Josh is annoying. I think one more apology is needed and it's not from RD.

He says he'll archive afterall his support base is slipping. He'd promise the moon if he you ask him right now.

[jerome]

I have commented to say I accept the apology, but to ask for the restoration of the deleted posts. I can do nothing else: it's a religious duty to me to forgive. Sometimes I really wish I was an atheist...!

j x

Atheists can forgive too.

Indeed. I even forgave my neighbour for yelling at me after I had eaten her baby.

Did you not offer to share with her? How selfish to eat a whole baby on your own!

j x

[Katherine]

Sometimes I really wish I was an atheist...!

j x

Well, there's still time during this Lenten period to give up God temporarily and see if you like it....

[Peter Harrison]

How about an apology from the site techs for treating everyone like crap and ignoring issues the mods brought up that clearly shouldn't have been ignored?

I'm highly skeptical about the archived forum being searchable. We've asked for 8 months to get search working again and they didn't do it. Here's hoping though.

[natselrox]

Just to remind ourselves, there are bigger and better things at stake here.

But I don't have a soul!

Oh and dropping in Batman quotes - not cool nats.

(Just joshing around!)

[Crocodile Gandhi]

I have commented to say I accept the apology, but to ask for the restoration of the deleted posts. I can do nothing else: it's a religious duty to me to forgive. Sometimes I really wish I was an atheist...!

j x

Atheists can forgive too.

Indeed. I even forgave my neighbour for yelling at me after I had eaten her baby.

Did you not offer to share with her? How selfish to eat a whole bay on your own!

j x

I asked, but she was too busy screaming. Ungrateful slag.

[jerome]

It's nice to see InYourFaceNewYorker reminding us she stood loyally by RD throughout this. Us despicable bastard should view her video and hang our heads in shame!

[obscured by clouds]

'If all the grievances that stand between Elves and Dwarves are to be brought up here, we may as well abandon this Council.'

[Pauline]

Sounds like his new forum will still be approved threads only - relating to reason and science - which is fair enough. His forum bares his name after all - so he decides what goes there.

But I think the community will be totally lost.

For me I prefer a community with free uncensored discussion - be it serious or frivolous. Decided by the community.

Sod the Oasis - We are a forum...

[alienpresence]

The most likely reason RDF archives became unsearchable is that posts were being deleted, have been deleted, to save room or something previously. I hope I'm wrong. Some posts, perhaps quite a number, may have disappeared forever.

[Shaker]

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:

For me I prefer a community with free uncensored discussion - be it serious or frivolous. Decided by the community.