How did you find the lifeboat?

[econ41]

[quote="Ironclad";p="2176602"]Hi econ41, good to see you again [/quote]
Greetings.

I made a big mistake - presumed that my brother could find his way using forum software.

I will need to run a training session - and face to face - which will take some organising.

Meanwhile he has my hard copies of Blind Watchmaker, Greatest Show, Ancestors Tale and several other non RD books.

...and I've ordered him a copy of Selfish Gene - mine out on loan to cannot remember who.

[Silber5]

I found a link from scienceforums.net . This forum's mission sounds similar to my philosphy of life I developed:

Everything can be explained, at least in principle! (Very very little exceptions. Or possibly even none at all, by using a coherentism epistemology, though I wouldn't want to restrict myself to coherentism.)

I reject materialism, but I also, for myself, consider anything mystic, revelations and so called holy scriptures as irrelevant.

[redwhine]

Wilkommen!

[Sloth on Wheels]

Google: "skeptics forum", IIRC.

[jeperry]

[quote="Mac_Guffin";p="76157"]I know that most of us are from RDF, rationalia, etc., but I'm also interested to see if anyone found us through different means.

I'm one of the refugees from RDF. [/quote]

Good day! Feel free to replace "Good" with something you feel more comfortable with.
I'm not quite sure how I found Rational Skepticism but seeing the name somewhere attracted my attention. Being usually rational and constantly skeptical joining you seem like the to do.

[RNeto]

"Googling" about alternatives to my progressively boring national forum.

[Dissenter]

Former RDF member but stopped posting for a few years then decided to get back into it. Good to see so many people here from the old forum.

[Klem]

"other" My friends decided to play golf and I was so bored!! I started surfing the Internet and the WEB brought me here.

[eliech]

I found it through this site: http://infidels.org/library/modern/john ... ity.html#4

So happy I did.

[Peavey]

I was trying to find the old InternetInfidels forum, which I hadn't seen since...2008/2009? Infidels.org had a list of discussion forums to try, and this one seemed like the most promising lead.

[Ironclad]

I've never been to infidels.

[bogdan9310]

I googled skeptic forum.

[Hermit]

A forum as a lifeboat? In a very much metaphorical sense, I suppose, it's conceivable. If so, Ratskep is not my lifeboat, though. I jumped from RDF a year before this forum got started. The telltale sign that RDF was about to sink was the chopping off of that forum's 'Feral Offtopic' section. Dawkins must have finally realised that if he were ever to get a knighthood he couldn't be seen to be the patron of a website that allowed discussions of topics such as what semen tastes like.

It was at that point that Pappa and Charlou got together and started Rationalia as its replacement. I found out early about it because I lived with Charlou at the time. I joined on the first day.

Ratskep disappointed me somewhat. Not that this should have surprised me. The fact that its rules were a copypasta job of the entire RDF rules was a broad enough hint that its founder, and presumably the members of RDF who had stuck it out over there to the bitter end had no objection at all to the puritan, buttoned up set up of the moribund forum, nor how the prefects with swagger sticks had run it. After about 400 desultory posts I gave up and left it for a few years. The rules have not changed a lot, but nobody seems to care about enforcing them to the letter, at least not continuously. Things seem a little more relaxed because of it, so here I am again.

[Cito di Pense]

[quote="Hermit";p="2679227"]The telltale sign that RDF was about to sink was the chopping off of that forum's 'Feral Offtopic' section. Dawkins must have finally realised that if he were ever to get a knighthood he couldn't be seen to be the patron of a website that allowed discussions of topics such as what semen tastes like.[/quote]

This is actually a question I'd be eager to explore, being always interested in conspiracy theories and their proponents.

[quote="Hermit";p="2679227"]It was at that point that Pappa and Charlou got together and started Rationalia as its replacement.[/quote]

Yeah, a place with no rules (to speak of). You know, like where conspiracy theories are praised. Nothing off the menu. That's a rule, isn't it?

[Hermit]

[quote="Cito di Pense";p="2679228"][quote="Hermit";p="2679227"]The telltale sign that RDF was about to sink was the chopping off of that forum's 'Feral Offtopic' section. Dawkins must have finally realised that if he were ever to get a knighthood he couldn't be seen to be the patron of a website that allowed discussions of topics such as what semen tastes like.[/quote]
This is actually a question I'd be eager to explore, being always interested in conspiracy theories and their proponents.

[quote="Hermit";p="2679227"]It was at that point that Pappa and Charlou got together and started Rationalia as its replacement.[/quote]
Yeah, a place with no rules (to speak of). You know, like where conspiracy theories are praised. Nothing off the menu. That's a rule, isn't it?[/quote]
Conspiracy? Please familiarise yourself with the meaning of the word. This is a good place for it. Come back to me once you have sorted yourself out on that.

As for Rationalia, with one exception it has pretty much the same set of rules as Rational Skepticism. It's just much less verbose. The exception is that it lacks the puritan restrictions present in this forum. Its chief purpose is after all to replace the 'Feral Offtopic' section that was amputated at RDF.

Conspiracy theorists are tolerated as long as they abide by the 'play nice' rule. We have a few members that are batshit crazy. Galaxian, Dennis Markuse, Seth Richardson and the member from Yellowknife, who write remarkably weird posts come to mind, but the forum is not an environment of which it can be said that conspiracy theories being praised.