Re: OT Any reason why Dawkins is Block posted.

Cyde Weys wrote:
> r norman wrote:
> > On 2 Dec 2005 15:03:57 -0800, "Cyde Weys" <cydeweys@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >r norman wrote:
> > >
> > >> I believe there was some discussion about blocking Dawkins for
> > >> deceitful posting behavior -- name shifting and so on. Whether or not
> > >> that is in accord with the charter and even granted that I was
> > >> formerly totally in agreement with such blocking, I now realize that
> > >> it would be an error. One of the purposes of talk.origins is to serve
> > >> as an outlet for all the kooks and crazies and garbage that would
> > >> otherwise pollute the real sci news groups. Since we drove Dawkins
> > >> away from here, whether by moderator action or not, he has started on
> > >> those other groups. Sad to say, that crap belongs here, not there,
> > >> like it or not.
> > >
> > >I disagree. We should keep this crap out of ALL of the newsgroups, not
> > >try to redirect it all to talk.origins. Besides, talk.origins is the
> > >only "scientific" newsgroup I read (I don't read any sci.*) and I find
> > >it kind of offensive that you want to use talk.origins as a dumping
> > >ground to protect the "elite" sci.* newsgroups whilst not caring one
> > >whit about the inhabitants of talk.origins.
> >
> > I am very mixed about this notion. I read in a history of Usenet
> > about the "Great Renaming" of newsgroups in 1987: "One of the purposes
> > of the renaming was to confine controversial newsgroups to the "talk."
> > hierarchy, where they could be easily identified for censoring by
> > individual sites if they wished."
> > http://www.livinginternet.com/u/ui_modern.htm
>
> Sorry if I don't seem to care much about what the purpose of
> talk.origins was when I was TWO, things change over time, and I don't
> think nowadays its only purpose is to keep the kooks out of the "real"
> sci.* groups.

Likewise modern America bears no relationship to its Constitution...

David Greig's Moderation FAQ directs to
http://www.ediacara.org/~to/charter.html that says "The newsgroup
talk.origins is meant as a venue for discussion of the scientific,
religious, and political issues pertaining to various theories of the
origins and development of life and the universe. Within such basic
guidelines, wide-ranging discussions over a large number of topics are
covered, all relating back to the main purpose of the group." And
occasionally meeting for drinks.

DIG does not say that this allows members of sci.* to tell visiting
origin-kooks to hie themselves to talk.origins, but clearly it does,
and after all, talk.origins was purposefully created to meet a
perceived need - apparently a need for a place for discussion of
"various theories of origins". How would such a need be evident?

Now I think we failed to control "Richard Dawkins" latterly because,
unlike most science-heretics who come here, he or she didn't come to
try to get their own views taken seriously, which we do offer; we
didn't see their views - we saw copies of various Web pages that they'd
seen with articles in favour of creation (I don't recall if "Richard"
included Intelligent Design). Then those of us who replied were called
God-haters and fake atheists. "Richard" wasn't here for intellectual
engagement.

Has he in fact been banned in t.o for identity theft, and was the
accusation of multiple identity use accurate? It appeared that a few
people did actually believe that it was the real Richard Dawkins, which
he surely wasn't.

.

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