How to damage believer forums and websites without breaking the law

[geni]

You didn't think I was serious did you?

edited to add: I will admit though after the how not to be banned thread i was tempted.

[c4ts]

Don't worry, you're already the scourge of HealthyPages. They'll take you seriously whenever it suits them.

[LotusMegami]

I for one, fulling intend to assimilate into the sub-culture and try to truly understand. While posing as a kitsune. I love kitsune.

[geni]

Originally posted by c4ts
Don't worry, you're already the scourge of HealthyPages. They'll take you seriously whenever it suits them.

Normaly forums don't start dislikeing me until I post on them.

[c4ts]

They're a little presumptuous, I'll give you that. They also started a thread about your thread on how to post on believer forums assuming it was serious.

[Soapy Sam]

There is a very large culture and assumption gap between there and here. Irony and sarcasm simply have no place there. Doubt has none. Here , these are practically holy icons.

Nothing will be gained by tormenting the users of HP. That is simply boorish. Something may be learned by studying them.

I am already surprised by the parallels. Their views of sceptics , especially "hard line" sceptics, perfectly reflect the view of non sceptics expressed by many people here. Only the viewpoint differs.

There appears little desire to proselytise there. Far less than here, where some people clearly feel driven to spread the word.

I note a preponderance of British addresses in the paranormal section there. I am unsure if HP is so international as JREF. I also wonder about age and gender distributions. (An old hobbyhorse of mine re internet boards.)

I suggest to anyone browsing there: See this as an anthropology exercise. Decide for yourself what is good and bad in that culture, and why. What are it's strengths and uses? There may be things to learn.

[BPScooter]

Wow. I'm not kidding, really, I only came here because of my general nature. I don't really have time to read the rest of the wacky Internet.

When I was a kid I loved the math and chess puzzles and such. Mathematical Games, Goedel Escher Bach, that sort of thing. I have been sometimes overwhelmed but always intrigued by the sorts of things that appear on this particular James Randi Educational Foundation board.

The only other place I have a "screen name" is the Grateful Dead's board. They (particularly Hunter and Barlow, in my opinion) were very early on realizing the importance of a bulletin board, I've checked them out lately on occasion but, golly, who knows where to start when away for a while.

I have a hard time guessing USA v. UK except for the colour of your spelling. I tend to spell it "color." Male v. female is hard for me to tell. I'll go ahead and admit I am male. I have no idea if Ashles or Dr. Adequate are male or female, it didn't really occur to me to ask. So I'll guess>>> Dr. Adequate is male, but I won't guess whether he is currently occupying his original corporal body. He may have an ancient soul, resting for a while (my guess would be Christina of Sweden, the lady that hired Descartes).

[Soapy Sam]

There are odd similarities, and also unexpected differences. One of the latter is that more people- in particular more women- seem willing to openly state gender and age in their profile at HP than here. I wonder if this is genuine openness or simply less fear (justified or not) of hacking / phishing.

The ratio of female to male posters there seems much higher, though the actual ratio here is an open question.

I aslo observe that while many participants in the psychic / paranormal area appear to make a living of some sort from their beliefs. I don't know any exact parallel to that here- does Claus make money from his skeptic forum maybe? I can't think of anyone else even remotely likely- though obviously, for many folk the sceptical mindset will be important in their work.

[geni]

Originally posted by Soapy Sam
[B]There are odd similarities, and also unexpected differences. One of the latter is that more people- in particular more women- seem willing to openly state gender and age in their profile at HP than here. I wonder if this is genuine openness or simply less fear (justified or not) of hacking / phishing.


It is depressing that a higher percentage of belivers tend to be female


The ratio of female to male posters there seems much higher, though the actual ratio here is an open question.


This board is full of science geeks. Howwver it does appear that the ratio is very slowly starting to drift towards 50:50


I aslo observe that while many participants in the psychic / paranormal area appear to make a living of some sort from their beliefs. I don't know any exact parallel to that here- does Claus make money from his skeptic forum maybe? I can't think of anyone else even remotely likely- though obviously, for many folk the sceptical mindset will be important in their work.

Bad astronomer whould probably be the best example on our forum. there are not very many money making opotunites in directly applied sceptisms. There are loads in varius forms of paranormal and alt med.

[Dr Adequate]

Originally posted by BPScooter
I have no idea if Ashles or Dr. Adequate are male or female, it didn't really occur to me to ask. So I'll guess>>> Dr. Adequate is male, but I won't guess whether he is currently occupying his original corporal body. He may have an ancient soul, resting for a while (my guess would be Christina of Sweden, the lady that hired Descartes).
Descartes was a woowoo. I wouldn't have given him the time of day, let alone a job.

[Ashles]

Dr Adequate doesn't believe in the paranormal and he didn't in his past lives either.

But it's so typical of Aquarians to be sceptical.

[Soapy Sam]

"Bad astronomer whould probably be the best example on our forum. there are not very many money making opotunites in directly applied sceptisms. There are loads in varius forms of paranormal and alt med".-Geni

Exactly. The two situations are asymmetrical.

I was looking at an HP thread on global warming- They are actually rather sceptical about the assumption that it's all human caused, which is broadly my own view. Interestingly, the leading light in that thread, songstress, has a background in geology and has the same sort of deeptime view I do.

I'm amazed by the restraint everyone displays. Discussions are frequently a chain of apparent agreements between people who must be suppressing their true views to some extent, because they clearly differ on assumptions. (Is this the five minute agreement, or the full half hour?) The heavy moderation gives me a strange sensation, reminiscent of what I felt long ago in Soviet states, where in public everyone toed the Party line and you only heard what they really thought after two bottles of vodka.

The sniping between Ashles and Dr.A, above which I find pretty funny, would be a major disruption by HP standards. I suspect the openness here lets us get a better idea of what people are really like and to "correct" for their more extreme characteristics.
HP , in silencing dissent, lose much. The threads acquire a disturbing sameness.

There is one thread where a guy from Glasgow is censured by mods for being scathing about Daily Mail readers. This would pass unnoticed here. Also, virtually the whole site seems to be British, which is unusual. Still, I only have JREF for comparison, so I'm probably naive to be surprised. I need to get out more.

[Dr Adequate]

Originally posted by Ashles
Dr Adequate doesn't believe in the paranormal and he didn't in his past lives either.

But it's so typical of Aquarians to be sceptical.
Bad cold reading. I'm an Aries and you lose a Psi Point.

Oh, and another thing --- your sig. You are obviously ignorant of elevator technology. The modern Irritatomatic Personal Elevator, by a cunning system of counterweights, is driven solely by the kinetic energy of the impatient button-pushing of the users. Pushing the button repeatedly will make the lift come faster, and to say otherwise is defeatist claptrap.

[Interesting Ian]

Originally posted by BPScooter
[B]Wow. I'm not kidding, really, I only came here because of my general nature. I don't really have time to read the rest of the wacky Internet.

When I was a kid I loved the math and chess puzzles and such. Mathematical Games, Goedel Escher Bach, that sort of thing. I have been sometimes overwhelmed but always intrigued by the sorts of things that appear on this particular James Randi Educational Foundation board.

The only other place I have a "screen name" is the Grateful Dead's board. They (particularly Hunter and Barlow, in my opinion) were very early on realizing the importance of a bulletin board, I've checked them out lately on occasion but, golly, who knows where to start when away for a while.

I have a hard time guessing USA v. UK except for the colour of your spelling. I tend to spell it "color." Male v. female is hard for me to tell. I'll go ahead and admit I am male. I have no idea if Ashles or Dr. Adequate are male or female, it didn't really occur to me to ask.


It is very clear they are both male. You scarcely get any females wishing to argue about such things. Clancie was an exception.

[Interesting Ian]

Originally posted by Dr Adequate
Descartes was a woowoo. I wouldn't have given him the time of day, let alone a job.

He was a genius.

[Interesting Ian]

Originally posted by Soapy Sam

There is one thread where a guy from Glasgow is censured by mods for being scathing about Daily Mail readers. [/B]

Yeah morons . . and as for Sun readers . . . LOL Hell, what sort of person reads the Sun??

I've finally decided that reading newspapers is a waste of times. Since first moving out from my parents, every week I've been getting the Sunday Times without fail for 12 years. A few months ago I simply stopped buying it. Why? Because I've grown out of it.

I'm only interested in philosophy.

[Ashles]

I'm an Aries and you lose a Psi Point.
If I was cold reading I would now ask you when your actual birthdate and time of birth are then confidently announce that you have Aquarius rising, that Aries shares many aspects of Aquaries, talk some some crap about specific planets and where they are now (I may even throw in some stuff about gemstones), mention that as we are in the Age of Aquarius there are some crossovers with certain other signs, Aries being the primary one of those.

Then you'd be forced to agree that I was right all along.

Miss? No such thing.


I have no idea if Ashles or Dr. Adequate are male or female, it didn't really occur to me to ask.
I'm not quite sure why we in particular have been chosen to have our genders under scrutiny, but it's always nice to have complete strangers all around the globe thinking about my private parts.
Makes me feel... tingly.

[bluess]

Originally posted by Ashles
SNIP ...
I'm not quite sure why we in particular have been chosen to have our genders under scrutiny, but it's always nice to have complete strangers all around the globe thinking about my private parts.
Makes me feel... tingly.

Now THERE'S a racket we should all get into - lap dances via Psi. How could the courts prosecute? And talk about safe sex. Well, unless you could Psi your germs over. Wait, this might be a problem.

And do remote viewers feel ethically obligated to pay those folks who sell webcam subscriptions to watch them 24/7?



This silliness brought to you by the end of the work day.

[Vorticity]

Originally posted by Interesting Ian
Originally posted by Dr Adequate
Descartes was a woowoo. I wouldn't have given him the time of day, let alone a job.
He was a genius.
The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive:

Johann Kepler
Isaac Newton
Brian Josephson
Fred Hoyle
Stephen Wolfram

etc, etc...