Of Snarks and Dogpiles

Well now Buz, you've been behaving badly on this forum since I've been here which is only a few months but I see that the forum has had the benefit of your attention since 2003. It took the forum I was on less than 48 hours to turf me off - and without warning. I doubt you'll find a more tolerant place on the intertubes than here.Instead of complaining about unfairness, you could consider how sympathetically you have been treated despite what the admin team consider bad behaviour on your part.Perhaps, just perhaps, you may be wrong? Perhaps if you conformed to the few rules we have here, you'd make more progress.

There's a lot I could say, but I'll hold back just so it's seen that I'm not the one blocking productive discussion.Instead I will just ask one simple question. Please, nobody else answer, just leave it to Buz. If only because it is a bit of a deviation from the topic to go into any detail on this. Let's leave it at one question, one answer and further responses after that should at least try to link to the topic.Buz, do you understand why the following assertion of yours should not be accepted as evidence ? If you do, just give the reason, if not just say so. If you can answer correctly, it will be a good first step towards getting your posting privileges restored.

Just in the interest of accuracy I'll address this. Board moderation takes no position on any issue of the creation/evolution debate. What I think Buzsaw is referring to is the administrative action barring him from participation in the science forums because his inability to bring forward evidence causes threads to go off topic. Buz will reply that he has introduced a great deal of evidence and that he is barred from the science forums because he shows up the evolutionists whom the moderators are trying to protect, and I agree that that is indeed his opinion.Buz has been informed of what he must do in order to regain access to the science forums many times. He must participate in a thread on the nature of scientific evidence and come away with an understanding of what it is.

One thing I've started to notice recently is a fairly standard set of responses that crop up in reaction to the creationist talking point de jour. They centre around the theme of 'oh, this old chestnut - we've heard it all before - Hovind was saying this in the 80s! Creationists never learn!' I don't think these responses are that helpful.Sure, I understand that if you've been having these arguments for long enough, you might start to feel a sense of deep fatigue with them. When you see some PRATT that you've already argued against dozens of times in the past, you start to questions what the point of it all is. Most creationists would never listen to you anyway, and they'll only come back with the same PRATT later on; or a new one will, having read it on some site where it's been since the dawn of the internet, immune to all attempt at correction.Whilst this attitude is understandable, if you're feeling like this, then why not spend your time doing something other than debating on an Evolution vs. Creation discussion forum? It's a PRATT to you, but it might not be to Johnny Creationist, the newcomer who just found it as his new devastating argument against evolution. Johnny might benefit from a more patient response and, if not, he's hardly likely to benefit from dismissal and mockery.If you lack the energy to deal with any more creationist nonsense, then stop listening to it. Read something else, or go for a walk, or get pissed, or find a new hobby.

Did it ever cross your mind that maybe, just maybe, you are not really citing evidence but citing opinion instead?I don't know about you, but if I post something in a forum and everyone jumps on it I usually take a step back and figure out what I did wrong. I don't forge ahead thinking I must be right afterall due to the immediate reaction of numerous posters.At times, I wonder if creationists really do live in Bizzaro World where everything is backwards. When people tell them that they are clearly wrong it only indicates that they are right. Even more, facing harsh criticism for posting inane bullshit could only be an indication that there is some essential truth in their post.It's like some crazy person standing on a street corner shouting to the world that the Earth is flat. He knows he is right because of all the people that adamantly disagree with him. Don't be that person, Buzz.

I'm only fully active here for a short while, but I noticed the amount of fresh science topics seems to be dry at times. This does seem to be because most creationists activity I've seen last month are pretty much failed attempts at argumental drive-by shootings, who soon vanish forever. Have most creationists left the forum, is it because of debate fatigue and having covered with most kinds of topics in both the faith and science facets already? Most likely some kind of combination?The archives are still there, but has the more cynical, snarky tone, the ''not this again' sentiments growing stronger, and the lack of long-running creationists quelled the flow of new topics?(Although it always has been a bit slow, Modulous did confirm to that the forum did use to be slighty more active) Most of activity seems to be in the coffee house AKA ''the bar brawl'' forum now.

The creationist Chuck77 has decided to work on a creationist model instead of attacking evolution/atheism. His last few posts have been very constructive. Dogs will be Dogs will be ??? I have high hopes that Chuck77 will return and we can discuss more biology since that is what a lot of us actually like discussing.As far as the snarkiness, there are other discussion forums that are a LOT worse than this one. If you don't believe me, check out Talk Rational sometime (the Life Science forum). It is 90% snark. This sight is much more constructive than many of the fora I have been a part of, which is why I keep coming back here. I also like the fact that we have quite a few real scientists who participate on a regular basis.There will always bee drive-by creationist posters. The best we can do is keep the lurkers in mind and speak to them. They are our real audience.

So Buz, are you going to answer the question ? Message 32