I have been posting of the JREF skeptic site, now International Skeptic site for a while and I have found that on subjects such as math or science there are some real Brainiacs while are somewhat daunting to me in that I’ve never been good at either. I learn a lot. But when it comes to the General
Skepticism and Conspiracy sites it seems like night and day. There is a lot of insults, name calling and a general tone of condescendtion and arrogance. I’m wondering if others have been there and experienced the same or similar.
Also, could I get some recommendations as to more rational skeptics that you might know of?
p.s. I’ve been to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe and like it better because it much more calm and laid back and not the in-your-face agressiveness on the JREF site.
JREF is like that. I’m a skeptic but stopped posting there because the place was (at least at that time) dominated by several posters who were as dogmatic as any fundamentalist, and who had a mindset that said “if you are not part of the JREF groupthink, you must be a feeble minded believer in woo”.
It’s too long ago to recall the precise details but I remember participating in debates in which I was trying to at least debate purveyors of woo fairly and was instantly attacked for “taking their side”.
Well, there is this site that I know of, that has some of the smartest, hippest people on the plane (plus some total dipsticks, admittedly). I (humbly) think it’s a pretty good resource for specific questions needing a rational, informed response; you can also just share random pointless stuff if you must (in the appropriate place). I’m willing to bet anything that you’re aware of it, too…
Yeah, I’ve always been a bit puzzled by threads here asking for good message boards (and such threads are fairly common): If we knew of any better message boards, wouldn’t we all be over there instead?
If you define that as “having agreeable forums in which to post without yammering and contentious debate”, then the number goes down drastically. But this is true for the great majority of forums/comment sections on other websites dealing with news, woo, sports etc.
*Science-Based Medicine, CSICOP and Respectful Insolence are examples.
We subscribed to the Skeptical Inquirer for a few years, but lost interest after a while. So much of it seemed repetitious. As this site says, the fight is taking longer than expected.
Some (a LOT of) folk simply have limited interest in rationalism. Once you acknowledge that, what is there to do?
The Dope is a fantastic general purpose message board, where you can discuss (almost) anything. There are thousands of different subjects discussed here. But for any given subject, it’s low traffic. For any *particular *subject there are boards where you can get a more detailed discussion.
As an example, I like the TV show Doctor Who. There are sometimes threads about the show here, which I read and sometimes post in. But there’s also a Doctor Who message board to which I’m a subscriber. I wouldn’t say the Doctor Who forum is better than the Dope, but if I have a technical question about the making of special effects in the show, that is the place to ask.
I don’t see anything wrong or illogical about asking us to recommend a forum on a specialised subject.
The Skeptical Inquirer/Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is the first thing that sprang to my mind. I’ve never been a subscriber, but I’ve been aware of them for a long time, and they’ve had some “big names” associated with them.
The SI’s Wikipedia article has a “see also” section that might give you some other ideas. There’s something listed there called “The Straight Dope” that looks intriguing.
I like how this thread instantly proceeded to serve up an example of just the sort of thing that is so aggravating about the discourse on (many of the) self-appointed ‘rationalist’ places on the web…