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Why I ruthlessly edit comments on this blog

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Here’s an email from someone I banned from this blog. If you can’t see why I’ve lost all patience with people like this, then you need to be spending your time elsewhere in cyberspace.

William,

Is there the slightest possibility you might ‘open’ your ID forum to dissenting views?

You have some very dedicated apostles stroking your online ego, and insulating these young scientists from the ‘Borg’ is very Christian of you indeed; however, to many of us on the ‘outside’ your questionable editing practices suggest little more than self-aggrandizing censorship.

You are a curiosity, your theory a religious oddity, and your ‘designer’ is wearing your hat.

Respectfully,

[snip]

As for this blog’s commenting policies, go here and here.

Comments
"In either case it’s millions of people dying for no reason. In either case a tragedy. Your comments make light of the suffering of those in Africa." Everyone dies. Get used to it. The Holocaust was a man-made purposeful attempt to slaughter a group of many millions of people based upon a perceived inferiority. AIDs is a terminal disease brought on by a naturally occuring virus. Moreover it's an an almost wholly avoidable disease if one makes a reasonable effort to curb hedonistic desires. Don't take life so seriously, Cambion. You'll never get out of it alive.DaveScot
December 5, 2005
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DaveScot, "The Holcaust was people purposely killing people. AIDS is a disease. There’s no comparison." In either case it's millions of people dying for no reason. In either case a tragedy. Your comments make light of the suffering of those in Africa.cambion
December 4, 2005
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gump I've had comments never appear after submitting too. It's probably because it contains spam keywords. I'm not sure how many levels of user moderation exist. Clearly some registered user comments are sent to a moderation bin where Bill has to give a thumbs up/down on each. That makes the theads get a little weird as the later-approved comments appear at the position (numbered) where they would have been if they'd posted immediately after submission. One question that keeps popping up from time to time is whether Bill has something running that allows authors of comments subjected to moderation to see their own comments while no one else can. People think it's some insidious thing that only Bill does so that people who've posted critical comments never see any response to them and thus it looks like their opinion has been ignored by everyone. Wordpress does have a similar feature for article authors but I'm not sure about comment authors.DaveScot
December 4, 2005
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No Cambion, you don't get to play the Holcaust card. The Holcaust was people purposely killing people. AIDS is a disease. There's no comparison. Buy a clue.DaveScot
December 4, 2005
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Agreed. Find a source for insults somewhere else...or perhaps it would be better to spend the time picking apart anything you object to on his blog.Gumpngreen
December 3, 2005
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Millions of people are dying. It's no laughing matter. I don't care much about whether ad hominem attacks are used, but it does make me angry when they are based on such a huge tragedy. It's like finding out someone is Jewish and then making an ad hominem attack based on the Holocaust.cambion
December 3, 2005
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Cambion I hope you're disgusted because Africa has a double digit HIV/AIDS rate and not because I had the audacity to allude to it.DaveScot
December 3, 2005
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gnuosphere, are you positive it's a case of your posts be edited/removed? The website itself seems to be a bit buggy. Over the last couple months I've seen several other ID proponents complain about posts with legitimate content disappearing for apparently no reason. I've personally had lengthy posts disappear as soon as I hit "Submit Comment".Gumpngreen
December 3, 2005
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DaveScot, I can't believe you just wrote that. I'm truly disgusted.cambion
December 2, 2005
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gnuosphere by Peter Rock Lacroix Location:Africa Clearly a case of http://tinyurl.com/aojmaDaveScot
December 2, 2005
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Dear Bill, You have censored me 5 times. Shall we make it a half-dozen? I am neither for or against you. Is this what frightens you the most? That you can't peg me as a materialistic atheist? What if the designer is the designed? That would be bad news for traditional christianity, no? It would radically redefine what it means to be christian, no? In truth, I would love to dialog with you...but you seem intent on shutting me out. Your choice. Until then... http://gnuosphere.blogspot.com/2005/11/is-designer-designed.htmlgnuosphere
December 2, 2005
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hlwarren If petulant stomping of your feet doesn't do the trick you might want to escalate to a threat to hold your breath until you turn blue. :-)DaveScot
December 2, 2005
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Dan- Thanks, and no I don't wrestle. There must be something I missed in my neck of the woods. :)Josh Bozeman
December 1, 2005
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Furthermore... i found puckSR to be quite productive to debate on this blog, as he provided an opposing argument. I will say that i didnt always agree with what he said, but that is beside the point. Without an opposing argument, the discussion on this site would be quite boring and it is a disservice to this site to ban all those with an opposing view.infamous
December 1, 2005
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DaveScot: 1) What does what puckSR choose to do in his personal life have to do with this blog? 2) Unless i am sorely mistaken,he said on one of his earlier posts that he is a Christian, so why do you label him as an atheist? 3) Your comments have been way off subject and quite unproductive, so why have you not been expelled from this blog? Mr. Dembski clearly states, "If you post a comment that I don’t think is productive, I’ll probably not just eliminate your comment but you from this blog." [I take infamous's point to heart. Let's stay on topic and keep things interesting. --WmAD]infamous
December 1, 2005
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Dear DaveScot You do bore me. Goodbye. Dear Dr. Dembski, Please expell me from this blog. It is too boring for more words than this. Thank you and goodbye.hlwarren
December 1, 2005
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Gumpngreen After discovering some of things that puckSR likes to do in his spare time I can see why he needs to convince himself there's no God. I think that's the case for a lot of atheists, although I don't suspect they all have quite such a long list of things they'd rather not have to explain to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates with their angelic mother listening. I'm not sure if I'm going to have to explain my actions in this life when I get to the other side but it's usually better to be safe than sorry.DaveScot
December 1, 2005
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hlwarren Sorry if my sense of humor bores you. If it's any consolation you bore me too but you're still here and unlike you I haven't whined about it. I guess we all have our crosses to bear, eh?DaveScot
December 1, 2005
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Cool site Josh, Do you wrestle? I am a wrestler and I think everyone from your neck of the woods wrestles. DanDan
December 1, 2005
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My disappoint stems from how arbitrarily the rules are applied. Don't be boring is a good rule. Sadly all the boring people are not expelled. As a case in point, consider comment 19 above and the signed commenter. Perhaps PuckSR posted way too often, but then see comment 19 above and the signed commenter.hlwarren
December 1, 2005
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"I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption ... For myself, as no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneous liberation from a certain political and economic system, and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom." ~ Aldous Huxley Perhaps puckSR's motives are similar?Gumpngreen
December 1, 2005
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Mr Dembski has every right to run his blog as he wishes and I imagine that teaching ID to our youth will work in much the same fashion.Jeffahn
December 1, 2005
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Darwinists have long regarded freedom of censorship as an inalienable right. I do to. But not because I don't like criticism of my views. Informed criticism is fine. Stupid, contemptuous, repetitive criticism is where I've lost patience. --WmADWilliam Dembski
December 1, 2005
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What Dembski's atheistic materialist opponents obviously can't understand is that in this case censorsip is free speech.CharlesW
December 1, 2005
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Maybe Bill didn't need to ban him. He just needed to put him on a tighter leash. A tighter leash! Get it? HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kill me sometimes.DaveScot
December 1, 2005
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EEEEEK!Bombadill
December 1, 2005
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Man... Argh! Information overload.Marcos
December 1, 2005
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I spoke too soon. It DOES get better... http://tinyurl.com/8hg84DaveScot
December 1, 2005
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I was wondering what took Bill so long to ban puckSR. For the entertainment value y'all might be interested in learning a little more about him... http://tinyurl.com/b6fun ROFLMAO! It just doesn't get better than this.DaveScot
December 1, 2005
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I, for one, am glad to see puckSr off the blog. He seemed to have an axe to grind, had a hard time expressing himself, and didn't have much to add. I think it's a service to all of those who, though opposed to ID, have something substantial to contribute.PaV
December 1, 2005
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