The Flat Earth Society

Flat Earth Discussion Boards => Flat Earth Community => Topic started by: Pinky on May 14, 2019, 09:07:09 AM

Title: When was the Flat Earth Society split up and why?
Post by: Pinky on May 14, 2019, 09:07:09 AM
I'm talking about these guys
https://theflatearthsociety.org/home/

What was going on there?
Title: Re: When was the Flat Earth Society split up and why?
Post by: juner on May 14, 2019, 04:15:08 PM
I'm talking about these guys
https://theflatearthsociety.org/home/

What was going on there?

December 2013.

Several reasons. You can find lengthy discussions about the topic on the forum. Attempts at reunification eventually failed. One early attempt can be found here:

https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=1722.0
Title: Re: When was the Flat Earth Society split up and why?
Post by: stack on May 15, 2019, 08:50:46 PM
I'm guessing, even though Davis apologized on the next page, this maybe put the kibosh on the reunification effort, among other things:

https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2191.msg97546#msg97546
Title: Re: When was the Flat Earth Society split up and why?
Post by: juner on May 15, 2019, 08:57:16 PM
I'm guessing, even though Davis apologized on the next page, this maybe put the kibosh on the reunification effort, among other things:

https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2191.msg97546#msg97546

Eh that is just JD. He gets all hot and bothered and fired up, then apologizes eventually.
Title: Re: When was the Flat Earth Society split up and why?
Post by: stack on May 15, 2019, 09:09:15 PM
I'm guessing, even though Davis apologized on the next page, this maybe put the kibosh on the reunification effort, among other things:

https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2191.msg97546#msg97546

Eh that is just JD. He gets all hot and bothered and fired up, then apologizes eventually.

Agreed, seen it in action.

Was there ever any definitive closing of the reunification talks? Seemed like a good idea on paper, one official FE Society.

Another interesting short saga is when Dubay stopped by and laid out his demands for coming on board here. I can't find it now, but I remember reading the thread and he was basically asking for everyone's first born. Pretty hilarious.
Title: Re: When was the Flat Earth Society split up and why?
Post by: Pete Svarrior on May 16, 2019, 01:27:27 PM
Was there ever any definitive closing of the reunification talks? Seemed like a good idea on paper, one official FE Society.
Eh, there wasn't an official "closing", but an end can be identified somewhat clearly. Mistakes were made on all sides. I'll focus on my own, because I know those best.

The original talks were between Parsifal, Daniel, Wilmore and me. We kept our side updated via the thread junker linked, and tried to represent what our userbase said to the best of our ability. One mistake I've made was to suggest that John's role in any unified society should be greatly reduced - I found it difficult to reason with him (I think we both got much better at that now, but it doesn't change history), and, at the time, he frequently complained that he's only involved in forum administration because no one else is available. That one is entirely on me.

At the time, this was reluctantly accepted, and we actually started planning a proper implementation - clear lines were drawn as to which parts of which societies would be incorporated into the newly-unified one, and what would be discarded. Shortly after, Daniel went into complete radio silence, and after a long time of him being AWOL, John took on a much more direct leadership position. He didn't seem to care much for prior talks and agreements, and that's his right. Daniel hasn't been active in years, and it's only natural that someone would de facto take his place.

So, with old talks having met an abrupt end, and with new agreements looking unlikely, we did the only thing we could - we looked at the parts of our society that were weak (i.e. parts that the other society was meant to supplant) and improved them to the best of our ability. Understandably, this means that support for reunification from our regulars also started to wane, since the perceived benefits diminished. At this point, neither side seems to support a reunification effort (even if it does look good on paper), and letting each group do their own thing seems like the only viable outcome.

Another interesting short saga is when Dubay stopped by and laid out his demands for coming on board here. I can't find it now, but I remember reading the thread and he was basically asking for everyone's first born. Pretty hilarious.
Ugh. That was nasty. When Eric first appeared on the scene some of us were quite enthusiastic, while others were much more reserved (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2386.0). Eventually, Eric wrote a blog post declaring the Flat Earth Society (singular, and mixing up the two groups at will) "controlled opposition". (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2459.0)

The second thread I've linked is the one you're most likely thinking about. Here (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2459.msg63521#msg63521) is Eric's first post in the discussion, in which he asks that we hand everything over to him. Unsurprisingly, the idea of handing our entire website to a first-time poster was not popular...
Title: Re: When was the Flat Earth Society split up and why?
Post by: juner on May 16, 2019, 03:32:35 PM
Actually, now that I have mused on the matter, I think the official end to talks happened with this awful meme from our side:

https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=7252.msg130061#msg130061
https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=72441.msg1978190#msg1978190
Title: Re: When was the Flat Earth Society split up and why?
Post by: JRowe on May 17, 2019, 11:23:30 AM
At this point, neither side seems to support a reunification effort (even if it does look good on paper), and letting each group do their own thing seems like the only viable outcome.
Agree with this. I remember when I used to support it, but the sites have established themselves more fully now, doing their own thing... The only way reunification could work even hypothetically I think would be if it turned into a third society even if purely down to how the boards are different now.
At least the sites are hopefully on better terms. That always seemed to be one of the goals of reunification, and there's no need to merge the two if that's in place.

Also this site's better and those guys suck. I'm pretty much obligated to say that.
Title: Re: When was the Flat Earth Society split up and why?
Post by: stack on May 18, 2019, 02:19:23 AM
Was there ever any definitive closing of the reunification talks? Seemed like a good idea on paper, one official FE Society.
Eh, there wasn't an official "closing", but an end can be identified somewhat clearly. Mistakes were made on all sides. I'll focus on my own, because I know those best.

The original talks were between Parsifal, Daniel, Wilmore and me. We kept our side updated via the thread junker linked, and tried to represent what our userbase said to the best of our ability. One mistake I've made was to suggest that John's role in any unified society should be greatly reduced - I found it difficult to reason with him (I think we both got much better at that now, but it doesn't change history), and, at the time, he frequently complained that he's only involved in forum administration because no one else is available. That one is entirely on me.

At the time, this was reluctantly accepted, and we actually started planning a proper implementation - clear lines were drawn as to which parts of which societies would be incorporated into the newly-unified one, and what would be discarded. Shortly after, Daniel went into complete radio silence, and after a long time of him being AWOL, John took on a much more direct leadership position. He didn't seem to care much for prior talks and agreements, and that's his right. Daniel hasn't been active in years, and it's only natural that someone would de facto take his place.

So, with old talks having met an abrupt end, and with new agreements looking unlikely, we did the only thing we could - we looked at the parts of our society that were weak (i.e. parts that the other society was meant to supplant) and improved them to the best of our ability. Understandably, this means that support for reunification from our regulars also started to wane, since the perceived benefits diminished. At this point, neither side seems to support a reunification effort (even if it does look good on paper), and letting each group do their own thing seems like the only viable outcome.

Another interesting short saga is when Dubay stopped by and laid out his demands for coming on board here. I can't find it now, but I remember reading the thread and he was basically asking for everyone's first born. Pretty hilarious.
Ugh. That was nasty. When Eric first appeared on the scene some of us were quite enthusiastic, while others were much more reserved (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2386.0). Eventually, Eric wrote a blog post declaring the Flat Earth Society (singular, and mixing up the two groups at will) "controlled opposition". (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2459.0)

The second thread I've linked is the one you're most likely thinking about. Here (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2459.msg63521#msg63521) is Eric's first post in the discussion, in which he asks that we hand everything over to him. Unsurprisingly, the idea of handing our entire website to a first-time poster was not popular...

Thanks for the explainer. Sometimes the people and politics are more interesting than the underlying cause. Suffice to say, fast forward to today, it seems that that both societies function quite well and harmoniously in the same space, so to speak. There's room for both. And well done for both societies making that a reality.

As for the Dubay thing, yeah, what a tool. He commandeered the International Flat Earth Society, disparaged the existing societies completely confusing them with Leo's Canadian stuff. Sh*t show all around.