The Flat Earth Society

The Flat Earth Society => Suggestions & Concerns => Topic started by: edby on August 14, 2020, 03:05:21 PM

Title: Personal attacks and serious accusations by Pete
Post by: edby on August 14, 2020, 03:05:21 PM
Pete is again claiming I have falsified my academic credentials. See here

https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=16802.msg218856#msg218856

Can someone tell him sternly to knock it off, or I will do something about it. Happy to discuss my credentials with anyone privately, but as you see they are stated clearly in my most recent book.
Title: Re: Personal attacks and serious accusations by Pete
Post by: edby on August 14, 2020, 04:04:56 PM
And now he is on some stalking at the University of Bristol website. I can provide proof that I studied and taught there as a graduate, although it was some time ago.

But in any case, why the stalking, why the harassment, why the claims? Can someone put a stop to this?
Title: Re: Personal attacks and serious accusations by Pete
Post by: Pete Svarrior on August 14, 2020, 04:18:04 PM
I can provide proof that I studied and taught there as a graduate, although it was some time ago.
Oh, not a member of faculty, then? How very unexpected.

And now he is on some stalking at the University of Bristol website
No, edby, checking the name you provided us with against the institution you provided us with is not "some stalking". It's basic fact-checking, using solely the information you supplied. You did not have to make claims about yourself you weren't prepared to back up, and you especially didn't have to make claims about yourself which are blatantly false. That way, you wouldn't have to face scrutiny.
Title: Re: Personal attacks and serious accusations by Pete
Post by: edby on August 14, 2020, 04:26:57 PM
Perhaps someone else can deal with this. I can provide proof that I taught at the University of Bristol. I no longer teach there, and I am now retired from any other institution I worked at.
Title: Re: Personal attacks and serious accusations by Pete
Post by: Pete Svarrior on August 14, 2020, 04:29:07 PM
Perhaps someone else can deal with this.
I'm sure someone else will deal with this. That does not preclude me from defending myself from your libelous accusations.

I can provide proof that I taught at the University of Bristol.
This is not the claim I'm highlighting as false. I am disputing your claim that you are a faculty member at any academic institution, and your more specific claim that you are a faculty member at the fictitious academic institution called The Logic Museum, History of Logic Department.
Title: Re: Personal attacks and serious accusations by Pete
Post by: xasop on August 14, 2020, 07:14:15 PM
I think both sides need to calm down a bit here.

Pete, unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like edby has ever directly claimed to be a faculty member on this forum, nor used such status to bolster his arguments. It's not as though he's trotting out that status to try to win debates here. For all we know, "Faculty Member" could just be the least inapplicable of some limited set of affiliation options on academia.edu, and I don't think pointing to it was his reason for linking to that page.

Given that, and the fact that we're talking about a two-year-old post by now, I think it's reasonable to back down now that he's made it clear he's become uncomfortable. I don't think this is any different from the "Things Tom Bishop Doesn't Understand" thread, which was locked because Tom was uncomfortable with it.

On the other side of the coin, edby, please stop linking to publications with your name on them if you are uncomfortable with this kind of scrutiny. While I do think this went a little over the top this time, it's going to be difficult to defend you if you play the victim after linking directly to your own information. We welcome anonymity on this forum, and many members take advantage of that—please feel free to join them. We take privacy very seriously and anyone who shares your personal details will be dealt with harshly, provided you haven't already shared them.
Title: Re: Personal attacks and serious accusations by Pete
Post by: Pete Svarrior on August 14, 2020, 07:34:15 PM
Pete, unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like edby has ever directly claimed to be a faculty member on this forum, nor used such status to bolster his arguments.
You are missing something. Around the time I started pointing out edby's lie, he was using his status as an "academic" to bolster his position within the forum. This is what originally motivated me to investigate his claim, and, upon discovering that it's a lie, to expose him. I achieved my goal in stopping him from employing that strategy, but he never did apologise or retract his original claim.

For all we know, "Faculty Member" could just be the least inapplicable of some limited set of affiliation options on academia.edu, and I don't think pointing to it was his reason for linking to that page.
I am familiar with academia.edu. "The Logic Museum" should not exist on it, since it is not an academic institution. The "Faculty Member" kerfuffle is just a consequence of that lie, but it is another lie nonetheless. I will be addressing that part of his fraud with academia.edu separately. I doubt they'll act on it, but that's their purview. Meanwhile, the only way edby can get me to stop calling him out on his lie is by retracting his claim and editing his previous posts to highlight that he is not, in fact, a member of any academic institution.

I also have my doubts about edby's affiliation with the University of Bristol and am curious if they know he's using their name in current publications. For now, I have chosen not to enquire on that matter.

Given that, and the fact that we're talking about a two-year-old post by now, I think it's reasonable to back down now that he's made it clear he's become uncomfortable. I don't think this is any different from the "Things Tom Bishop Doesn't Understand" thread, which was locked because Tom was uncomfortable with it.
There is a fundamental difference. The Tom thread was a list of topics that the authors considered Tom to be incompetent at. It was a thread for relentlessly pointing out mistakes. This is entirely different. Pointing out that someone is lying and backing it up with what I think is an overwhelming amount of evidence is not something that can be sensibly suppressed. If your decision is that we can no longer point out people's lies/outright fraud because they say they don't like it, I hope you realise the precedent this will set.

You have a tendency to try and tow the middle line, and I understand why you do that. However, I refuse to back down in this case. edby is acting in a manner that, without further clarification, appears to be fraudulent. I consider it my moral obligation to highlight that in order to protect those who might not realise.

To be transparent, this is not the first time that edby tried to suppress this information, and not the first time that I'm refusing to back down. He previously tried to shut me up through junker:

Quote from: junker
He [edby] PM'd regarding the warning I gave him, based on the post you reported here (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?action=moderate;area=reports;report=902)

He is lashing out as he has taken issue with your claims he has falsified his academic credentials. he included these links for reference:
https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=11803.msg180035#msg180035
https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=11803.msg178672#msg178672

He did provide me some personal evidence that he is a published academic. Obviously someone should not take things too personally on an internet forum, but I told him I would address it with you to avoid such claims in the future.
Thanks for letting me know. My position remains unchanged - when asked to prove his credentials in public, he linked to an academia.edu profile (https://logicmuseum.academia.edu/EdwardBuckner), where he claims to be a "faculty member" of the "Logic Museum". I called him on his bullshit last summer (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=10211.msg160296#msg160296).

Of course, since he posted his real name on the forum, it's not difficult to find out that he has some publication record (and he tried posting about this before (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=10211.msg160454#msg160454)), but that's primarily translations and reviews of translations of works in philosophy. Perhaps the links he gave you were different/better, but that's all he's presented publicly to date - doesn't it seem a bit suspicious that he has to reach so deep?

As far as I'm concerned, edby is claiming to be an academic and is using that to ad-hominem others. "I'm an academic and this isn't how science works, you probably just read a pop-science book and misunderstood it." Calling him out is the least I can do.
Title: Re: Personal attacks and serious accusations by Pete
Post by: xasop on August 14, 2020, 07:51:32 PM
You are missing something. Around the time I started pointing out edby's lie, he was using his status as an "academic" to bolster his position within the forum. This is what originally motivated me to investigate his claim, and, upon discovering that it's a lie, to expose him. I achieved my goal in stopping him from employing that strategy, but he never did apologise or retract his original claim.

Fair enough, I can't say I object to that.

Pointing out that someone is lying and backing it up with what I think is an overwhelming amount of evidence is not something that can be sensibly suppressed. If your decision is that we can no longer point out people's lies/outright fraud because they say they don't like it, I hope you realise the precedent this will set.

You have a tendency to try and tow the middle line, and I understand why you do that. However, I refuse to back down in this case. edby is acting in a matter that, without further clarification, appears to be fraudulent. I consider it my moral obligation to highlight that in order to protect those who might not realise.

If he is indeed still lying, I agree with you. From what I can see (based on about 5 minutes of looking at this, so I almost certainly have less information than you do), he made a few claims 2 years ago that are repeatedly being brought up. My concern is simply trying to define where the line is crossed from calling out fraud to harassment.

Of course, you have already made a suggestion that would eliminate all doubt:

Meanwhile, the only way edby can get me to stop calling him out on his lie is by retracting his claim and editing his previous posts to highlight that he is not, in fact, a member of any academic institution.

edby, would you be willing to go back and edit your previous posts in this manner as a gesture of good faith, so that we can put all this behind us? I would appreciate it.