The New Molly

You may recall that when I imposed the new rules on the site I also announced that there would also be changes to how the Molly awards were given: instead of giving them to commenters, we’d award them to specific comments. I suggested at that time that you might all start making note of exceptional comments — now it’s time to refer back to those notes.

Here’s the way it works: People should repost a link and quote from their favorite comments here; you can also just chime in and voice your approval for people’s choices. I’ll let you guys chime in here for a few days, and develop a preliminary list. I’ll then pick out the top three and post them in their entirety in a top-level post on Wednesday, and you’ll all vote (Yes! An online poll!) for the best.

So go to it. Think back over the last month or so and tell me what comment you found most enlightening, entertaining, provocative, or otherwise stimulating.

Oh, yeah, we got rules for FtB

In the wake of recent events, we realized that we’re big enough now that Freethoughtblogs needed some more formal rules, so we scribbled some up. I’ve put the tl;dr version below the fold, but here’s the shorter version.

  1. We’re an atheism+social justice+science network…we were Atheism+ before there was an Atheism+. Get used to it.

  2. Big picture management is by an executive committee. It’s not democratic, because its job is to just get stuff done.

  3. There is a confidential backchannel to discuss management issues. And gossip.

  4. No rules to regulate individual blogs.

  5. You want to join FtB? Don’t call us, we’ll call you. Membership is largely decided democratically, with some mandated vetting procedures and final approval in the hands of the executive committee.

  6. You want to get kicked off FtB? Act like a raging asshat and the executive committee will oblige you.

The current executive committee consists of Ed Brayton, me, Ophelia Benson, and Greta Christina. A fifth person is in the process of being elected. Don’t pester the executive committee about signing up your blog, because they’re just the janitors and they don’t get to bypass the rest of the network to let people in; the people you want to beg are those on the admissions committee, and we’re not telling you who they are.

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The next Pharyngula podcast will be on Sunday, 26 August

Just so you know, I’m planning another podcast for next Sunday. Time is a little bit in flux, but we’ll work it out in the next day or two.

The topic: “Is there value in the sceptical/skeptical movement?”. I think we’ll probably also talk about the direction the atheist movement must take in the future.

I’ve lined up a couple of people to lead the discussion: Brownian and Louis.

If you’ve been on my invite list for a podcast before, you’ll get an invite to this one, too. If you’ve never joined in before, email me you google+ name and I’ll put you on the list.