Dear Paratopia:
As of today, January 24th 2012, our four year old message board has been deleted. A new one will take its place a.s.a.p. In the meantime, subscribers can chat away on the private board and anyone on Facebook can join our Paratopia group.
Thanks to many of you, Paratopia’s message board grew quickly into an online home of great discussions for our listeners and friends, and we are sorry to see it go.
So what happened?
Someone unknown to us filed a false “harassment” complaint against us to ProBoards. However, there wasn’t anything there that violated their terms of service, as the postings cited contained purely factual explanations and/or educated opinions/commentary. Some of the posts listed in the complaint were so innocuous it’s beyond belief that ProBoards refused to dismiss this complaint outright.
But they have refused. Instead, they wanted the posts removed. What are the posts about you might ask? Hypnosis and it’s inappropriate use for memory retrieval–a topic that has been on our board for over a year. Some if not most of the allegedly offensive posts are from 2010.
This is what happens when you go against the cherished tenets of UFOlogy. This from a field that calls for “disclosure,” “open discussion of information,” and grandstands against the lies, hoaxes, and nonsense perpetrated in its name. The field that wants “the truth.”
No, Paratopia. What it wants is to shut up anyone who calls to light and exposes one of its most long-held techniques (hypnosis) for what it is: an invalid tool being used improperly by people who shouldn’t be poking around in anyone’s mind. Some in this field have written volumes from the hypnotically retrieved “alien abduction memories” and one malcontent in it is apparently willing to defend that by lodging fake complaints to shut people up. There’s your real face of UFOlogy.
The other issue is ProBoards. Jeff did everything in his power (including phone calls) to make them aware of this being a nonsensical complaint with no basis. They refused to look into the matter. When he wrote and asked what was offensive in the posts specifically, and even quoted one of the posts identified (knowing there was nothing), the answer came back, “Unfortunately, we have no further information available.”
So, they are perfectly willing to shut down a board based on no real arbitration, nor even an effort to hear both sides. We offered to provide them with any and all information about the factual data to prove that what was discussed was not harassing in any way. They did not ask for anything, only reiterated that we remove the offending posts.
Jeff refused, and has since deleted our entire board. We will not stay with a forum that doesn’t at least hear the other side. They seem only to worry about an anonymous complaint, facts be damned. Free speech? Not an option.
As stated earlier, our subscriber board is still available, and we can assure you that a new public board is coming. We will not be silenced. Nor will any of you.
