Anybody remember the Meeting Room?

[lazarus]

Long ago, DU didn't have special Forums and Groups. In the first attempt at a special Forum, we had the Meeting Room. This was supposed to be more serious than the Lounge, but not political enough for GD.

In a matter of hours, it turned into a battleground between the skeptics and the astrologers. Boy, was that fun. We skeptics were actually quite respectful, but they didn't like all our talk about "evidence" and "experiments" and "scientific method". We did try, though.

:evilgrin:

[charlie]

1. Yeah

It was a two-fer. First, you visit the Meeting Room to catch the war in progress, then you move over to Ask the Admins for high drama turned up to 11. It's no wonder Skinner closed ATA, he was being told every day I'm-gonna-walk-if-you-don't-fix-this-RIGHT-FUCKING-NOW. And people actually quit, rather than stay out of the Meeting Room. Whatta mess.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. I always smile when people start demanding Skinner bring back the ATA forum

It was just another place people abused to impress their cliques, I miss it only b ecause it was an entertaining read.

[realisticphish]

4. I LOVED ATA

lots and lots of crash-and-burns in there.

I read that as much as any other forum :D

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. It did cut down on the effort of looking for locked threads when you wanted a laugh.

But come on...how could anyone seriously say that it contributed to the quality of DU (other than comedic factor)?

[realisticphish]

6. the only thing it might have done

was act as a release valve. people go in there, shout and stamp their feet, sometimes get banned, sometimes not. Now, people don't see the answers to questions, and assume some vast conspiracy to suppress a certain viewpoint

[realisticphish]

2. eep

god, it was horrible. I used to hang out in the christian forum, and even the theists steered WAAAAY around that hive of scum and villany

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. To me, the Meeting Room had the same seriousness as the Lounge

but without the intellectual rigour. I thought it was a refuge for people who didn't want to have to defend their utterings with anything like reason - just for "OMG, that's beautiful" replies. Maybe I only came in on the end of it.

[realisticphish]

8. definitely

They got pissed if there was any "negativity"

[Odin2005]

9. Let me guess, they responded to demands for falsifiability with...

..."Evil Reductionism!", "stupid materialists that can't understand Holism", etc. :eyes:

[lazarus]

10. pretty much

and we weren't being honest in our attempts to verify things, either.

[GoneOffShore]

12. I like holism as long as there's a donut involved.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

11. Ah, that brings back memories

Even with all the crap going around on DU these days, the place was truly wild back then. Now things are far more policed, which I think is a very, very good thing.

[trotsky]

13. Those were the days.

Most of the battles in the Health dungeon are minor skirmishes compared to the wars in the old Meeting Room.

[JitterbugPerfume]

14. I remember it with a bit of fondness

but the astrology threads were bizarre.

SKINNER TOLD US THIS IS THE ASTROLOGY FORUM :banghead: