Welcome Arpie

[Goodchild]

Welcome to the Secular Cafe! I see from one of your posts that you were directed here, hope you end up enjoying your stay :)

[Barefoot Bree]

Welcome to the Cafe. Pull up a bar stool and tell us a bit about yourself!

[Arpie]

Thanks for the welcome folks. I've been hearing about this site for over 2 years now at TR and finally got around to registering. I've lurked here b4, but as I didn't see a science forum never bothered to log in.

I generally don't post a lot; just read. What brought me here now was the arrival of Beau at TR. I like active threads, and one that was split off following a comment of hers broke the daily post record there. On the 4th day it raked in 17 pages of replies-61 pages in 6 days. It was quite entertaining to read and as she spoke highly of SC I thought I'd check it out.

I've been retired for 12 years now and spend a lot of time online, mostly just reading science threads. I've followed the Directly Downwind Faster Than the Wind one for 3 years now, starting at JREF. It has over 70k replies just at TR and is now on part 25. Do you also lock threads and start new ones here after 100 pages? Any megathreads, especially on physics?

Look forward to reading your thoughts here, and thanks again for the welcome. :notworthy:

[DMB]

Welcome to the café. :)

[Silly Sausage]

Hi Arpie

Welcome to the Cafe, hope you like it here :)

Silly S.

[Notta]

Arpie, there are many regulars here who have never heard of or visited TR, nor have they ever been enjoined to 'go to Pendarica.'

Just a heads up that the diaspora from TR has resulted in a much broader community than the original splinter group.

Welcome anyway!!

[Beau]

Hey, Arpie.

I'm delighted that you decided to join SC. I really enjoyed chatting to you over at TR. You were a breath of fresh air and I thoroughly enjoyed your company. :)

[Arpie]

Arpie, there are many regulars here who have never heard of or visited TR, nor have they ever been enjoined to 'go to Pendarica.'

Just a heads up that the diaspora from TR has resulted in a much broader community than the original splinter group.

Welcome anyway!!

Thanks for the heads up Notta. Matty is another user at TR I like, and he told me-in a friendly way-to check out SC months ago. Glad I did. As you may know at TR even the mods often flame newbies in welcome threads. :D

Since Beau-a very bright young lady imo-didn't recognize the name I chose for SC, any interested in my record at TR can find my user name there by clicking on my very first entry to Urban Dictionary here (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=arpie).

Rest assured I won't be causing SC staff any problems. Only at JREF-the most irrationally moderated site I've ever encountered-have any of my comments ever been sanctioned. I believe once you resort to incivility in any debate you have already lost. ;)

Hey Beau. Thanks for the kind words. Looking forward to reading all your comments here today. :wave:

[Shake]

Welcome, Arpie! Since I didn't notice anyone else saying so (and even though you might have found it already), our science type forum can be found here (http://www.secularcafe.org/forumdisplay.php?f=7). I'm pretty sure we've not had any of the sort of "megathreads" you asked about earlier, though there are some smart folks here with whom I'd think you'd be able to discuss things.

[BWE]

Farsight

[Arpie]

Welcome, Arpie! Since I didn't notice anyone else saying so (and even though you might have found it already), our science type forum can be found here (http://www.secularcafe.org/forumdisplay.php?f=7). I'm pretty sure we've not had any of the sort of "megathreads" you asked about earlier, though there are some smart folks here with whom I'd think you'd be able to discuss things.

Thanks Shake, and as you surmised I finally stumbled along and found it. I generally just read and avoid joining the discussion. I ask questions via comments. Also, the ultra-mega cart thread has gone back into high gear at TR and it takes up most of my time just keeping up with it.
http://www.emofaces.com/en/smilies/d/dunce-smile.gif For any interested below is an index I created that includes most of the threads that have become part of this epic cyber-strand (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cyber-strand). I try and make up for being the dunce there occasionally asking dumb questions by serving as a kind of text janitor. That index now appears on every new part at TR, and this is the current one. (#25) I need to add some other threads from JREF and Rational Skeptic. Sigh, I'm not even a very competent janitor anymore. :( http://talkrational.org/showthread.php?t=40916

@BWE: Good luck winning the Templeton. Long overdue imho. :)