The unmentionable - the 'other' Forum

[Jan Klimkowski]

I'm new to this forum (DPF), still not sure what "the other forum" is or was, but I'm a whizzened veteran of other places and, I've got to say that Jan's piece here is as good a description of the process as any. I see something similar underway at a different forum.

Ed - your contributions are frequently illuminating, and you are a most welcome addition to our community.

It is always important to analyze information oneself, and not rely on the opinion of others. So, I would in no way discourage you from looking at the other place.

That said, the extant record there is partial and distorted. For instance, I insisted that my account and all my posts were deleted, so I exist purely as an echo in the posts of others.

Those are my views on the other place. Following is why I believe the DPF may have some value, now and in the future.

I fundamentally believe in the power of dialogue, of hypothesis testing, of the journey of research inch by inch towards the truth.

So, I may put forward certain facts and propose an interpretation of those facts. If another researcher then produces a bona fide fact or piece of information which contradicts an element of that analysis then, to my mind, that is a good thing. The new information needs to be incorporated into that long and dangerous journey towards truth.

I believe it is important that researchers have a space in which a hypothesis can be shared, tested, refined. In which elements can be added and incorporated. Or rejected.

An arena which is strict and rigorous, but illuminated by the common search for the deepest layers of truth.

I believe such a purpose to be the primary justification of a forum such as the DPF.

The problem with disinformation entities is that, like pthirus pubis, they are not part of some shared dialectic journey towards truth. They are, rather, parasites.

Saboteurs.

They are as sterile and destructive as a veneral disease.

I will not waste my time with them.