Portlandia Atheist Refugee

Greetings. I’m from Portland, Oregon and I’m new to these forums.
I’ve been a somewhat regular poster over on the About.com Atheism/Agnosticism forums, but have just about given up on it. It used to be an incredible place to engage in productive, cordial debates and learn new things. Now, it’s been overrun by four or five delusional bullies who aren’t interested in productive conversations. Not surprisingly, the number of regular contributors has gone down drastically in the last year or two.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to meeting, conversing with, and debating the contributors here.
Here’s to productive discourse,
BugRib

Greetings. I'm from Portland, Oregon and I'm new to these forums. I've been a somewhat regular poster over on the About.com Atheism/Agnosticism forums, but have just about given up on it. It used to be an incredible place to engage in productive, cordial debates and learn new things. Now, it's been overrun by four or five delusional bullies who aren't interested in productive conversations. Not surprisingly, the number of regular contributors has gone down drastically in the last year or two. Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting, conversing with, and debating the contributors here. Here's to productive discourse, BugRib
Welcome. i think you'll like this group. It's well moderated, keeping bullies and spammers away. It also has a lot of good contributors. I was on another atheist group for several years. It was great for a long time. Unfortunately the biggest bully and abuser wound up being the sole moderator! They finally managed to get her off and now we have several anonymous moderators. I hope it improves. Another problem is that it's a Google Group and Google "fixed" so it is now impossible to navigate. It was fine for years before. It's unfortunate that things happen to good groups and ruin them. This one should be ok--unless someone tries to "fix" what ain't broke! Lois

The only reason I’ve stuck with the About.com forum for so long is that I like the format. I have a hard time with forums like this where you can’t reply to a specific post and/or a specific poster.
Or can you? Am I missing something?

The only reason I've stuck with the About.com forum for so long is that I like the format. I have a hard time with forums like this where you can't reply to a specific post and/or a specific poster. Or can you? Am I missing something?
Yes, of course you can. You just replied to me. Or do you mean something else? Lois
The only reason I've stuck with the About.com forum for so long is that I like the format. I have a hard time with forums like this where you can't reply to a specific post and/or a specific poster. Or can you? Am I missing something?
Sure you can. Just use the "quote" at the bottom of the posters note you want to address. It will pop up in a new note and you just go past the old post and add to it. Welcome!

Welcome BugRib. We three (nonanonymous) moderators and the administrator keep close tabs on any bullying and after a warning, it takes only one or two more for the person to be banned.
As Lois and MZLee pointed out, using the quotation button is the main way of responding to a particular post or idea. If you want to send something just to a particular person, you can use the PM button at the lower part of the name block to the left. I think we’ve had only one case of someone using that venue for bullying, and as soon as the victim forwarded the offending post to the moderators, the bully was gone.
However, we are pretty easygoing with some members who have either ideas which may be a bit odd, or those who focus on only one or two subjects.
Occam

Welcome BugRib. We three (nonanonymous) moderators and the administrator keep close tabs on any bullying and after a warning, it takes only one or two more for the person to be banned. As Lois and MZLee pointed out, using the quotation button is the main way of responding to a particular post or idea. If you want to send something just to a particular person, you can use the PM button at the lower part of the name block to the left. I think we've had only one case of someone using that venue for bullying, and as soon as the victim forwarded the offending post to the moderators, the bully was gone. However, we are pretty easygoing with some members who have either ideas which may be a bit odd, or those who focus on only one or two subjects. Occam
Thanks for all that. I'd have to say that it wasn't so much bullying that drove me away from the other forum. It was trolling (which is, arguably, a type of online bullying). It wouldn't be such a big deal, but I must admit; I have a bit of a pathological inability to just let things go. No matter how obvious it is that one of these trolls is impervious to logical argument, I just keep trying to get through to them. Dang, it frustrating! Well, I'm getting a good vibe from this place already. Thanks for the warm welcome.