The one spinoff forum during the time of CGCS was about trying to prove that 9/11 was an inside job. It was a "truther" forum, which I'm sure there are dozens of on the internet. I was invited to the forum probably because I'd proven myself to be a critical thinker and seemed anti-establishment enough to fit in with the culture. What they didn't expect was skepticism for what they thought were clues in 9/11 inside job conspiracies. What I did was play devils advocate more than they had the patience for. But I wasn't alone. There were other skeptics on the forum who were either turned off or driven away. That forum was where I develop my own motto: "If you can't deal with the open agenda, you certainly can't crack any hidden agenda." It's not that I don't believe there are conspiracies. It's that I know that the worse political agendas are often pretty open. Just look at what was said in the last election campaign. Besides, I wouldn't put it past any conspirator to float their own clues for alternative conspiracy theories as red herrings.
In the end, the owner kept threatening to ban me, but couldn't find a good reason because I wasn't breaking any forum rules. Eventually he banned me because I spoke unfavorably about his forum on CGCS.
The other spinoff forum happened right around the time CGCS was collapsing. A bitter member didn't like the way he was treated on the forum; so he started his own forum and invited CGCS members. The forum had no real mission other than to talk about whatever the owner wanted to talk about. Unlike the other spin off, there were no rules other than to respect the authority of the owner. Not many joined; and most that did join didn't stay long. I joined because I've had some interesting discussions with that member (good and bad) but found the member to be a healthy challenge despite my disagreeing with most of what he had to say. He liked to keep the group small and under his control. And he was mean to anyone who talked about things he didn't want to talk about. He was very conservative, anti-intellectual, and biased Republican, although claiming to be independent. But he let me say what I wanted to and had a sense of humor at first. I enjoyed the challenge enough to stay 7 years.
In the end, he eventually got tired of being called out on his right-wing propaganda and started censoring my post. He also lost his sense of humor over the years. That was when I recognized that he was on a power trip and that I had nothing more to gain from our discussions. I forced him to choose between his ego or me. He chose to isolate himself further to protect his own ego, and now he only has 1 other member left on his forum to try to control or brainwash.
= new reply since forum marked as read
