Virtual Skeptics video on the Block Bot (Transcript) EDIT: No more transcript
August 11, 2013 4 Comments
So, Tim Farley spammed a few posts here with links to a Virtual Skeptics Google Hangout video, where he did some following up on his controversial Block Bot post. I think YouTube videos, and panel videos especially, are a pretty terrible way to make any kind of response to something that wasn’t, you know, a video to begin with, but whatever. I wanted to make sure I was responding to things that Farley actually said, so I made a transcript of the relevant portions of the video. If Farley or the Virtual Skeptics want this transcript removed, I will happily do so upon request, and mostly I’m putting it here for easy reference for the post that I’ll be writing about it within the next few days. The relevant portion of the video goes from time 34:28 to about 54:00, and the video is embedded below the fold.
[Transcript removed per request]
Dubito Ergo Sum 
“… the Virtual Skeptics want this transcript removed, I will happily do so upon request” ~ Although I appreciate that you watch the show, and have done the work to transcribe some of this episode, could you please take this down? Thank you.
Done.
Oh, honestly. That seems very petty. I know you offered, but that seems very petty.
Thanks for linking to the video. Tim Farley’s points about @The_Block_Bot weren’t as troubling as I thought they might be. I don’t really understand why the bot, in its limited Atheism+ scope, isn’t newsworthy for that piece since it was largely a response to misogyny on Twitter. He says he watched the BBC report many times; I only watched it once, but I recall @The_Block_Bot being discussed as something one group did, not as something everyone on Twitter is using.
So, maybe the real problem is the public Github release of the bot, which isn’t exactly the same thing we have running that the BBC reported on. The real bot does log everything (it logs too much, really), even some things we won’t ever reveal because it helps us fight back against our foes on Twitter. And it is administered based on trust in each other but with a strong concern for the privacy of its users, so there are many parts and pieces of the real thing that will never be shared publicly. Plus, it was made in the spirit of having a good time doing battle (that got toned down a bit once it was passed to Atheism+). We can’t stop the misogynists and their supporters on Twitter, but we can block them proactively.