No bullshit - I am from 2039 and I'm here to help you

[Sanyam Deshi]

With my limited understanding of the physics required, I believe it to be possible. Perhaps not practical, but possible.

There are comments in this thread and elsewhere that chastise people like me for being closed-minded and presenting a persona that would "drive time travelers away". Comments saying we need to be welcoming of those kinds of folks because "you just never know"...

I get the feeling that many people here don't really know what being open-minded means, and how it's very different from just blindly accepting what someone tells you. This video illustrates the approach I try to take when presented with things like this:

I do not disagree with the video that you posted. That video explains how "believing" or "disbelieving" is open-minded in comparison to "accepting" or "rejecting" things without evidence. If Will expressed a belief in time travelers and didn't make any claims like "Time travelers must be real!", this wouldn't show close-mindedness. From my perspective, Will never implied that he believes in time travelers. He was merely proposing the idea to remain respectful to those who make time travel claims. Respectfulness and open-mindedness are two completely different things. I personally agree that we should be respectful toward those who make time travel claims (as I expressed in a previous post) and I don't believe in time travelers.

As Num7 explained in his forum rules post, he mandated parallel topics for debunkers to maintain productivity in the original thread: "This way people who enjoy the original topic will be free to ask questions, discuss and engage in the "story" of the thread without getting their posts repeatedly ripped apart by someone who doesn't buy it." By being respectful, we can encourage everyone to continue to engage in the story, so I will continue to take my respectful approach.

I think I've been respectful.

Posting "dude, you're totally full of shit. Tits or GTFO" is disrespectful; pointing out flaws in a story in order to give the OP an opportunity to address them is not.

We can get in to semantics about what is and is not debunking, but the spirit of Num7's rule (which I helped come up with and articulate) was that people who want to go full-bore on a guy (posting paragraph upon paragraph of evidence against a claim) need to do so in their own thread.

The purpose was not to keep all the head-nodders and enablers in the original thread and all the people who notice flaws or question someone's veracity in another, but to designate a place where people could rip someone's claims to shreds without dominating or breaking the conversation for others. I've not done that, nor do I intend to. My two posts were enough to satisfy my hypothesis that this guy is lying.

Expecting any and all "something smells fishy here" posts to be shuttered away in some secondary thread that everyone can ignore is counter to the purpose of this site.

Edit -- Being respectful does not mean we need to fall all over ourselves making someone feel welcome just because they have a half-baked story and want a laugh. If someone has something to share, they'll share it. After all, they did bend the laws of space and time to get here, right? Is jokingly referring to this guy as the dad from the Brady Bunch really going to scare someone like that off?

My opinion on respect in these threads was not targeted at your messages or the messages of anyone in particular. I don't mind the expression of doubt in these threads at all, and I don't mean to sound like I do. My message is more directed those who make disgruntled and impatient messages. The first two pages of the thread were mostly people making doubtful remarks based on the OP's original 3 sentence post. At that point, we didn't have any information to put down the guy, but now we have enough information to almost certainly discredit his claim, due to his lack of effort and creativity in his posts.

 

[TimeWizardCosmo]

My opinion on respect in these threads was not targeted at your messages or the messages of anyone in particular. I don't mind the expression of doubt in these threads at all, and I don't mean to sound like I do. My message is more directed those who make disgruntled and impatient messages. The first two pages of the thread were mostly people making doubtful remarks based on the OP's original 3 sentence post. At that point, we didn't have any information to put down the guy, but now we have enough information to almost certainly discredit his claim, due to his lack of effort and creativity in his posts.

This post makes me happy.

 

[Ayasano]

They need to start showing this in schools or something. True openmindedness and a desire to learn new things are extremely useful. (I might go so far as to say if schools could only teach two things, it should be those, as you can learn pretty much everything else with the internet or asking people)

Perhaps a sticky with it would be a good idea?

 

[PaulaJedi]

They need to start showing this in schools or something. True openmindedness and a desire to learn new things are extremely useful. (I might go so far as to say if schools could only teach two things, it should be those, as you can learn pretty much everything else with the internet or asking people)

Perhaps a sticky with it would be a good idea?

So, I don't have an open mind because I asked him a series of questions? Also, spelling is actually an important thing to consider if you expect to become a credible person. If this offends you, then so be it. I find Walt Willis' accusing me of being a lesbian because I disagree with him on another thread to be disrespectful. I'm done trying to please people.

If you come on a message board and make a claim EXPECT opposition. Life isn't peaches and cream where everyone agrees with one another. Just omit the name calling and passive aggressive behavior. I am going to analyze peoples' claims and the only person that decides if it can remain on his message boards is Num. If he has a problem with anything I say, he'll let me know. If not. Oh well. You'll just have to prove your own case. It's called conversation and debate.

People WILL disagree and THAT is not disrespectful.

 

[PaulaJedi]

I took down one impostor. I could very well start investigating and do the same darn thing if you want me to!

 

[PaulaJedi]

How many of you "open minded" people have even read Conviction of a Time Traveler, yet?

 

[TimeWizardCosmo]

How many of you "open minded" people have even read Conviction of a Time Traveler, yet?

That's the Titor book, right? I'd like to, but last I saw on Amazon that shit was like $200 or something. If you have a PDF I'd love to take a look.

 

[PaulaJedi]

How many of you "open minded" people have even read Conviction of a Time Traveler, yet?

That's the Titor book, right? I'd like to, but last I saw on Amazon that shit was like $200 or something. If you have a PDF I'd love to take a look.

Nope, not Timetraveler's Tale. (If that's the name...) I meant this one:

Conviction of a Time Traveler: Anonymous: 9781453643181: Amazon.com: Books

 

[PaulaJedi]

I hunt ghosts. I investigate time travel claims. I believe in psychic phenonena, but I don't have an open mind because I don't believe a bullshitter!

By golly, I better just hang up my crossbow right now!!!

 

[TimeWizardCosmo]

How many of you "open minded" people have even read Conviction of a Time Traveler, yet?

That's the Titor book, right? I'd like to, but last I saw on Amazon that shit was like $200 or something. If you have a PDF I'd love to take a look.

Nope, not Timetraveler's Tale. (If that's the name...) I meant this one:

Conviction of a Time Traveler: Anonymous: 9781453643181: Amazon.com: Books

Aha! I didn't know about this book - I always thought people were referring to the other one. I'll definitely take a look.