Rick Moen:

        The purpose of the echo is to promote UFO religion in its
        various forms.  Occasionally, the unwary will wander in,
        and be shown the door if their professed beliefs don't
        measure up to what's expected.  The key question for a
        fringe-science-related forum is this:  Are there beliefs
        that are required irrespective of the participant's conduct?
        The answer on your forum [UFO - flr] is "no".  On I_UFO (as
        on the CompuServe NEWAGE forum), it's "yes" but they just
        aren't willing to be honest about it.

        Clark [one of the participants - flr] will go on at great
        length about how unnamed skeptics are guilty of various
        rude (alleged) acts on I_UFO and elsewhere.  This has two
        functions that are immediately obvious:  (1) It's a great
        device to promote group cohesiveness.  Every religion needs
        devil-figures for this purpose.  The unnamed skeptic serves
        this purpose for Clark.  (2) It distracts from the more
        basic fact -- which they don't want anyone to notice -- that
        skeptics are in fact to be banned REGARDLESS of how they
        comport themselves; that their _beliefs are unacceptable_
        and must not be expressed in any form whatsoever.  This is
        uncomfortable to admit because it is of course
        _narrow-minded_, not in accord with their self image.

        There will, in that echo, be allegations of fact (for
        example) that are held to be sacred.  Any post that
        suggests they aren't true, or dares to contradict them,
        will be held to be "ridicule" or to show the wrong
        "attitude," or you will be told that it "does not fit the
        spirit of the stated intent of this conference" and is
        "offensive."  You can be EXTREMELY pleasant, ignoring all
        the name-calling that _you_ will be subjected to, but your
        posts will still receive the above-described reception.
        Those who persist will be ejected.

        It's inevitable.  The spirit of your posts actually is
        irrelevant.  Your attitude, in truth, doesn't matter.  You
        can eschew giving offence as much as any man alive has
        ever achieved -- all to no avail: It's the _prohibited
        beliefs/thoughts/opinions_ that are to be excluded.

        In short -- as I said -- just a rather inbred religion
        echo, with required beliefs and prohibited beliefs, founded
        to promote particular ideologies and exclude particular
        (disliked) ways of thinking.  I don't object to this at
        all, in itself.  I just object to the glaring hypocrisy
        of calling this echo a haven for open-mindedness, when
        in fact admission is based flagrantly on ideological tests.