I was reading the RSS feeds from the magazine and noticed the link to this 'press release' for ThothWeb and thought to myself, "hmm.. that place seems familiar."
And, indeed, it was! I visited that site some months back before the server & domain moved. My usual haunt had a server outtage and was down for nearly a month and I was googling for an old skeptic link that I recalled which debunked some of the pyramid nonsense. I ended up at Thoth quite by accident and decided to experiment with how the skeptic might be received at such a site.
I wasn't well received, though I must admit the site's administrator/moderator was cordial. I posted as SkinWalker (my usual pseudonym on internet sites) in the Mysteries of the World subforum, being an anthropologist/archaeologist. I ended up posting in a thread on 'underwater archaeology' and another on 'who built the pyramids.' My response on the latter was split off the thread and retitled "established thinking on the pyramids."
I find it refreshing, however, that when visiting science forums that have pseudoscience sections that there is a distinct difference from visiting pseudoscience forums with sections relating to various sciences when it comes to controlling information and welcoming discussion.
There are pressures to conform at both types of sites, but the pressures at science sites comes in the form of skeptical rebuttal and even ridicule (sometimes warranted, but mostly not). The pressures at a site like ThothWeb appear to be more direct. The administrator admonished me with the following:
"This community is based on building on esoteric thought, philosophy and doctrine. You might not agree with that, that's fine, but that's what we are about, and I'd appreciate it if you could be mindful of that fact if you are serious in your desire to contribute here.
These forums are not areas for debate I'm sorry but if you're looking for debate then you need to look elsewhere."
Much of my few posts there was clarifying several misconceptions or assumptions and to offer a skeptical point of view. The skeptical point of view isn't considered valid among those that want to believe in the fantastical over the prosaic or realistic.
I still visit ThothWeb from time to time to see what's being discussed among the 'believers' and find it helpful in exercising my own critical thinking by exploring the many posts and articles asking skeptical questions to myself. The temptation to put them into words on that site is Great! But I hold back... that's not their thing. So I resort to the anthropologist side of me and observe. Perhaps I'll even participate in some of their "rituals" and "customs" at some point.