Richard Dawkins-

Thank you for taking the time to comment in such detail on this matter.

Admitting that things could have been handled better by the management of RD.net was very important, and I am glad that you have done so. I think much of the fallout that has been occurring across the internet over the past few days has been fuelled by a lack of clarity on what happened, and what you intended to address in your "Outrage" post on the forum. Hopefully this statement will make things a lot clearer and allow everyone to move forward in a more productive fashion than has been possible to date.

I'm very pleased to hear that users will be able to start new threads in the discussion forum. I know there was concern that the ability to ask for advice on how to handle the religious beliefs of family members, or in schools etc etc would no longer be possible. From what you've said it sounds like the discussion forum will still offer that service, and hopefully serve as the focus for the rebuilding of the community of atheists, secularists, rationalists and freethinkers that have posted here.

Let's hope that everyone can move forward now in the reasonable and rational fashion that we aspire to.