I think I’ve figured out the rules now, with help from Tim Skellett aka “Gurdur” who explained it to Avicenna on Twitter. They go like this:
When someone talks shit about “FTB” that doesn’t actually mean Freethought blogs, it means “core” bloggers. Tim Skellett to Avicenna:
BTW, once again you name a peripheral FTB blogger (yourself), not a core one. Again, *cough* revealing.
Who exactly are the core ones? Skellett gives the list a few tweets later, still talking to Avi.
@saramayhew seems to refer to the core FTB bloggers, which would be PZ, Brayton, szvan, Benson, McCreight, Greta. See next.
So them’s the rules, apparently. “FTB” is just shorthand for those six people; the other 30-whatever-it-is-now don’t count.
Says who? Taslima Nasrin doesn’t count? Maryam doesn’t count, Nirmukta doesn’t count, Avi doesn’t count, Chris Rodda doesn’t, Ally Fogg, Zinnia, Yemi, Matt, Russell, Cuttlefish, Brianne, Miri – all those people and more, don’t count? They’re all “peripheral”?
What bullshit.
Update 3:30 p.m.
No lie too foul to post in writing on the internet.
Tim Skellett @Gurdur
Disgusting how FTB-ingroup use ppl like Maryam, @Million_Gods & foreign events to bolster their own egos.