site news

I’m back off on my one of regular breaks to the Happy Productive Worker Recreation Complex in Scarborough for the rest of the week. Olga, my Scarborough Tourist Board-approved tour guide, has promised to take me dissident-shooting, and also promises many happy evenings recycling plutonium for the glorious benefit of the Motherland. I’m told that the stewed beetroot is divine at this time of year, and as for the raw turnip…simply superb.

So, I’ll should be back on Monday. Behave yourselves in my absence, and if one of you feels keen to do This Week in Mentalists on Saturday, go ahead.

Okay, the tone of debates seems to have, shall we say, lowered a bit lately, so I’m going to make a little statement about rules of the site.

First off, I have made the decision that quotes from or links to BNP websites are not permitted on this site. I know that some of you object to this on free-speech grounds. The likes of the BNP are free to speak elsewhere on other websites, as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, I’m not going to debate the matter further. The decision is made and that’s it.

Second, some of the debates have at times descended into personal attacks. That’s not acceptable. By all means be as forthright as you like in debating ideas and issues, but don’t lower yourselves to insults or abuse. Attack the ideas, not the individual. As a rough guide:

Acceptable: “That suggestion is blitheringly idiotic”

Not Acceptable: “You are a blithering idiot”

If a comments thread is starting to turn into a slanging match, I will simply close the thread. Repeat offenders will be given a warning, then a temporary ban if they persist, and then if necessary a permanent ban.

There is no comments thread for this post because this is not a matter for debate. It’s simply a statement of how it is.

Sorry guys, but there’ll be no This Week in Mentalists this coming Saturday. I’m going away for a few days break until next Monday, and I won’t have any internet access during that time. So don’t bother shouting for a round-up on Saturday, cos you’ll be talking to yourselves (Shrink, Serotonin, I do mean you two reprobates :p )

Until then, keep it real and keep it argumentative. See you lot next week.

PS. The Guardian has given us another plug. Wooooo!

Do not panic! The upgrade is in process. Wordpress has been updated to the latest version. Most of the plugins look like they are working. Based on the five minutes of testing I have just done. Forums have been updated and should allow direct person to person messaging, any problems with this and it will be disabled.

The themes have been updated to the most recent versions which means the cruft I have added has been removed. When a favourite theme has been picked I will update the colours and tweak the appearance as currently they all look a bit garish on the eyes. For the love of Cthulhu do not just pick the plain unadorned Sandbox theme from the theme switcher.

Comments on themes, appearance, breaks and anything else technical and site related please leave a comment or discuss in the forums.

Thanks for your time and patience during this time of hideous ugliness.

Mental Nurse.

Join the forum discussion on this post - (2) Posts

It’s time for a new look to the site. We’re considering 5 possible themes, so here’s your chance to have you say on what the site should look like. The nominees are…

1. Ponjong
2. Ceruleus
3. Essay
4. Shades of Gray
5. Blueberry

I’ve opened up a poll box on the right hand side of the webpage. Vote for your favourite.

Okay, I shall now reveal the reason I wasn’t able to do This Week in Mentalists yesterday (I’ll do it later today).

The reason is that I was at the Operation Party Hard protests in London against the Church of Scientology.

I think criticism of psychiatry is perfectly valid, except when it comes from the Church of Scientology. They have a museum entitled Psychiatry - An Industry of Death, which among other things accuses psychiatry of being responsible for the Holocaust. The CoS also has questions to answer about the deaths of Lisa McPherson a mentally ill woman who died under the care of the Church of Scientology, and of Elli Perkins who was killed by her schizophrenic son after Scientologists treated him with vitamins instead of antipsychotics.

I have pictures of the protests. Lots and lots of pictures. Since we’ve been having bandwidth problems on this site, I’ve created a separate blog over here. Go take a peek at what I was up to.

I normally do This Week in Mentalists on a Saturday, but I’ll be busy all day today, so I’ll do it tomorrow, and also tomorrow I’ll tell you lot what I’ve been up to.

In the meantime, here’s a stirring patriotic anthem (and cryptic clue as to where I’ll be today).

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

The above information is also available in pictorial form.

Since the “about us” page hasn’t been amended recently, and we’ve had a few new authors start, I’ve taken a few minutes to update it.

Go read, and get to know us a little better.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hopefully no one is reading this on the day itself. Just thought I would write a quick message to try and sum up the last year and some news on upcoming changes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mental, the original founder and maintaining of this website, has asked me to let it be known that he’s standing down from maintaining it. He’s passed over the maintenance tasks to me.

In taking over, I’d like to thank Mental for being the person who built up this online resource, and I hope I can keep it at the current high quality.

As some of you know I have been planning a break for a while. As it is almost midnight I thought now would be a good time to announce it.

I announce I am having a break from Mental Nurse.

Mental

Read the rest of this entry »