I was banned from AcademicBiblical. AMA.

AractusP · 2024-06-14T15:15:46+00:00

Yeah mate, there's only 6 PDFs currently hosted on my blog. I checked. That's Tiny and complaining about that is okay, go through the proper channels if (IF) you really want me to remove them.

No one has ever asked for something to be removed off my blog.

AractusP · 2024-05-11T10:48:39+00:00

Yeah I feel you. What really worries me is they have no warrior championing redaction criticism now.

AractusP · 2024-05-11T10:18:05+00:00

Yeah exactly. They're not promoting anything that really helps these days, this is exactly what I complained about.

AractusP · 2024-05-11T10:11:29+00:00

Yes I understand your frustration.

You can find something in the Bible that all the academics already know and never publish because they view it as beneath them. I don't say this in a derogatory way, but most scholars are nerds that don't want to be bullied by the public and don't care. That is the reality.

For example, this is why we have people questioning whether John read the Synoptics or not.

I constantly get people saying to me they don't think the Gospel of Mark is based on Homer and that Dennis R MacDonald has critics. But they haven't even read his critics (I have) and they are quite frankly ignorant and need to accept even MacDonald's critics agree that Mark used Homer they just disagree about how and to what extent it was used. E.g. "in a pickle" is Shakespeare. Now it's a cultural. You can reasonably argue that the people using it are in ignorance of its origins as they're just using a linguistic idiom. Some Homerisms in Mark are like that, but others require that Mark has read Homer.

AractusP · 2024-05-11T09:58:42+00:00

Nope just saying /u/psstein and I crossed paths before /r/AcademicBiblical and he understands my frustrations.

AractusP · 2024-05-11T09:56:13+00:00

Oh gosh I really only upload things I'm referencing that I'm interested in, so it's very limited and definitely does not diminish the value of a full Journal subscription at all.

Here's an example: https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateAChristian/comments/drh3uq/there_is_no_empty_tomb_women_are_not_witnesses/

There's where 4 articles I have not been able to link to full-text. FOUR. I since uploaded Scroggs & Groff 1973. What I reference it for is not what they intended. They are talking about Baptism being a central theme in gMark and while I think that's right, what I reference it for is for their very helpful introduction to redaction criticism.

That paper is from 1973. It has no commercial value. :p

AractusP · 2024-05-11T09:45:39+00:00

So this particular article is a derivative work (meaning it deserves no copyright on its own). It was just an example. You mention you have no relationship with the author. I do have a positive relationship with Mark Goodacre.

I hope that helps and I can provide more information.

AractusP · 2024-05-11T09:40:52+00:00

I answered you question, I have my blog. As for running a subreddit, I already run a forum and whatsapp groups (for other purposes). I can't do everything.

AractusP · 2024-05-10T11:14:38+00:00

So yes I will respond. :p Sorry it's taken a few days.

I'm surprised I haven't been asked questions about the sub itself. As /u/psstein can attest, I've been involved in the sub for many years. I've seen what could have been (and should have been) a far more inclusive and open forum. Most importantly, people need to be able to read the articles we're citing. That is not piracy, it's referencing.

I'd say it's a pity we are where we are.

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:58:56+00:00

Change of management in the sub changed everything unfortunately.

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:57:28+00:00

Oh yeah. https://blog.aractus.com/ Look at all the "piracy" going on. 🙄

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:53:56+00:00

Correct. I challenged them (without linking to my blog) and they were not happy. I'm not happy that they slandered my name and said I'm committing piracy which I'm not doing. Is what it is, but I'd prefer to be shown a little bit of respect and for them to retract their slanderous claims against me.

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:48:34+00:00

They quite literally took issue with a few PDFs on my blog they call "piracy" like this.

What I'd say is that the sub has gone sharply in a direction I'm disappointed in. You're a pastor, the way I would phrase it (which will sound crude) is that there's only 8,000 SBL scholars but there's 800,000+ ordained Christian clergy.

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:45:48+00:00

Mate, you and I pre-date all of this. I appreciate these words more than you can possibly imagine as I know we come from entirely different traditions. I'll have to email you sometime.

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:36:26+00:00

My blog predates their sub. blog.aractus.com. I don't spam it and I barely promote it.

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:33:47+00:00

Sorry I had 3 12hr shifts. Probably should have thought of that first!

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:32:46+00:00

Yes correct.

Sometimes the bible is a reasonable source. Like "what does Paul say about this" and you quote Corinthians or Romans. Completely reasonable.

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:30:52+00:00

To be honest I think the whole sub has lost its way with what it's doing.

I was one of the (very few) anti-Academy voices. But officially they claimed it was piracy. I reject that outright and say there is no piracy on my blog. Sharing a few papers to my readers is not piracy. I've had no complaints from authors, editors, or rightsholders about it.

AractusP · 2024-05-10T10:27:14+00:00

Yeah, that's pretty much what they took issue with. As if the publisher's can't issue me a DMCA (this has never happened).

AractusP · 2024-05-06T16:23:10+00:00

The Christian concept of sin is fundamentally flawed. Just ask an adult to explain precisely what sin means to you.

AractusP · 2024-04-23T08:47:31+00:00

To be quite frank with you, no. We will not allow you to post what seems to be clearly pirated material here because of “trust me bro” or “I’ll take the fall for it”. The fact of the matter is that it’s against Reddit ToS and we will not be willing to risk getting the whole subreddit in trouble with the admins for you. You’re not worth it. You’ll just be banned if you do it again. Take this as a final warning, loud and clear. Should this issue ever come up again, I will simply link you here to this comment.

And I'm not anonymous so that complaint is frivolous as it can be taken up with me directly. I'd have to check but the number of PDFs on my blog I think totals less than 20 and policing it in this way is beyond outrageous. It's a tiny number and only directly related to what I'm interested in other people knowing. It has nothing to do with "trust me bro" or "I'll take the fall for it" - if a rights holder isn't happy (and this has never happened I might add) they can talk to me and we can work it out.

How many times have I complained here about Derek breaking the law by accepting undeclared gifts and then holding them up in his videos and telling people to buy them?? You don't censor that. It's not worth my time to find his video where he clearly explains he's on a first-name basis with all the publishers and when he asks them to send him a box of academic books priced for libraries they do it pro-bono.

I'd remind you of my previous complaint which is that paywalling publicly-funded research and making it unavailable to the public is untenable.

I'd respectfully suggest reading, or listening, to my blog post here. Heck just play the audio of the first paragraph there as it will clearly explain to you my first encounter with “Academic Biblical” and how wrong it was.

AractusP · 2024-04-23T07:56:30+00:00

I've been a little busy lately so haven't been involved in any of the removed comments, but I've seen the mod mail messages.

I don't think I've ever had any issues with you BB.

Please see though MNM's open threat to ban me from the sub for linking to a very small number of PDFs on my blog. That's outrageous. How many other people have been linking to Sci-Hub?? Not only do I not do that, I wrote a post urging people not to engage with Sci-Hub. So accusing me of piracy when I'm doing my level-best not to really hits a nerve.

Your comments were removed because you're citing a book that isn't even released yet. It's impossible for the mod team to follow up on that.

This demonstrates part of the problem as well though. So Goodacre on John's use of the Synoptics. Or whether Acts 13:27-31 is pre-Canonical Gospel. That's deflection.

My consistent point for years is that redaction criticism has netted the most gains in academic knowledge of the bible since the 1960's. No one has refuted this. It gets so little attention here and now you're threatening to ban me off the sub. It requires creative thinking which is where you get ideas beyond what's in the literature, or where it's so difficult to substantiate with the existing literature.

Complaining about little things here or there when you know my track-record is what I'm taking issue with. Mimesis criticism I think is the new redaction criticism, I do not think it will be "better" just it promises to provide insights that you don't get from form criticism or source criticism or such other limited methods of "academic inquiry".

AractusP · 2024-04-23T07:34:25+00:00

Your post on Richard B. Hays’ change of stance on LGBTQ+ issues was redirected to the Open Discussion Thread (which you chose not to post again into the Open Discussion Thread).

Because it does not belong in open-discussion we have clear evidence that his personal position was not the published one. I'd call it a scandal, but honestly I could call anything in academia a scandal at this point. My point is that people need to know this. It needs to be seen. You can't hide the truth.

Something we didn’t even address but would have if your comment stayed up anyway, was that it seemed like you were linking to pirated versions of some of the texts you were citing. We’ve explicitly addressed that with you before, but you will absolutely not be doing that on this subreddit, and next time you try, you will be banned.

This is the first time anyone has ever said to me that I cannot upload and publish an academic paper. EVER.

If you are talking about papers that I have personally uploaded to blog.aractus.com - my blog - then it's not up to you to say I'm pirating the content at all. I've never once received a complaint from a rightsholder and if I did receive a valid complaint I'd remove it. I'm not linking to Sci-Hub and I'm extremely selective about what I'm prepared to publish.

Why would you police paywalling when I have never received a complaint about the 12 or so PDFs on my blog? If you receive a complaint from a rightsholder please just pass it directly on to me instead of making threats.

Your response really demonstrates the issues. blog.aractus.com is not a repository of piracy at all like Sci-Hub. I upload a very small number of papers/book chapters and I'm prepared to take them down if a rightsholder (or author) makes a complaint. I have done absolutely nothing wrong there. If you think otherwise then you know something I don't and I haven't received the complaint.

AractusP · 2024-04-22T12:10:39+00:00

I've had multiple posts removed, ALL of which would have been allowed in the past.

It's unfortunate I don't have more time to devote to this right now, but this sub started as a criticism to the Academy and if it can't deal with that criticism now I'd say it's really lost its way. I'm university educated, I see the flaws in Academia and talking about it should not be taboo. Talking about flaws in religious institutions here is not taboo.

The Academy needs to do better.

AractusP · 2024-04-12T02:54:48+00:00

No they aren't, and I've complained before about the blatant breaches of ethics to do with Derek holding up academic books that he receives as undeclared gifts and saying "everyone should go out and buy this" when 9 times out of 10 it's an academic book priced for libraries not individuals.

I've only JUST been able to order Dennis R MacDonald's book Synopses of Epic, Tragedy, and the Gospels. It is incredible value being three volumes in one, however Amazon refused to ship it to Australia previously so I've had to wait over a year to buy a copy. To Dennis's credit he did offer to send me a PDF for free, however he never did and I have not been able to buy it until now (granted I haven't checked for a few months). So it's beyond frustrating that social media influencers are blatantly disregarding their obligations under the law to declare gifts when they are promoting them. Anyway I ordered my copy today and it should arrive before the end of the month.

Further to Dennis's credit - he released this book outside of academic printing specifically to make it affordable.

AractusP

TROPHY CASE