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Hello Again! Skepchick is Back!

What I've Been Up to the Past Few Years

Hello, dear friends of the Skepchick community. As you’ve probably noticed, the past two years or so have been pretty quiet on here — just little old me, posting my YouTube video transcripts. At its height, Skepchick had dozens of writers across several different sister sites blogging about science, and critical thinking, and progressive values as they pertain to women, LGBTQI, parents, teens, and those in several non-English-speaking countries.

I was really proud of our team, but depression and anxiety and unavoidable life changes sneaked up on me. It’s a bit ironic, because I made it through the worst of the death threats and rape threats I got on a regular basis during “Elevatorgate.” Elevatorgate turned to Gamergate, which turned to #MeToo and now Comicsgate, and I suppose it just all caught up to me. The torrent of hate was no longer focused on me, and so I just sort of curled up and took a nap. I stopped managing the website, and views dropped off, and one by one the writers took my lead and stopped, too.

I’ve long had it in the back of my head that I should relaunch, but depression, anxiety, and life found a way to stop me (or allow me to stop myself). Then, a few months back, a lawyer emailed me threatening to sue me over something one of my writers wrote ages ago. I realized I needed to do something, as I was spending thousands of dollars on server space and now I was preparing to spend many more thousands of dollars on a legal case, all for a website I’d been ignoring for years. I decided I would shut everything down.

Then I talked to some very kind lawyers, who told me the person threatening me was a troll who makes his living scaring bloggers into paying him off in the hopes they won’t go to court. They gave me information on how to go about fighting him, and I thought, “Oh yeah, this is what I love doing.” I love fighting bullies. I love exposing scam artists. And I love providing a platform for other writers and activists to do the same.

So instead of shutting Skepchick down, I decided to relaunch. I contacted our writers and many of them were excited to come back on. You can see the full list of them (thus far) here. You’ll once again see our daily Quickies, and you’ll be able to read voices other than mine.

We’ll also be hopping back on social media, so if you’d like you can keep in touch with us on these platforms:

Twitter

Facebook

Discord

Reddit

And once we’re up and running, we’ll be taking a look at relaunching some of the sister sites, as well.

So that’s it! It feels good to be back. Thanks for waiting.

(Oh, and yes, a post about the troll lawyer is coming soon.)

We’re back!

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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33 Comments

  1. Hooray! I keep checking in and I’ve enjoyed the transcripts but I’ve missed Skepchick. Bring it on!

  2. I’m very much looking forward to this. I’ve never experienced the “Let’s learn shit together and become better people!” vibe anywhere else that I have here.

    Welcome back!

  3. Great news. While I love Rebecca’s video posts, I have missed the other writers on Skepchick.

  4. Yippee! PS. Yes, @Melanie Reap, Convergence/Skepchickcon, Melanie still scares me. At least she doesn’t have her samurai sword…

    1. That samurai sword has gotten me through a rough few years. As a reminder to hang in there and, of course, as a letter opener.

  5. This just made my day! Can’t wait to see what you folks come up with!
    Also…sorry for your troubles.

  6. Hello Rebecca! This is great news. I’m just contacting you here to let you know I wrote an academic book chapter with a friend that features ‘elevatorgate’, and in which we excoriate Richard Dawkins. I would love you to read it (it’s a feminist piece). You can access it here: https://www.academia.edu/11644072/Entitled_to_Be_Free_Exposing_the_Limits_of_Choice_in_Freedom_Fallacy_ed._Miranda_Kiraly_and_Meagan_Tyler_2015
    Love your work!

  7. I’m excited!

    Are you interested in adding any writers that weren’t part of the team two years ago? I’d be interested…

  8. Yay!

    But no Dr Rubidium? She’s in the picture but not on the list. I see her popping up on my television every so often (along with Helen Arney and Matt Parker from Spoken Nerd) in a program that I’m not sure what’s called because I always come in somewhere after it’s started and I don’t really understand how to operate the tv.

  9. Huzzah!

    Depression sucks, perhaps mostly for the things it prevents you from doing, rather than how it feels. But it feels crap too. So maybe it just sucks generally.

  10. Yay! I’m glad my login still works and I didn’t forget my password! Also excited to see skepchick coming back <3

  11. I only started reading this site a couple months ago (and just joined to leave this comment). I guess I saw the other writers and features from the past but never connected it with being different from the from amount of stuff that was being posted now. But anyway, yeah, relaunch! Cool, good timing for me!

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