Significant Steorn Forum Changes...

As many of you are aware, recently Steorn's forum changed from public viewing to member only viewing. This of course has caused a lot of discussion and debate, but there are plenty of places still out there in the open to discuss Steorn, including FreeEnergyTrackers, Fizzx, and of course this blog.

Something you may not know, is that Crank has now resigned as forum administrator. Crank's been administrating Steorn's forum for well over a year, and because of her relationship with Steorn, has been able to provide us with a lot of insight into the organization. I'd like to personally thank Crank for her service, and wish her well as a regular forum member! I also want to wish Magnatrix the best of luck putting up with everyone in the forum.

Forum Lockdown

For all those "lurkers" out there who browse Steorn's forum, you are out of luck, at least temporarily. Magnatrix has again blocked read access to all those not logged in. Back in June, when I published this entry, we went through a similar event. We'll have to wait and see Steorn's official reaction to the change. Remember, both forum administrators do not work for Steorn, but are volunteers. I suggest readers start using the google group Steorb.

In other news, If you haven't been reading messages here and over on the Google Group related to Steorn, Steorn has asked them to change their name, which is now Steorb. My hunch is Steorn won't actually follow through on their legal threats. Consider steornpower.com as an example.

Forum Update, Dr. Mike's Status

Steorn's forum went back to its previous state today, requiring admin approval of new accounts before posting. No comments in the forum itself were made about the subject, but a couple of commenters here mentioned that they were banned. Hopefully all those who were interested in getting accounts were able to get them!

On another note, Dr. Mike updated us on the status of his trip to London:

No tickets (although they say they are working on it, so I believe 'em), no text to read, no idea what I'll see. There was mention of discussions with the spud club, but that is all the NDA parties, so not webbable (is that a word???)

A one way web cam plus the forum would work too. For all of us skeptics that would be a great way to get some idea on how real any of this is. Frustrating because there's only one of me, but hey, it's a start!

Sean to the Rescue and the Forum is Wide Open

pcstru4 started off Sunday's discussions with this question:

Believers - What will your excuse be when Steorn does not demonstrate a working OU device in July?

This caught SeamusF's attention:

LOL do you know something that even Steorn doesnt know?

Dam I may go and cancel everything, the venue, hotels, media, etc seeing as Pcstru4 stated that "Steorn does (will) not demonstrate a working OU device in July?".

Besides all of that pcstru4, where are you based? Are you going to come along and see the demo, or are you happier making random comments about a technology which you actually know anything about?

I guess Seamus took this question personally! pcstru4 later posts that he'll definitely come if Steorn has an OU Device. SeamusF unknownly sets himself up with this statement:

We will see you at the Demo then. I will ensure you have full details on
venue as soon as we announce the dates. Make sure you introduce yourself to me
or Sean when you arrive and we will see who is right or wrong

You'll find out from Sean in a second why Seamus set himself up, but first the discussion turned to whether Steorn has actually announced that their July Demo will be of an OU device at all. SeamusF again starts digging himself a hole:

Information on this will be published as a Press Release. We are not releasing any information on it before that.

So we're now starting to all think that the July demo may not be of an OU device at all, but something else! But wait, Sean to the rescue!

July will be a demo of a real self sustaining OU device.

Sean did bring some bad news for those across the Atlantic:

On the July stuff we are not going to pre-announce the actual dates. ... The
press release will be issued the day the event start ... Its a decision we have
made based on advise from our PR company. And its one that we will not change.
Dr. Mike has a mail with a copy of the advise (and indeed the dates themselves)
however he is under NDA and cant put it in the public domain.

I'm sure that disappoints some folks, possibly even Seamus after his remarks! It's still great to know that Dr. Mike is still planning to go.

Finally, Sean made this announcement:

hehe, well I just reopened the membership thing so you get a change to get pcstru5 thru x now!

I verified that the forums are wide open at the moment. Get your account now before it's too late!

Disappearing Threads and Questions for Sean

According to folks in the forum and an anonymous commenter here, there were some threads deleted from the Steorn forums today. If anyone has a copy of the deleted posts or could summarize them for me, please email me @ wgorman AT gmail DOT com. I hate it when I miss out on drama like this!

On another note, I'd like to compile a list of questions that everyone has for Steorn, so next time we get a Questions thread or a gabbly chat with Sean we can go in prepared to ask the most interesting questions. Here are a few that I've thought of to get the discussion started:

Jury Questions for Sean:

When visiting the US in February, did you meet with any of the Jurors in person?

When did the Jury's white paper phase begin?

How often does Steorn interact with Jury members? Once a week, once a month? How much time do the Jury members seem to be spending on validation per week?

Business Model Question for Sean:

You've mentioned before that your prime market is mobile consumer electronics. Crank mentioned that she has seen an NDA between Steorn and a global company. In addition to the SPDC, jury process, and internal prototype development, are you actively working with other companies on creating products, or will those companies have to wait till after validation day to start working with Steorn?

External Steorn Forum Comments

I've seen a few comments asking to either host a forum or have a link to fizzx.com. I'm interested in everyones opinion on this topic. I don't want to compete with the Steorn Forum, and Sean has stated that he'll be opening it up again to everyone this July. Also, I unfortunately don't have time to moderate a forum. So here are my questions for you:

Does fizzx.com meet the needs of those who don't have access to Steorn's Forums?

What could fizzx.com or another forum do differently?

Should we launch an "Until Steorn opens back up" Forum?

Thanks for your thoughts on the topic!

Seamus Cartoon

Ugg. Sean hasn't posted in the forums in two days. Even Crank is concerned:

Sean is being remarkably quiet over the last few days. Have you checked the walls of the test-area for blood-spatters?

But fear not, we have at least some entertainment until the end of this month. Thank you Spiritual Beggar!


And one final note, we've received even more posts about folks not getting access to the forums. Still no un-banning. Again, if any of you are forum members and can post a message about this, it would be very appreciated.

Recent Steorn Forum Comments

I've added a quick link list on the left hand side of the blog with links to specific users on Steorn's Forum that I monitor. Check out some of the interesting posts from Steorn, Crank, Dr. Mike, and Others!

Randi Forums

I wanted to point folks to the Forums over at Randi.org. There is a long discussion about Steorn, which started back in September and is still active. Back in September Horatius made this statement regarding the Jury process. I still think it applies until proven otherwise:

The problem is, with thousands of people applying, if they're not honest about their belief in their results, but are instead frauds, they can select the ones most likely to either screw things up, or actually bias it in their favour. Without having a public list of who's volunteered, we have no way of knowing if the people they select are really the best to test their claims.

I mean, you read Randi's Commentaries, right? How many "scientists" has he profiled who accept any and all claims without reservation? I'm sure there's more than 12 of this sort in the list of volunteers. Free energy attracts them like bugs to a flame.

If I was them (and really believed I had something, rather than being a knowing fraud), I'd want the worst (and thus best) skeptics to be on the panel, and I'd want that to be public. That way, if they end up validating my claim, there wouldn't be nearly as many accusations that I had stacked the deck in my own favour. Because, as it is, any positive reports will be critisized in just this way. <---(can I claim that as a prediction for the Challenge? No? Oh, okay....)

Important Business...

Today in the forums we saw that while Steorn is (im)possibly going to save the world from our energy crisis, they also may amuse the world with their forum shenanigans. Crank, who has administrator rights in the forums, banned Sean, who then turned around and banned SeamusF and Crank. Later Sean put the blame solely on Seamus and unbanned Crank. All of this, and the two accounts that I applied for are still both banned. What a strange place this forum is.

Speaking of Crank, I figured I would post some of the pictures that she has up on her Flickr Account. A while back Sean discussed having a large test setup in a stairwell:


Crank was able to photograph the setup. So at least they don't seem to just make stuff up. Also, here is a screenshot of some video that Steorn allowed Crank to screen capture:

The little black thing in the middle is the special configuration of magnets in resin which Steorn claims produces free energy. This toy looks overly complicated, and even Steorn has said in the past that there are much simpler ways to use the technology than this.