Astrogeek

Astrogeek

My name is Bill Hudson. I 'own' this site, from the standpoint that I started it, I pay the fees, and I own the domain. But really, this site is a group effort. I have done a lot of the typing and formatting, but most of the information is freely available elsewhere, or came from other contributors in the form of conversations and emails. I actively encourage people to sign up for a free wikidot membership, join the site, and start editing pages. It is a wiki, after all.

How did I get into debunking 2012? I am an amateur astronomer. I am not a professional scientist. In my 'day job' I work in Information Systems (in other words, I'm a professional computer geek, hence the nickname 'astrogeek'). I enjoy sharing my love of the night sky with people during public programs at Fremont Peak Observatory. I also enjoy taking that love into school classrooms where I give astronomy presentations. I have been doing that for a few years.

As early as 2007 I was hearing questions about "the end of the world". I am ashamed to admit that I blew it off at that point, and didn't give much thought to it.

In early 2008 I gave several presentations, and I noticed a recurring question, which was basically "Is the world going to end in 2012?". In early 2009 I gave another presentation, and at the end of this presentation I was overwhelmed with "2012" questions. In fact, two young girls confronted me after the Q&A and were asking specific questions about things that they had seen on the internet. When I asked them where, they replied that they had seen answers on Yahoo! Answers, as well as videos on YouTube.

So, I started hanging out in Yahoo! Answers, and was again overwhelmed with the sheer volume of "2012" questions. I was also overwhelmed by the number of honorable and honest people trying diligently to answer these questions. I was angered by some of the 'bad' answers, including one in particular that sticks in my mind, which was essentially "Kiss your a** goodbye", and of course the inevitable "God's judgement is upon us" and "It's the beginning of the events in the book of Revelation" type of answer (which I find particularly offensive as a Christian)1.

Well, one thing led to another, and I found myself communicating with people of a similar mindset, and I began writing my first article on 2012 on my blog. It got bigger, and bigger, and I found people referring to it, which was great by me. However, what happened was that I was targeted by a particularly nasty poster over on Y!A who began filing spurious complaints against everybody who gave a scientific or skeptical answer to a "2012" question. Eventually he managed to have my account on Y!A terminated, because I had referred to my blog (despite written rules on Y!A which say it is perfectly acceptable to do so).

At that point I realized that what was needed in order to continue referring to a central repository of information was a site that was divided topically, that did not 'belong' to a single person, so that when someone asks a question about Nibiru, they could be referred to http://2012hoax.org/nibiru, and they could do so with less fear of retaliation from Y!A trolls (I say less fear, because the Y!A trolls are still accusing everybody who cites this site of being a single person, and as far as I know, still filing spurious complaints against anyone whose answer they don't like).

The group of people I was communicating with agreed, and I started this Wiki, and invited them all to contribute. This site was born in April 2009.

Since then we have managed to attract the attention of various scientists, who have been extremely generous with their time and expertise. Some of them have become members, and everybody has been very helpful in vetting the information, doing fact checks, research, and making sure that the site has high-quality information.

Obviously, we have also attracted some other kinds of attention as well. That doesn't bother me so much. It also doesn't bother me to have my name attached to this site, because as nasty as the 2012ers can be2, they are nothing compared to the Scientologists (who I had a run-in with online in 1994).

In that original group of people were Alene YAlene Y, bikenbeer2000bikenbeer2000, Emma TEmma T and ticktockticktock. But really, every person who visits this site and posts a question is part of it. I am grateful to each and every person who has contributed to the site in any way, whether it be through participation in the forums, to writing content, or simply posting a note pointing out an error.

More information can be found on my (woefully neglected) blog

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