Only a thousand?

That simple and charming organization, The Friends of Charles Darwin, has just signed their thousandth member. Good for them, but still, that's pathetic — I hope it takes less than a decade to sign up another thousand. Go ahead and join if you haven't already, it's painless, I promise.

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1001 members now, PZ.

By Rob Barrett (not verified) on 21 May 2007 #permalink

Charlie is my Darwin. And Thomas is my Huxley, cool as Aldous was.

Now, have some Dawkins.

Mine hasn't kicked in yet. I might be #1005 but then I could be just one in the queue after #1004.

I tried three times and could not get past the verification code. Maybe that explains why registrations are few and far between. In any case: Here's to Charlie!

By ONeal Compton (not verified) on 21 May 2007 #permalink

Same with me. Three times, no code. On the fourth time, it told me it was having technical difficulties.

Patience. As many of you will will know, when you get Pharyngula'd it is both a blessing and a curse. How your hearts swells! He has noticed me! How your servers get found out...we're asleep over here. (Well those of us not working on a Beagle Project funding bid are). Let the FOFOCD (Founder of Friends of Charles Darwin) wake up. He did get Charles Darwin's face on our £10 note.

Hmmmm...I may have to resign my membership if they start letting any old riff-raff in...

By Ian H Spedding FCD (not verified) on 21 May 2007 #permalink

Alright, I'm in now.

I guess I'm in a signing mood today. Done and done. I also had a problem with the code, and I know I entered it right. Buggy proceedure, that.

Aaargh! (That be pirate-speak fer F%*#K!) I can't get it to work either, it thinks I am a spambot. I'll try later.

Procedure ^ Damn!

I think there's a reason for the slow sign-up rate:

Error: We are experiencing technical problems processing your membership application. Please try again later. Apologies for the inconvenience.

I'm a member - one of the great 68 from Canada!

By T. Bruce McNeely (not verified) on 21 May 2007 #permalink

Dude, like what if you were the 666th FCD? How bad would the fundies hate you then?

I'm in. It'll take another three years to get any legitimate letters after my name, anyway.

By Alex, FCD (not verified) on 21 May 2007 #permalink

Dude, like what if you were the 666th FCD? How bad would the fundies hate you then?

Since no fundie I've ever met understands Greek, I can tell them that "666" is a mistranslation and that the sign of the beast is in fact "606." Maybe I can get them to really hate me then.

The code is displayed in upper case, but it rejected my first attempt when I entered upper case. Certain that I had entered it correctly the first time, I entered the second displayed upper-case code in lower case, & got right on in!
Woohoo, Charlie is my Darwin!
I'm normally not much of a joiner, but feel honored & privileged to be a member of this group.

By justpaul, FCD (not verified) on 21 May 2007 #permalink

Well, it's a good thing I checked. Seems my attempt some months ago didn't get through. Hopefully I will be up to the standards of the organisation this time.

Optimistically using the letters,
I remain your humble servant.

JohnnieCanuck, FCD

By JohnnieCanuck (not verified) on 21 May 2007 #permalink

Hmmmm...I may have to resign my membership if they start letting any old riff-raff in...

Hey, I'm not *that* old

So, when do they mail us our badges?

By Sophist, FCD (not verified) on 21 May 2007 #permalink

And if you really want to freak some Friend of Charles Darwin out, if you find someone who lists the "FCD" let them know you approve. The guy I ran into at the political convention last year looked at me like I'd just turned him back from a newt.

Bumper stickers!

There are over 700 Steves on the NCSE list -- can't we conscript them or something?

They don't. You have to go to a currency exchange and buy a 10 pound note. I've got a couple and I'll keep one just for Darwin's portrait.

BTW, if Yanks want to do something to commemorate Darwin, keep an eye out for folk organizing events for the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth in 2009 and suggest they include note of Darwin's being born the same day. The association can't hurt among the thinking. Not too surprisingly, I've observed a certain overlap among folk who think Darwin Satan incarnate and Lincoln a despot.

I signed up.

Our currency would be improved if it showed more historical figures sporting magnificent beards a flock of finches could find refuge in.

By Richard, FCD (not verified) on 22 May 2007 #permalink

It took two attempts and the verification code was MBCIL which caused a brief moment of paranoia.

Apologies for the technical difficulties: the same thing happened the last time I was Pharyngulated. I suspect the problems are caused by record locks when more than one person tries to join at the same time. Please keep trying.

Right, I'm off to add the new members to the list. Almost 400 by my reckoning. I may be gone some time.

Thanks for the link, by the way, PZ.

I made it in... twice. Does that make me two friends?

By bybelknap, FCD (not verified) on 22 May 2007 #permalink

At #22: Strangely, I entered the code in lower case first and it was rejected; I entered the second code in uppercase and got right in. So, to anyone who is still having trouble, you may want to play around with the upper/lower cases.

Speaking of the money, I just got back from London and was convinced by my boyfriend not to exchange my remaining 10 pound note for dollars, because "I know you'll wish you hadn't." And he was right.

By kmarissa, FCD (not verified) on 22 May 2007 #permalink

The upper/lower case thing is a red herring, I'm afraid. The problem is definitely down to more than one person trying to join at the same time. I know exactly what's causing the problem and I will try to fix it eventually, but I don't want to meddle with the code while so many people are still joining (or at least trying to!) - 600 in the last 24 hours.

1642 in two days, and still climbing. Maybe we will see it double. Go tell a friend, why don't we?

You do have a few doubles in there now Richard, BTW.

By JohnnieCanuck, FCD (not verified) on 23 May 2007 #permalink