You may be wondering why I had to change my address, why I’m cruelly forcing you to update your RSS feeds, why I’m breaking your familiar habits, why I’m making you read this awkward site with the plaster and lath showing and the ugly paint job and the stuff that doesn’t work very well, as I’m sure we’ll discover. Those are good questions, and here are my answers.

Hey, I’m an atheist, you know. You’re uncomfortable? Tough. I’m writing on this blog for me, not you.

As an outlet for self-expression, this move was necessary. National Geographic will be taking a more active role in hosting the ScienceBlogs stable, which is a good thing, since they’ll be bringing their prestige, better support, and some welcome changes to the site as a whole. They’ll also be bringing their standards & practices, which are different from the more freewheeling policies of Seed Media…and it was clear that there was going to be a culture clash in the transition.

NatGeo and I have worked out an acceptable compromise. This site on Freethoughtblogs is mine and only mine, and none of the content is in any way associated with National Geographic. Yay freedom! I can say whatever I want here! At the same time, whatever I write that I feel is compatible with the more conservative ethos of National Geographic will also appear over there — so less liberal, more religious readers can read the sciencey stuff without getting their staid world rocked. One qualifier: anti-creationism is well within the NatGeo brief, so  young-earth creationists and intelligent design cretins aren’t going to like either site. There are limits, you know.

So, if you liked the old Pharyngula exactly as it was, this is the place you want to be: update your blogrolls, change your bookmarks, redirect your RSS feeds. Other than the address, nothing has changed. This is Pharyngula Unfiltered, double espresso Pharyngula.

If you’ve been wishing Pharyngula was a little less rude and offensive, if you were constantly annoyed by the challenges to your cherished and foolish religious dogmas, do nothing at all and stick with the old site.  That will be Cool Menthol Pharyngula, or de-caf Pharyngula.

Easy choice, right? Take your pick. The only unfortunate catch is that de-caf Pharyngula is also old established Pharyngula, with most of the bugs in the software hammered out and everything already working the way you’re used to. This new Pharyngula is going to be a rough work in progress for a while, so you’re going to have to bear with us for a while, and there might be sudden abrupt changes or downtime glitches or who knows, the occasional catastrophic failure. But we’ll get better over time.

For now, if you find bugs and annoyances, go to the Complaints Department and leave a comment.