VV debate forum rules

[Blobbenstein]

I suppose streams of conciousness can be a load of nonsense...I don't come across them that often.

But I was posting about black holes on another forum, years ago, and a mod, non-judgementally said it was like a stream of consciousness....I was struggling with the ideas around black holes at the time, but through posting about them, I came up with some non-mainstream ideas, and came to be at peace with the whole thing. I now see that the mainstream views about black holes are probably wrong, and I'm not the only one.
The whole thing taught me a bit about the politics of science too. How ideas are suppressed, by scientists in power, and how some paradigms are quite stubbornly wedged in people's minds. So I don't think streams of conciousness are all turds, and many clear expressions of mainstream ideas, are actually turds.

 

[FortyTwo]

There should be a rule where if you participate in a debate, you have to actually listen to all sides of the debate and you are obligated to at least consider the arguments of the people on the opposing side.

Although there are way too many factors playing into this to make it an actual rule.

 

[KLS52]

I think the rules are too exclusive. I understand why it's probably necessary, but sometimes I would like to offer an opinion or comment and "4. Evidence" seems a little off putting. Opinion can be just as interesting, if not more so, than evidence. But then thats just my opinion. Ahhh...there's a new debate thread for us...

 

[Spang]

Participation in the Debate & Current Events forum dropped considerably once these rules were put in place.

 

[beancounter]

Participation in the Debate & Current Events forum dropped considerably once these rules were put in place.

IMO the rules are fairly low key compared to some other forums. What would you like see changed?

 

[Second Summer]

Just wanted to say thanks to those who have voted, and to please vote in the poll if you haven't already. (Note that I don't think Tapatalk supports polls, so you have to use a browser to vote.)

 

[SummerRain]

Participation in the Debate & Current Events forum dropped considerably once these rules were put in place.

I think this is true.

It's difficult to balance the affects of rules(or lack of them): trying to keep the forum active - but not at the expense of having members insulted/attacked/ganged up on (which often increases post count greatly, but doesn't make for a nice forum)... Having lots of rules can stop members posting, but so can nastiness. The debate forum rules try to prevent flaming/etc in the forum. That's why we wanted to ask peoples thoughts, to see if people think they are working and if their benefits out weight their disadvantages, etc.

It would be helpful if people who don't like specific rules could say which ones

 

[Moll Flanders]

I voted that I think the debate forum should be opt-out as that makes the most sense.

I haven't been on VV as much lately as the recent homophobia on here has made me quite disgusted and I feel like the mods should have stepped in and immediately put a stop to that. People who are trolls/troublemakers/people the mods know who have lots of warnings from other forums/on here should be banned or at least on moderated posts IMO.

 

[Spang]

What would you like see changed?

I think the rules are unnecessary and should be removed. Also, I think the "Unpopular Opinions Society" thread should be moved back to the Debate forum. It was once a popular thread and gave folks a reason to go to the forum.

 

[ledboots]

I think this is true.

It's difficult to balance the affects of rules(or lack of them): trying to keep the forum active - but not at the expense of having members insulted/attacked/ganged up on (which often increases post count greatly, but doesn't make for a nice forum)... Having lots of rules can stop members posting, but so can nastiness. The debate forum rules try to prevent flaming/etc in the forum. That's why we wanted to ask peoples thoughts, to see if people think they are working and if their benefits out weight their disadvantages, etc.

It would be helpful if people who don't like specific rules could say which ones

The one rule about not posting just a short reply like smiley or I Agree puzzles me. Also I don't see how liking a post somehow is being passive aggressive.

And not posting images. Sometimes it breaks up the tension to use an image; sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[Second Summer]

The rule is not that you can't post images. The rule is that you can only post images that are relevant to the discussion, I.e. only on-topic images.

 

[Blobbenstein]

technically, smilies are images.

 

[Second Summer]

technically, smilies are images.

Yes, but they're special! But yes, I agree, an unkind choice of smilies in your post could represent the same kind of problem we have with certain off-topic images. Anyway, we felt we had to draw a line somewhere, so that was where it ended up, with smilies on one side and off-topic images on the other.

 

[Spang]

It's interesting that there's a rule against off-topic images, but not a rule against heterosexism or xenophobia.

 

[beancounter]

It's interesting that there's a rule against off-topic images, but not a rule against heterosexism or xenophobia.

Off topic images are often used as a way to take a passive aggressive jab at another person...used as a way to make a personal attack without actually saying anything.

Allowing all topics with the exception of those advocating violence provides the opportunity for a free exchange of ideas. If a persons views are offensive, the ignore feature is available.

Although I realize that the problem with doing that is that newbies may believe those views reflect the views of VV.

 

[Clueless Git]

... sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Hmmm ...

How many words is this one worth?

 

[Blobbenstein]

That's 61,663 bytes, so using ASCII at one byte a letter, around 10thousand words?

 

[Spang]

Allowing all topics with the exception of those advocating violence...

Heterosexism and xenophobia contribute to the violence against LGBT people and Brown people respectively.

 

[Mischief]

It's interesting that there's a rule against off-topic images, but not a rule against heterosexism or xenophobia.

Heterosexism and xenophobia contribute to the violence against LGBT people and Brown people respectively.

Quite true. Bigotry (and that includes misogyny) does contribute to violence.

 

[Envy]

There should be a rule where if you participate in a debate, you have to actually listen to all sides of the debate and you are obligated to at least consider the arguments of the people on the opposing side.

Although there are way too many factors playing into this to make it an actual rule.

That's more of debate etiquette.

Heterosexism and xenophobia contribute to the violence against LGBT people and Brown people respectively.

Quite true. Bigotry (and that includes misogyny) does contribute to violence.

This is a not-quite public area though.