Rules

As this site is still a fledgling, I’m feeling my way with regard to rules.

So I’m going to start a bit vague, then get more specific as need arises.The principle is in the strapline: Park your priors by the door.  Everyone has priors, they are crucial to way we make sense of the world.  But the impetus behind this site is to be a place where they can be loosened and adjusted while you wait.  So leave them by the door, and pick them up again as you leave!

There are plenty of blogs and forums where people with like priors can hang out and scoff at those who do not share them.  There’s nothing wrong with those sites, and I’ve learned a lot from them. But the idea here is to provide a venue where people with very different priors can come to discover what common ground we share; what misunderstandings of other views we hold; and, having cleared away the straw men, find out where our real differences lie.  In my experience, when you reach that point, who is right becomes obvious to both parties 🙂

Edited 1/12/15 to change from third to first person plural.

 

So draft rules:

  • Assume all other posters are posting in good faith.
    • For example, do not accuse other posters of being deliberately misleading
  • Do not use turn this site into as a peanut gallery for observing the antics on other boards. (there are plenty of places on the web where you can do that!)
  • Address the content of the post, not the perceived failings of the poster. [purple text added 28th November 2015]
    • This means that accusing others of ignorance or stupidity is off topic
    • As is implying that other posters are mentally ill or demented.
  • Don’t advocate illegal activities.
  • Don’t post porn, or links to porn, or any material liable to risk the integrity of another poster’s computer*.

ETA 8th September 2013

  • If you have author permissions, and post an OP, you may find you have the technical ability to edit comments to your post, and move them.  Please do not do so.  Rule violating posts will be moved by moderators, and it is a principle of this site that comments are not edited, deleted, or hidden.

ETA 27th January 2014

  • Don’t use this site to try to “out” other internet denizens or indulge in ad hominem speculations.  Such speculations may, notwithstanding general principles regarding deletion, be deleted. ETA 13th June 2015: please read the guidlines in ETA6 below and note that the rule applies even if the person in question has made the information possible to find out)

That’ll do for starters!

Posts won’t be moderated unless I find there’s a problem – if your post is held in moderation it’ll just be because the spam filter caught it.

If you want to post OPs, let me know and I’ll register you as a Subscriber.  That means your OPs will be held in moderation until I click the publish button.  If all goes well, I’ll push people up to Author.

One last thing – I’ve set the nesting for threaded comments to be quite deep, because I like nested sites – derails are much less of a problem and I’m an inveterate derailer.  So use the nesting if it suits your post i.e. if you are replying to a specific post rather than making a general point re the OP.

And thanks for coming!

Lizzie

ETA: I’ve added the coloured text above for clarity (22.2.2012)

ETA2: Blue text added above for clarity (7.05.2012)

ETA3: New rule added in purple (12.05.2012)

ETA4: *Violation of rule in purple will result in immediate and permanent ban (14.05.2012)

ETA5: Peanut rule gallery relaxed a little (5th November 2012)

 ETA6, June 13th, 2015): Below is a copy&paste from a a post of mine in a discussion regarding the outing rule:

It is part of the founding philosophy of TSZ that no-one “deserves” to be banned. People are banned for one reason only: to ensure that we don’t get posts containing the very narrow range of material that is not allowed here, namely porn/malware (or links to); and material that gives the RL identity of people known to us by their internet names, without their permission (also known, I understand, as “doxxing”).

There are a couple of grey areas regarding that last one but I think I have made the boundaries clear, and will try to make them clearer still:

Firstly: If someone has made it clear who they are in RL, e.g. by linking to their publications, that is fine, and it is still fine for others to acknowledge the identity if their publications are being discussed. However, it is not OK to use that person’s RL name in personal attacks, which are against the game-rules anyway (“assume the other person is posting in good faith”; “address the argument, not the person”) but are not in themselves things I would ever ban anyone for. Such posts just get moved to guano, just as pieces get moved off a chess board. But if in breaking those rules, you invoke someone’s personal ID, that is not on, the reason being that I don’t want such personal attacks here to come up in a google search of that person’s RL name, as such things happen, as I know to my cost.

Secondly, if the person in here is not a regular poster here, but is nonetheless effectively party to the conversations we often have by loud-hailer as it were, at another site, then membership protections apply. In any case, in the case of kairosfocus, I think he is, or was, a registered member here, and you easily can’t tell in any case. So if in doubt, assume membership, either actual or virtual, and don’t link identity with internet handle. In other words, do not post the RL identities of people with whom our personal relations, as it were, are in their internet identities.

ETA 29th November, 2015:

This post by Reciprocating Bill sums up the ethos of the site brilliantly so I’m quoting it here:

Participation at this site entails obligations similar to those that attend playing a game. While there is no objective moral obligation to answer questions, the site has aims, rules and informal stakeholders, just as football has same. When violations of those aims and rules are perceived and/or the enforcement of same is seen as arbitrary or inconsistent, differences and conflicts arise. No resort to objective morality, yet perfectly comprehensible and appropriate opprobrium.

13th December 2015:

This post by DNA_Jock sums up how the implementation of the rules essentially works, and how I think it should work.  If you think it doesn’t, let us know:

DNA_Jock:

walto: it’s arbitrary and capricious which posts get guanoed

I think not. It is stochastic.
Things that increase vs. decrease the probability of guanoing:
1 Clearly breaks rules vs. may be interpreted as rule-breaking.
2 Guanoing requested vs. Target requests post not be guanoed
3 Author perceived to be “home” side vs. Author perceived to be “visitor”
4 Target perceived to be “visitor” vs. Target is an admin
5 Substantive content is low vs. Substantive content is high
6 Derailing active discussion vs. ancient bloody history.
As to the relative importance of the different factors, YMMV.
<snip irrelevant bit>
Discrete-choice modeling, it’s fun.

ETA (by AF) 23.01.20 — TSZ Policy on Racism (as stated by EL here)

I do not want racist material on this site. Like porn, it should be deleted immediately (not moved to Guano).

The poster should be warned, and if there is ONE further violation, then the poster should be banned…

…That is my policy. There is a very short list of things that I simply do not want, and will not have on this site, and racist material is one of them.

410 thoughts on “Rules

  1. Joe, I try to move the most egregiously rule-violating posts, but I have been busy this week. However, the vast majority of those posts are yours. If you don’t want to post here, that is fine, but if you do, and I can’t rely on you to keep mostly to the site rules, then I will keep you in moderation. I will always post your comments, if not always in the thread to which they were posted, and it is not my intention to ban anyone.

  2. btw, I don’t mind rule-violating posts addressed to me in this thread, but others go to guano 🙂

  3. Liz,

    I really do not care about posting here. But here are a bunch of evos who are either clueless or lying. Not only that not one can ante-up and support their position.

    Gil left, William Murray hasn’t been around. SCheeseman hasn’t been around. Robert just showed up and I am sure that won’t last.

    So hey I feel more than confident that I could make my case to an open-minded panel that it is the evos who are guilty of provoking and also guilty of not having an open and honest discussion.

  4. Elizabeth:
    OK, I thought it was some generic kitten barbecue comment.Sorry.

    Would you mind if I moved this to the Sandbox, though, to keep this thread OT?

    Since Sal chose to post here about his personal history, beliefs, opinions, relationships, affiliations, and interactions with others, he made himself fair game, and responses about that stuff are not off topic.

    Frankly, I’m tiring of you moving posts that shouldn’t be moved and not moving or deleting posts that should be moved or deleted (Joe G). It’s your site but if you want reasonably civil, productive discussions, and if you want to attract people who want reasonably civil, productive discussions, you simply cannot allow deranged trolls like Joe to disrupt EVERY thread he posts in with lies, bald assertions, insults, projection, false accusations, foul language, off topic gibberish, unsupported drivel, avoidance of questions, and especially threats. Inadequate or inconsistent moderation just creates chaos. Draw a line and stand by it.

  5. Joe is back on moderation for precisely the reasons you give.

    And I will continue to try to remove posts that seem to me to be disrupting the thread, whether because they violate the site rules or are a side-discussion. In the latter case, I will move them to the Sandbox and/or start a new thread.

    Eventually perhaps I will change to forum software and get some moderators, but right now, there are advantages to the blog format that don’t yet outweigh the disadvantages of somewhat sporadic and idiosyncratic moderation from me.

  6. LoL! Liz. If I am on moderation for those reasons then Creo, thorton, Rich- well everyone should be in moderation.

  7. Hey Liz- Why is it that you evos never post about your position and the positive evidence that supports it?

    What are you afraid of?

  8. Yes, Liz has drawn a line around all evoTARDs and anyone, but that evoTARD, who crosses it gets moderated.

    Look if evoTARDs were capable of “reasonably civil, productive discussions” you would be allowed to post on blogs like Uncommon Descent. The ONLY reason my posts contain what they do is because evoTARDs are not capable of “reasonably civil, productive discussions”.

    I have never insulted a person engaging in “reasonably civil, productive discussions”. If I am insulting someone it is 99.999999999999999999% certain that person did something to me or someone I know- something underhanded.

  9. Could I ask why posts that include the word moron, referring to other posters, are being released from moderation and not going to guano?

  10. Yes there are advantages to this blog’s format- for one you have the advantage of saying anything you want and not have to support it.

    Good job Liz- you have turned your blog into an evo-spewage depot…

  11. Joe G

    Look if evoTARDs were capable of “reasonably civil, productive discussions” you would be allowed to post on blogs like Uncommon Descent.

    Liz was banned from UD despite bending over backwards to be civil to bloviating assholes such as KF, ‘News’ and Arrington. Almost all those expelled in the moronic “non-contradiction” purge were civil – DESPITE extensive provocation from such as yourself.

    The ONLY reason my posts contain what they do is because evoTARDs are not capable of “reasonably civil, productive discussions”.

    It’s them nasty evotards … they MAKE me say bad things…

    I have never insulted a person engaging in “reasonably civil, productive discussions”. If I am insulting someone it is 99.999999999999999999% certain that person did something to me or someone I know- something underhanded.

    You are being economical with the truth. One of my first posts to which you responded, not even addressed to you, but regarding a factual error in an OP, was met with “[…] or are you too stupid to understand that?” from “Joseph” – the first of many where inability to sustain a rational discussion resulted in childish name-calling. That’s your standard. “Doing something to someone you know” extends to expressing a contrary opinion, and therefore, in Joe-world, everyone is fair game for insults. You obviously think this approach gets you somewhere.

  12. Liz was banned because she could not be reasoned with and refused to be reasonable.

    And please provide a reference to support your claim- that I said something insulting to you first. Or are you afraid of exposing your sock-puppets?

    It’s them nasty evotards … they MAKE me say bad things…

    Nope, it’s called fighting fire with fire. Apparently you are too stupid to understand that also.

  13. Joe G: 21 posts in moderation- how many can it hold?I beseech you, let my posts go!

    Joe – not all posts make it on your blog, but they do here eventually and they do at AtBC instantly. There’s a word for wanting somethig you don’t do yourself. Do you know what it is?

  14. Rich,

    All posts that are on-topic, relevant and add to the discussion make it on my blog. evoTARD drooling doesn’t make it some of the time.

    Then there are other evo blogs that don’t allow me nor other IDists to post at all- or we are moderated.

    OTOH my posts here are directly relevant to what I am responding to. Ya see Richie, all I am asking for is equality on THIS blog. But thanks for proving that you still cannot focus…

  15. Joe G: Rich,All posts that are on-topic, relevant and add to the discussion make it on my blog. evoTARD drooling doesn’t make it some of the time.Then there are other evo blogs that don’t allow me nor other IDists to post at all- or we are moderated.OTOH my posts here are directly relevant to what I am responding to. Ya see Richie, all I am asking for is equality on THIS blog. But thanks for proving that you still cannot focus…

    Short version – you’re a hypocrite because you want here what you don’t extend to others. Thanks.

  16. Joe G,

    Joe

    Liz was banned because she could not be reasoned with and refused to be reasonable.

    Oh, for fuck’s sake! You can’t see it, can you? Irony …

    And please provide a reference to support your claim- that I said something insulting to you first. Or are you afraid of exposing your sock-puppets?

    I was Chas D at UD. I have never name-called anyone on the internet, to my memory, though I have had a good laugh at people making factual errors in a belligerent manner. Perhaps you could prove the prior provocation?

    Allan: It’s them nasty evotards … they MAKE me say bad things…

    Joe: Nope, it’s called fighting fire with fire. Apparently you are too stupid to understand that also.

    What I don’t understand is why you think your approach plays no part in the response you get – whether I’m too stupid, or a better judge of human nature than you, I can’t say. I’m aware that NOW most people treat you with considerable contempt, but from what I have seen of you, I don’t think your whinge that you are always the po’ victim holds any water at all.

  17. So no reference, just your “testimony” as evidence, then.

    And I never said I am a victim. I’m just a person who is ready, willing and able to mix it up with the mud-slingers.

  18. Joe G: No Rich, your twisted version of reality means nothing.

    That’s a shame because my ‘twisted version’ is the same as the vast majority of people’s. You’re a hypocrite, and you know it.

  19. Joe G: And I never said I am a victim. I’m just a person who is ready, willing and able to mix it up with the mud-slingers.

    Ready – check!
    Willing – check!
    Able – from moles to orbital mechanics, from parking lot directions to sock-puppet schizophrenia – “able” is probably the last word one could apply to you.

  20. Well I am still here mixing it up with the mud slingers, so obviously I am able.

    And your misremembering and twisting still doesn’t mean anything.

    Heck you aren’t able to do anything but stroke other evos and attack everyone else.

  21. You mean the vast majority of evoTARDs- the twisted people- no one cares Richie.

    You’re a cry-baby and YOU know it. Now go stroke Patrick again…

  22. Joe G: Well I am still here mixing it up with the mud slingers, so obviously I am able.

    You’re not really mixing it up. Just being laughed it. Able suggests a capability you’ve yet to demonstrate. Well you make us laugh, so you’re able in that regard, I suppose.

  23. Joe G: You mean the vast majority of evoTARDs- the twisted people- no one cares Richie.

    No, I mean people who understand ‘hypocrite’, which is most people, in my experience. But keep having a good cry that you can’t get here what you wont give others.

  24. Richie-

    You are sadly mistaken. I grant more on my blog than Elizabeth does here. IOW you are either a liar or just demented.

  25. LoL! Yes, considering what I am responding to, I am mixing it up and at least as capable as all the evoTARD posters.

    At least I am not a stroker…

  26. Joe G: LoL! Yes, considering what I am responding to, I am mixing it up and at least as capable as all the evoTARD posters.At least I am not a stroker…

    Joe, sweetheart, you wouldn’t know ‘mixing it up’ if it placed you in a martini shaker.

  27. Joe G: Richie, cupcake, you don’t appear to know anything beyond stroking and choking.

    That’s not mixing up it either. Sorry little fella!

  28. No, not all posts make it through to where they belong and not all posts make it through.

    OTOH I have posted the vast majority of your posts even though they are all just cowardly spewage. That is even though they all are guano…

  29. Joe G: No, not all posts make it through to where they belong and not all posts make it through.OTOH I have posted the vast majority of your posts even though they are all just cowardly spewage. That is even though they all are guano…

    Thanks for admitting you’re a hypocrite

  30. Joe G:
    Richie-

    You are sadly mistaken. I grant more on my blog than Elizabeth does here. IOW you are either a liar or just demented.

    I have not yet deleted any contribution, apart from duplicates and spam (which is deleted automatically). The only deletions that occurred were when one poster deleted his own threads.

  31. Elizabeth:
    Creodont, I moved a bunch of your posts to guano.

    Please use some other venue for your slanging match with Joe G.Geez, it’s like the back of the school bus in here, sometimes.

    So joe can say whatever he wants and I can’t?

    You need a clue too. What the hell is wrong with you?

  32. Creodont2: So joe can say whatever he wants and I can’t?

    You need a clue too. What the hell is wrong with you?

    The only thing I’ve seen “wrong” with Dr. Liddle is that she bends over backwards to be fair to those with whom she disagrees and expects the best from those with whom she does agree.

    My view, which I’m sure you are simply dying to hear, is that you are providing exactly what your interlocutor wants most: attention. While your kindness reflects well on your own character, I am surprised that you are expending so much emotional energy on someone you clearly disdain.

  33. Creodont2: So joe can say whatever he wants and I can’t?

    You need a clue too. What the hell is wrong with you?

    You can both say whatever you want, but some if it will get moved to Guano if it doesn’t, in my view, stick to the forum rules.

    Joe G is far more heavily moderated than anyone here, and the only reason he escapes from the moderation queue sometimes is that the software can’t cope with the concept that I would allow a moderated user to make OPs.

    He’s now back in his box, and you will note that Guano is largely populated by posts by Joe G. So your complaint that “joe can say whatever he likes” is completely unfounded, and, literally, childish!

    But to be fair to Joe, he doesn’t complain much, and he is often provoked. He often provokes too, of course, but a bit of sitting-on-hands all round would make my life a lot easier.

  34. Joe G:
    I was just saying that I grant more to be said- more mud- on my blog than you would ever allow here.

    Joe, I don’t disallow anything on my blog. I just move some of it to guano. It’s still there, it’s perfectly readable by any internet denizen, and you can even link to it.

    I won’t deny it makes you look a bit silly though.

  35. Yes you move it- to guano or the sandbox or moderation- and the discussion becomes disjointed or has moved on to other refusals to support evolutionism.

    The rules on my blog are simple and I still let evos violate them-

    I ask that posters stay on-topic and actually ante-up something that supports their position.

    And for the most part they cannot even do that, yet I still let them post.

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