The question of political / conspiracy theory content

OK. Can we back up for one second. I can understand why you would draw the line at political threads. Makes sense. But it's already been agreed that there are actual conspiracy theories that have merit. Where would you draw the line on these "conspiracy theories?"

What about the idea that the military industrial complex has perhaps conspired to obfuscate and seed disinformation in the UFO field? Would that be allowed? Why? If it is a conspiracy theory?

OK, so... that's a big, fat "No" to consensus. Ah well, we'll have to try the original approach I suggested - somebody (defaulting to me if nobody else nominates) needs to go through this thread and identify all of the possible options, then we can put up a poll and simply go with the one that gets the most votes.

I already pointed out that the CT and politics content drives members away from the forum, or discourages them from signing up.  In such a situation conducting a poll can only serve to conserve the status quo, since those members whose interests may be most affected are not even present to participate in such a poll.

I already pointed out that the CT and politics content drives members away from the forum, or discourages them from signing up.  In such a situation conducting a poll can only serve to conserve the status quo, since those members whose interests may be most affected are not even present to participate in such a poll.

What about the historical Jesus vs. the Roman influence on the bible? Is that subject allowed? Or no because it was already contentious at Skeptiko?

[Laird]

I already pointed out that the CT and politics content drives members away from the forum, or discourages them from signing up.  In such a situation conducting a poll can only serve to conserve the status quo, since those members whose interests may be most affected are not even present to participate in such a poll.

That would be a sound point if we already accepted CT/politics content - but folks have been good about avoiding it while we make a decision in this thread, so I don't know that anybody's been discouraged from signing up. Do you know of anybody?

[Laird]

I thought an invitation only forum that could only be seen by invitees might work

Earlier I said that this wasn't supported by MyBB as best I could tell, but there is a way we could work it: create a forum or two which are only visible to members in a newly-created group(s), say "Politicians" and "Conspirators", and then folks could ask an admin to be added to (or removed from) one or both of those groups. That way, too, posts to those forums wouldn't show up in any listing for members who aren't in either group.

What do folks think of that possibility?

Or what if David Bailey starts going on one of his trans/homo-phobic rants. Is that suitable for psiencequest.net. Can we make a rule that David can't talk about that stuff. I'm sure that has really turned some people off of skeptiko in the past.

Was there a ruling on global warming threads? That was contentious. But it's not really politics or CT. It's science. Hmm. No science threads? That won't work.

I'm not sure why a simple solution isn't possible here: the "Other Stuff" board is for other stuff not covered under one of the other boards. If someone wants to make a thread specifically about a political issue, they can do it there. If a thread in, say, the NDE board, drifts towards political/conspiracy/cooking/music/what's-this-weird-mole-on-my-elbow discussions, moderation policy should be to drop in a reminder to stay on topic, and close down threads that persist in drifting off-topic after multiple (3?) warnings. No bigotry allowed, no baseless accusations of criminality or personal depravity toward members allowed.

I'm not sure why a simple solution isn't possible here: the "Other Stuff" board is for other stuff not covered under one of the other boards. If someone wants to make a thread specifically about a political issue, they can do it there. If a thread in, say, the NDE board, drifts towards political/conspiracy/cooking/music/what's-this-weird-mole-on-my-elbow discussions, moderation policy should be to drop in a reminder to stay on topic, and close down threads that persist in drifting off-topic after multiple (3?) warnings. No bigotry allowed, no baseless accusations of criminality or personal depravity toward members allowed.

That was my suggestion. Evidently not a strong enough stand against conspiracy theories for some folks.

[Laird]

then folks could ask an admin to be added to (or removed from) one or both of those groups.

In fact, I'm pretty sure we could set it up so folks can add or remove themselves from these groups without needing to ask an admin.