The question of political / conspiracy theory content

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?

Can we moderate topics because they're dull?

[Laird]

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.

The argument being made by some against that possibility is that if we allow it there, political posts will come to dominate the forum, distracting attention from the main focus (psi/parapsychology/the paranormal/extended consciousness), and causing members to feel overwhelmed by the non-core discussions to the point that they leave the board in frustration.

On CT and fringe politics...You're basically asking to make Psience Quest Alex's trash bin. He makes a bunch of podcasts about conspiracies, but when the "Jews did it" ppl show up someone can just say, "Oh sorry that's not really Skeptiko's thing, just go over to this other fourm..."

This isn't to say Alex has some nefarious intention, rather that this would just be natural situation.

All that said, Laird's idea about something of a genuinely separate forum seems like a good idea.

[Laird]

All that said, Laird's idea about something of a genuinely separate forum seems like a good idea.

Just to be clear, these would be subforums of Psience Quest. They would just be invisible to members who hadn't added themselves to the relevant group(s). And it was really your idea, I was just elaborating on how we might implement it given our forum software.

[Ninshub]

On CT and fringe politics...You're basically asking to make Psience Quest Alex's trash bin.

I'm very partial to this sentiment and idea. At the same time, I wouldn't want to not allow people to discuss CTs (and maybe even politics...). Invisible subforums sound like a possibly good compromise?

Re: Chuck's religion comment. I personally see now reason why any of those sorts of topics cannot be discussed, for example in "Other Stuff".

Just to be clear, these would be subforums of Psience Quest. They would just be invisible to members who hadn't added themselves to the relevant group(s). And it was really your idea, I was just elaborating on how we might implement it given our forum software.

Heh thanks but it was originally Jim's idea I think.

Just to be clear, these would be subforums of Psience Quest. They would just be invisible to members who hadn't added themselves to the relevant group(s). And it was really your idea, I was just elaborating on how we might implement it given our forum software.

These subforums would still need to be moderated, right? Like Sciborg, I'm very wary of threads containing naked or even thinly disguised hatred. I don't want to be in any way associated with alt-right type intolerance and hatred.

[Laird]

Edit: N.B. This second compromise has been amended into a third compromise described here.

OK... let's try this second compromise-consensus. Same deal as before - anybody who disagrees, speak up within five days, in which case we really will have to go to a vote. Otherwise, let's go with this compromise.

• Two new subforums are set up, named something like "Politics" and "Conspiracy Theories".
  
• These two subforums are only visible to members in a newly created usergroup(s).
  
• Likewise, the posts within these two subforums are only visible in lists like "View New Posts", "View Today's Posts" and "View Unread Posts" to members in the new usergroup(s).
  
• (If possible, which I think it is) Members can freely add themselves to and remove themselves from the usergroup(s) i.e. on their own, without moderator intervention.
  

Please speak up within five days if you disagree with this proposal in general, knowing that we can discuss later as to the names and placement of these new subforums, and the name(s) of any new group(s), as well as whether there should be one group for both forums, or one for each forum.

[Laird]

These subforums would still need to be moderated, right? Like Sciborg, I'm very wary of threads containing naked or even thinly disguised hatred. I don't want to be in any way associated with alt-right type intolerance and hatred.

Yes, they would still need to be moderated. At least one moderator would need to add themself to the groups enabling visibility of the forums. I'm quite happy to be one of those moderators. I find politics / conspiracy theories relatively interesting.

[Ninshub]

These subforums would still need to be moderated, right? Like Sciborg, I'm very wary of threads containing naked or even thinly disguised hatred. I don't want to be in any way associated with alt-right type intolerance and hatred.

That raises a practical question also as to whether the moderators here have the time to moderate such content. 

Because of this I'm more inclined to create a small space for non-explicitly-political CTs like 911 or JFK, and not to create a politics sub-forum as well. I also don't care to invite the type of thing you're describing.