Discussion Club Guidelines

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Charles Kozierok

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May 14, 2012
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Conduct Rules

The conduct rules of the Discussion Club are the same as those of the technical areas on the AnandTech Forums. Everyone should already be familiar with the AnandTech Forum Guidelines. If you are not, please go read them now.

To make things explicit, here are some highlights of the general rules of AnandTech that particularly apply here:

  • "No trolling, flaming or personally attacking members." The primary reason why the Discussion Club was set up was to provide a place where controversial subjects and ideas could be discussed by (and as) adults.
  • "Deftly attacking ideas and backing up arguments with facts is acceptable and encouraged." This, again, is a fundamental of the DC. We're here to discuss and debate ideas, facts and opinions. Not to tear each other to shreds.
  • "Attacking other members personally and purposefully causing trouble with no motive other than to upset the crowd is not allowed." Self-explanatory (and such will be closely watched for).
  • "No posting of others' copyrighted material." Do not post entire articles or news stories -- it could get the site in trouble. An excerpt with a link is generally fine.
  • "Excessive foul language is not permitted." Any point you can make with swear words, you can make without them. If you find yourself wanting to swear at someone, you probably should cool off before responding anyway. Punctuation symbols used as emphasis are acceptable as long as not abused.

Productive Discussion Guidelines


In addition to the conduct rules, we'd like everyone to try to follow these guidelines, which we believe will help encourage productive discussion on the forum:

  1. If you post a thread, it should either be about a current and topical news event, or about a particular issue you are putting up for discussion. If the latter, please lay out your position so the thread has a reasonable starting point. Don't just post a link and leave others to figure out why they should click it.
  2. Use titles that are reasonable depictions of what you want the thread to be around. In the case of a news story, it's fine to just use the title the news agency used. This may not be appropriate for opinion pieces, if the title is deliberately inflammatory. All we ask is that you use your judgment.
  3. Quote people honestly and fairly. Don't change any text quoted, and don't deliberately quote out of context. Selective quoting of parts of a post are fine as long as it is done in a reasonable manner.
  4. If you're challenged on a point, please respond with a counter-argument, or concede the point. This keeps discussion positive, and helps everyone learn.
  5. Try to stay on topic. Sometimes threads naturally drift, but try not to deliberately introduce red herrings that will derail the discussion entirely. Resist quoting off-topic posts, which contributes to the problem.
  6. Use links to support your argument, but not to make your argument. This is especially true of media -- people are not going to sit through a long video without first being given a good idea why they should (and usually not even then).
  7. If an argument relies substantially on an appeal to authority, such as the author of an article or an expert, it is appropriate for someone who disagrees to impeach that authority's credibility. But this should be supported with specific reasoning.

About Moderation in the Discussion Club

The moderators of the Discussion Club are Charles Kozierok and EagleKeeper. EagleKeeper is also an AT admin, and there are a number of other mods and admins who are likely to participate regularly. We all have the same goal, which is for the DC to succeed. Even if there are a lot of "staff" around, know that we are not here to watch over every post looking for things to pounce on. We want you to feel comfortable here

In particular, you should know that official AT forum warnings/infractions will only be given for violation of the general AT conduct rules. Or, put another way: official AT forum warnings/infractions will not be given for posts that only violate the "Productive Discussion Guidelines" listed above.

The reason for this is both to encourage people not to be afraid to post, and to reduce the workload for the mods and admins. Instead of infractions, the moderators will deal with those who don't follow the guidelines through private messages or inline posts in threads to clarify what's expected.

Also, sometimes an otherwise productive thread will get heated due to a misunderstanding, or gradual escalation of tone, with no one individual really responsible. In these cases, a moderator will usually post in the thread to encourage folks to cool down and get back on track.

Disciplinary actions, such as temporary or permanent removal of posting rights in the Discussion Club, will be taken only in cases where a poster deliberately or consistently posts unconstructively. If you're making a good faith effort and generally following the guidelines, you have nothing to worry about.

Hope you found this useful, and please enjoy the Discussion Club!
 

Charles Kozierok

Elite Member
May 14, 2012
6,762
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This discussion flowchart was pasted into a thread here in the DC by jackstar7, who said he found it elsewhere on the forum at some point. The commentary and so forth is not meant to represent official policy, or anything. I just thought that the flow chart was such a nice encapsulation of the requirements for reasonable discussion that it would be worth putting here.

Flowchart-to-determine-if-youre-having-a-rational-discussion-e1300206446831-634x882.jpg
 
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