Evolution has been Disproven

Thread moved here from the Evolution forum.

From the Forum Guidelines:

3. Respect for others is the rule here. Argue the position, not the person. The Britannica says, "Usually, in a well-conducted debate, speakers are either emotionally uncommitted or can preserve sufficient detachment to maintain a coolly academic approach."

'Nuff said, I hope?

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

I don't think the moderators are here to protect the easily offended, but each moderator runs his own show. As far as I'm concerned, if someone wants to say to someone, "You're a fucking good egg!" then that's fine by me, but if they instead say, "You're demonstrating once again that you're an idiot" then I would probably step in.Moderator actions begin as warnings, either general to a thread or specific to an individual as circumstances direct, and escalate to temporary suspensions of posting privileges and ultimately permanent suspensions. Permanent suspensions have been primarily due to violations of rules 2 and 4 of the Forum Guidelines:

2. Debate in good faith by addressing rebuttals through the introduction of additional evidence or by enlarging upon the argument. Do not merely keep repeating the same points without further elaboration.

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4. Make your points by providing supporting evidence and/or argument. Avoid bare assertions. Because it is often not possible to tell which points will prove controversial, it is acceptable to wait until a point is challenged before supporting it.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Two warnings in less than 24 hours means that members aren't taking the Forum Guidelines warnings seriously. When thread participants in general fail to follow moderator requests the thread is often temporarily closed. When individual members fail to follow moderator requests, they often temporarily lose their posting privileges.Without naming anyone specifically, here are some brief descriptions of violations of the Forum Guidelines that must be brought to rein:

• There is no rule that actually states that arguments should be made in one's own words rather than in cut-n-pastes, but as I've said many times, if there was a rule for every contingency the Forum Guidelines would be so long no one would ever read them. I advise members to follow the spirit of the guidelines, and moderators can often be helpful in interpreting the rules, because oftentimes context makes interpretation difficult. There are times when a cut-n-paste is the best approach and times when it isn't.
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  I think cut-n-pastes of abstracts of technical papers fit this category of sometimes being the best answer and sometimes not, so I'm going to request that in this thread they be accompanied by some explanatory text in the member's own words.
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• Rule 3 of the Forum Guidelines is our "do unto others" rule. We encourage a spirited debate, but getting personal quickly gets in the way of informed discussion as the thread spirals into posturing and name-calling. Those who have produced posts that include words like "ignorant", "pathetic", "lies" and so forth have to step back and consider whether their terminology is contained within a constructive framework.
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• Rules 2 and 4 of the Forum Guidelines encourage members to keep moving the discussion forward, and to support their points with evidence and reasoned argumentation. I'm seeing too many unsupported dismissals of evidence and arguments.
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• One member noted that the evolutionist responses seemed to disagree with one another on some points. While there can be no reasonable expectation that different people should explain things the same way, it might be helpful if a) it were described what those disagreements were; and b) evolutionists responded with explanations or clarifications.

This is the last warning. If I have to post in this thread again it will be to announce an action.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Hi Quetzal,I was surprised to see this because your Message 151 seemed to be just what I was hoping for, and high quality to boot. As Nosy has already said, it seemed like J wasn't grasping all the content of the abstracts (he's not alone in that, I don't get them all, either) and that some additional explanatory text would help.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Hi Juhrahnimo,Sorry this happened to you, but as I was trying to explain earlier while not singling you out, we place great importance on moving the discussion forward by addressing rebuttals through evidence and/or reasoned argumentation, and this seemed to be something you were reluctant to do.The suspension is not to silence you - that's why it's only for a single day. I'm sure both Creationists and evolutionists very much do want to hear from you. But EvC Forum has worked hard to establish a reputation as a serious science discussion site, and the suspension is only intended to accomplish what the warnings did not, namely get your attention. We like being respected as a quality site, and we don't want to lose what we worked so hard to earn. Enforcing the Forum Guidelines is how we stay focused on that goal. At EvC Forum you rebut your opponent's arguments through evidence and argument.When you get back the best place to start is answering Message 151.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

I know you're responding to an earlier message and so probably hadn't read up as far as the warnings, but if we could all avoid the rhetorical skirmishing and work toward bringing the thread back on topic it would be appreciated. Thanks!

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Thank you for playing nice!This message has been edited by Admin, 02-11-2005 09:13 AM

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Hi Parasomnium!Your concern about editing posts is understood, but this thread was having difficulty staying focused. When trying to get a thread back on track it can be very distracting for some people to ignore insulting comments, even if they're struck through.As an example, imagine if the above paragraph looked like what follows, where I've inserted some gratuitous insults just as an example. Not everyone would have the ability to ignore the struck through comments:

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director