Retire Free For All Forum?

It is hereby proposed that the Free For All forum be retired. The floor is now open for comments.--------------------EvC Forum Administrator

There are two problems with the forum:

• Some have expressed dissatisfaction with the policy permitting unregistered posters. Confusion can arise because anyone can use any unregistered ID, and there have been some pretty good attempts at aping registered users.
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• There have been regular requests for placing limits on what is permitted in discussion, even though it is unmoderated.

The first is easily fixed if that's what members want.The second is not so easy.My own preference is to leave Free For All alone, but for a forum that is supposedly unmoderated it draws a disproportionate amount of criticism and appeals for help, and so we will only make changes in ways that reduce the demands on moderators.--------------------EvC Forum Administrator

The consensus is that Free For All should be registration only. I'm making the change now. I'll leave this thread open for further comment.------------------
--EvC Forum Administrator

Thanks for the clarification, Crashfrog.If I could add a little bit more specific to the guidelines, there's nothing in the guidelines against misunderstanding something, or misinterpreting something, or not knowing something. All of us are huge repositories of ignorance and misinterpretation, and considering the rapid growth of scientific knowledge our ignorance and misunderstanding grow daily. And that's okay.The problem only comes in when you (this is the neutral you - it could be anyone) assert something, and someone else replies, "You're wrong." If they stop after the "you're wrong" then they're in violation of the guidelines. They are obligated to explain *why* you are wrong. And you in replying cannot merely reply, "No, I'm right." You have to explain *why* you are right. This is how we hopefully avoid the pointless "are not"/"are too" merry-go-round.The goal here is for debate to actually get somewhere, and for that reason we try to remove the possibility that someone could provide bogus views a false veneer of substantiality through careful use of debating tactics. EvC Forum is not the place for parliamentary maneuvers or debating machinations. Once they've been challenged, assertions should be supported with argument and/or evidence. It's rule 4 of the Forum Guidelines. And rebuttals should not be ignored - in other words, one should debate in good faith. That's rule 2.Hopefully this helps a little.------------------
--Percy
   EvC Forum Administrator

To everyone,If I could provide just a little more clarification...It is often asked, "Why are you warning me about following the guidelines when no one else is following them either?" A good question.It helps to think of the guidelines as traffic laws. Our traffic laws are not strictly obeyed, but they're obeyed well enough that our roads are pretty safe. But consider how many traffic laws aren't followed. Most people roll through stop signs. Some people roll through right-turn-on red. Some people think it's okay to cut off traffic at yield signs. Almost everyone goes over the speed limit. In other words, our traffic laws aren't hard and fast. In some respects they're a little like guidelines - mostly follow them and you'll do fine.But some violations are worse than others. Going 5 or 10 miles per hour over the speed limit is fine. In fact, on some roads this isn't fast enough and you have to follow the non-statute but well-known rule of "keeping up with traffic." But go too fast and you'll get pulled over - not always, not even most of the time, not even very often in fact, but if you make a common practice of it probably a couple times a year. Run red lights and you likely won't get pulled over since the odds of a policemen being there at the right time is small, but you'll be spending a lot of time filling out accident reports and insurance forms.There's additional variation between policemen, and even between time of day with the same policeman. Blow through a speed trap at 13 mph over the limit and some policemen give you a pass, others pull you over. Maybe they're looking for the big "double penalty" speeders of 20 mph or more over the limit that day. Maybe they're in a good mood or a bad mood. Who knows? Sometimes you commit a moving violation and get pulled over, sometimes you don't. Maybe even sometimes you get pulled over when you didn't do anything. I once got pulled over three times in two days - I later found out a car similar in appearance to mine had been reported involved in a robbery.So, if you get a warning about following the guidelines, it's possible you didn't do anything wrong, but you probably did. And you've probably been doing it a lot. And other people have been doing it, too, but probably not as much as you, or maybe just not with quite as much panache. Anyway, if you get warned, please just say, "Okay, okay, I'll be good." And then be good. Or at least better. Thanks!Edited by Admin, : Minor cleanup.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

My original vision for Free For All was for anyone, registered member or not, to write whatever they liked on any topic without fear of interference from moderators and administrators. One change that was made was to require registration, and we also came to feel it wasn't appropriate to allow unfettered lombasting of people who weren't participating in Free For All, and that posters shold stay on topic. Otherwise it has remained unchanged.------------------

--	Percy
	EvC Forum Administrator