The point is that sometimes there are perfectly reasonable answers to some questions that aren't politically palatable, and Rococo wants to know how those will be handled.

Okay, got it. Thanks.

Hopefully the new moderator won't be beholden to the Woke Mob of Pea Brains.

It was the previous moderator whom I was worried about insulting, not you.

Well, that depends. Do they pay more than the Coked Mob of Flea Brains?

Great start! i have mad respect for poker dealing my friend being one.

if you guys thought that's an easy job and you could do it, try to divde a pot of 1237993 by 3 players in under 10 seconds and that 3 times per minute. you'd go nuts and mess up terribly, I can tell you that much.

as for the RFK jr., his and the book we are talking got vouched and praised by Luc Montagnier, a noble price winner for the discovery of the hiv virus. he also got blackmailed for taking during the pandemic. this should say something about the quality of this book and the author.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Montagnier

I tried to give bobo an answer to his question and just linked the book to him questioning why Elon wants to prosecute Fauci. i thought that would do it but didn't consider how delicate this topic was.
but I also have good respect in the decision making of KS and TD as from a business standpoint it was justifiable and a good call. (you want to go with the masses and don't piss off your customers)

do you think Jesse Ventura is an idiot or not. that would interest me. but of course you don't have to answer this.

happy holidays all!

the dividing isn't even the hard part, right? it's the multiplications by head that's the hard part. ah idk to be a poker dealer is hard on a table with lots of chips, that I know. enough with the math. merry Christmas..

I deleted about a 50 post derail in the Covid thread. I appreciate that threads sometimes need to "breathe" and follow some forks in the road for a while. And if the topic has legs we can make it into its own thread. But these posts weren't a fork in the road; they went straight off a cliff. 50 posts trying to guess each other's ages, post workout routines and show charts about the use of idioms by year is a train wreck not a derail.

Good question!

Good call.

(And I say that as one of the main participants in the train wreck.)

Bolded is true, but that wasn't really my point.

The people who pose the sorts of questions I mentioned almost never are looking for an answer. They are looking for an excuse to explain why they think women are intellectually inferior to men in certain respects, or in the case of the second question, an excuse to explain why they think transgender teens are prone to inappropriate sexual behavior with children.

I understand your concerns. Generally speaking those types of questions will be deleted. We are not google. If someone really wants to know if any studies exist about topic xyz they can google it. That should help deflect their using a question as a premise to start a thread by on a prohibited topic.

I am going to research the earlier policies and mod decisions irt where the line has been drawn on some topics to get a better feel for where they shake out and why. I've seen various posters mention topics that seemed to be borderline decisions so I want to be clear myself before issuing any specific guidance.

What makes something a "prohibited topic"? Is there actually a list somewhere?

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...first-1742155/

common sense man, just common sense.

this was written in 2019 so I guess the covid stuff can be revised now a little bit.

Eh, that's pretty vague, especially the part about "offensive conspiracy theories". I don't think I believe in anything that would be called a conspiracy theory, but I also can't think of any that I find offensive. I'm not particularly interested in discussing conspiracy theories anyway though, so I'm sure I won't miss them.

That's why I want to check on any additional guidance or clarifications that may have been issued by the new owners as time has gone by. And to know what decisions have been guiding posts on here recently.

I think it's pretty good although I only read it party because it seems so common sense. it's always a conspiracy until it isn't anymore. that's the problem but you need some type of safety net or it just goes full bananas/potatoe in the threads I guess. so this is pretty good imo although this means of course "kindergarten" everybody walks in a line and you get yelled at if you don't.

example: conspiracy, was a lab leak for which people got their careers taken from them and their lifes destroyed. that noble price winner Luc ^ included. that was before it turned out to be not so much controversial anymore and you could say it. people saw that from the beginning but couldn't say it without running the same risk. so yea it's a fine line between kindergarten and you have to draw the line somewhere. they drew the line too close to kindergarten according to the majority of people imo. bc all of the sudden you could say nothing not even the obvious. we got bossed around and taken for kids which was and is bs.

I want to clarify something. Washoe posted a few posts today ITT discussing previous moderation actions taken against him irt posting info about one of RFK Jrs book. His posts followed a few posts about the overall policy about conspiracy theories. I replied that I was seeking clarification about where and why the lines have been drawn in the past by the site owners and in this forum.

The problem was that some of his follow on posts were essentially ads pushing the book. Now, he on his own deleted two posts, and then I deleted one because it had no moderation questions in it, but rather continued a covid related discussion. As I've mentioned, this moderation thread is just for addressing mod issues, and not continuing discussions on other topics from other threads. I know it will take a while for people to get used to that change, so it was nbd.

But for those who may have read his posts and are questioning what can and cannot be posted, here's what I want you to know. All current forum guidelines, addressed in the stickied guidelines thread remain in effect. So in general, CT subjects are not to be posted in this forum. And because of the possible negative public health outcomes of covid related mis and disinformation, that topic has received even greater scrutiny.

The accuracy and validity of information, though, does not neatly fall on one end of a spectrum or another. Rather it is a sliding scale. But the line needs to be drawn somewhere, or forums tend to devolve into a cesspool of baseless conspiracy theories and pure BS, and those who peddle that disinformation are impervious to actual facts. Nothing will change their minds. So conversations become heated and pointless. I am in the process of reviewing past guidance and decisions on CT topics to make sure I understand and put out and enforce the proper guidelines, and will attempt to be able to give you more specific guidance with some examples. But that will take a few days, so please be patient.

So to Washoe and others raising questions about the limits to posting about CTs or less than mainstream views, I say that I get your concerns and am working on gathering info to give you the best explanations possible. Please continue to follow existing policies and don't try and repost or revisit topics you have previously been warned off of. Those could be considered repeat offenses and could trigger additional disciplinary actions.

So when it comes to CT posting rules, just STAND BACK AND STAND BY.

Thanks

Would you consider the "Wuhan Lab Leak" theory of how Covid was started to be a conspiracy theory? Why or why not?

I will have further guidance soon. Thanks.

It is not the book that I wanted to push, rather the content and that in context to a mods, bobos, question as to why elon wants fauci procecuted. I have not even read the book, but I know what happened from paying attention to the news. So in theory I should know, to some extend, what is written in the book imo. But please disregard what I said there for, I did not want to overload your start and it was inconsiderate, I just thought about that it is holidays etc.

Thanks. It's no problem. We'll get it all sorted out and clarified as best we can soon.

I don't think that raising the temperature is necessarily a bad thing. Issues where people care enough to get heated are more interesting to discuss.

The problem is when you call something stupid and just end there, as if there is nothing further to be said. Make people say "that's stupid because_______" and force them to fill in the blanks. The same goes for saying something is illogical, racist, or otherwise problematic.

I'm honest enough that I'm not going to pretend that I don't respect people who I think are morons.

Engage the argument, not the arguer.

One's contempt for the arguer will probably shine through just fine when you point out how ridiculous their argument is.

Nobody is suggesting that anyone needs to pretend to like or respect anybody they are engaging.

thanks sounds good.

Heck if you just stop 2-3 folks from trolling and Cuepee and Uke from replying to each other you solve most of the problems

Im not sure you can control disinformation . Uke mentioned a falsehood earlier the ont say Gay bill" There is no bill that bans you from saying the word gay. He just caught up in CNN talking points