Forum rules discussion thread

[hotcrystal0]

[removed]

[b-engine]

Specifically, she made a meme about how the moderators targeted a harmless Christmas thread when they weren't doing anything about Cole, despite the fact that "rule 1 violations elsewhere can still result in a ban on the forums".

Mods in the forums aren't mods in the Discord. They simply can't do anything about that.
Also, those are long established users.

[I6_I6]

I think it would be a good idea to add "Rule 3e: Do not create new threads without good reason" or something along those lines to prevent users from creating to many new threads.

[WhiteHawk]

I think it would be a good idea to add "Rule 3e: Do not create new threads without good reason" or something along those lines to prevent users from creating to many new threads.

It might be a good idea to rework "without good reason" into something more specific, but I do agree that forums often get created for things that could easily be put into the unsure discoveries threads.

Another small thing is that I do feel that the Unsure Discoveries thread is something of a "black box" where things go only to never be thought about again, which may be a deterrent that makes people create many of these crowding threads

[hotcrystal0]

You've got a point. IMO I wouldn't consider this place an "academic forum". A place where formality is expected, sure. But most of us aren't actual researchers putting out studies on this stuff, because at the end of the day cellular automata isn't a very complex subject. It can just be made complex.

I would avoid conflating "academic forum" with "peer reviewed journal" or "university department", which this website obviously is not. I would also avoid using the word "academic" (and do as far as I know), and consider it a hobbyist site that happens to include academics. Note: I am referring specifically to forum threads, not LifeWiki, which has a much higher threshold.

Per this, can we replace all instances of “academic forum” in the forum rules with “place of formal discussion”? After all, we’re not all researchers publishing studies or peer-reviewing papers (though some of us are, many aren’t).