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dvgrn deleted the first thread because it contained an "irrelevant poll made to greatly exaggerate the fact that polls are useless because they do not encourage constructive discussion".

What if we had an “Interests beyond CA” subforum located in The Sandbox (category)? Another forum has agreed that this balances allowing off-topic discussion with moderation not being too difficult. All forum rules should be enforced here, including rule 4. The intent is to allow some discussion about (appropriate) non-CA topics without getting too much out of hand. To prevent diluting search results (thanks LuveelVoom), search results in the subforum should be hidden by default.

hotcrystal0 wrote: July 29th, 2025, 9:49 am dvgrn deleted the first thread because it contained an "irrelevant poll made to greatly exaggerate the fact that polls are useless because they do not encourage constructive discussion".

What if we had an “Interests beyond CA” subforum located in The Sandbox (category)? Another forum has agreed that this balances allowing off-topic discussion with moderation not being too difficult. All forum rules should be enforced here, including rule 4. The intent is to allow some discussion about (appropriate) non-CA topics without getting too much out of hand.

I feel like this would lead to a decrease in the amount of CA related conversation and dilute search results.

LuveelVoom wrote: July 29th, 2025, 10:39 am I feel like this would lead to a decrease in the amount of CA related conversation and dilute search results.

What do you mean by “dilute search results”?

hotcrystal0 wrote: July 30th, 2025, 4:54 pm

LuveelVoom wrote: July 29th, 2025, 10:39 am I feel like this would lead to a decrease in the amount of CA related conversation and dilute search results.

What do you mean by “dilute search results”?

Say I search for "zebra stripes". If there is a biology thread in the "other interests" subforum with a lot of discussion about zebras, it will be difficult for me to find the CA related results.

LuveelVoom wrote: July 30th, 2025, 4:59 pm Say I search for "zebra stripes". If there is a biology thread in the "other interests" subforum with a lot of discussion about zebras, it will be difficult for me to find the CA related results.

Maybe just hide search results in the subforum by default unless it’s enabled using advanced search then?

Here's some relevant discussion from another thread:

KittyTac wrote: January 17th, 2025, 3:57 am An idea I have is to axe the Sandbox as is and split it into 2 more strictly regulated subforums.
1. CA Sandbox. Basically the current unproblematic Sandbox threads. User pattern threads, newbies messing around, etc. Posts have to be related to cellular automata, and if they are a game they should have clearly defined rules.
2. Other Interests. An equivalent to the "non-CA topics" category on the Discord. Other math, programming, linguistics, etc. Things tenuously related related to cellular automata. Posts should have a quite high standard here.

I do not support a glut of forum games or the like.

Anivec wrote: January 27th, 2025, 4:09 pm And that’s what the Discord is for, not the forums, as implied by rules two and four respectively. I agree with hotdogPi, if it is not strongly to mostly related to this forum or cellular automata, it should not be here, and is subsequently struck down just like all the other locked threads in the sandbox. And while I do think talking about computer science and mathematics should be allowed I think it is safe to say that linguistics is not permitted.