FAQ - Inferential Futures

This is a Civilised Place for Public Discussion

Please behave in this community in the same way that you would behave in a public park or other shared space. We are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

These are not hard and fast rules. They are guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a kind, friendly place for civilised public discourse.

Improve and Don’t be Negative

Help us make this a vibrant and supportive community by always adding something positive to discussions you join, however small. If you’re not sure your post adds to the conversation, think carefully about what you want to say, draft it and read it through before posting.

One way to improve our community is by discovering discussions that are already happening. Spend time browsing before replying or starting your own discussion and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others with whom you can share your interests, who you can support and who can help you, too.

Things discussed and questions asked here matter a lot to us, and we think that they matter to you, too. Be respectful of all discussions and the people contributing to them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond by disagreeing. That’s fine. But remember to criticise ideas, not people. Please avoid:

Name-calling
Ad hominem attacks
Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide thoughtful insights that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make the community an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.

Our community has tools that enable us all to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, watching, muting and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.

Let’s all make our community a space where everyone can find something of value and feels welcome and valued!

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this community. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behaviour, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behaviour by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
Respect each other. Don’t harass or give grief to anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
Respect the community and other members. Don’t post spam or otherwise behave badly.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of a major news site.

This is a public space, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

Don’t start a discussion in the wrong forum; please read the forum description before posting.
Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple discussions.
Don’t post no-content replies.
Don’t divert a discussion by changing it midstream.
Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing discussion in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Discussion.