The earth is still flat! comments & suggestoin

discord73

I recently had a post deleted and recieved a warning for breaking the rule ""It is against our Posting Guidelines to discuss, in most of the PF forums or in blogs, new or non-mainstream theories or ideas that have not been published in professional peer-reviewed journals or are not part of current professional mainstream scientific discussion."

I posted
"So, what does everyone think about this?"
and having for the topic of the post a alternate theory I had come across recently

First my apologies for the post, it has been several years since I created my account and had forgotten that rule.

That being said.

Comment,
I had no idea the theory I was asking about fell into that catagory, I have no idea what has or has not been published in journals, especially now adays with the internet.

I do not agree with your rule of
"It is against our Posting Guidelines to discuss, in most of the PF forums or in blogs, new or non-mainstream theories or ideas that have not been published in professional peer-reviewed journals or are not part of current professional mainstream scientific discussion."

Every theory started out as not being published in any professional peer-reviewed jornal as well as as not being a part of a current professional mainstream scientific discussion.

My suggestion
Instead of censoring information and ideas, have a forum for those ideas to be discussed in.

This reminds me of when people where persecuted for suggesting the sun was the center of the universe instead of the earth.

Unfortunatly unless your policy of censorship is changed I shall have to refrain from visinting this site in the future as I refuse to have anything to do with anything that still censor's new, alternate or conflicting ideas. Calling them "pseudo-science" I am especially glad this isn't the dark ages or else I would have not only been censored but would have been tortured and killed for typing what I did.

another comment
It is rigid thinking and rules like the one above that keeps humanity from advancing as fast and as far as it possibly could

suggestion
instead of censoring my question, others like it, and any interest in alternate theories why not provide a forum where they can be discussed and even possibly disproven?
Why is it that throughout the ages new ideas in physics and astronomy have been repeatedly beaten down simply because they didn't agree with the current status quo?

Where would we be if Galileo or Copernicus had given into the church and had not defended the heleocentric view? or if well, I can not think of any more controversial historical topics in astronomy or physics right now.

I just hope that this post does not get censored and deleted as well

if anyone one would like to know the theory I was asking opinions about so they can share thiers with me, feel free to contact me at discord1973@comcast.net

Pengwuino

Every crackpot idea also started out the same way. This forum, as been stated by others, is for discussion about mainstream, published topics. It is not for alternative, unpublished theories and that's simply how it is. There are other forums on the internet that do discuss such theories; this is simply not one of them. If you want to discuss baking, visit a cooking forum; if you want to discuss mainstream science, this is the forum for that. I'm not trying to be dismissive, I'm simply stating the intent of the forum. Asking to keep the discussions within certain guidelines is by no means censorship considering there are plenty of other places to discuss such things.

discord73

Yea you are right, I just didn't realize when I made my original post I was doing any thign wrong(It's been several years since I've read the rules) and also my first reaction when I'm given a warning or told I broke a rule or did something wrong is to get defensive, a trait I have my idiot parents to thank for. My main point though I guess though is that instead of just not allowing non-mainstream ideas there should be a forum to discuss them in, it wouldn't be that hard to do and as many people know, many great ideas were at one time crontoversial. I just wish we could get past that as a species and accept new ideas instead of censoring them.

cristo

Sure, but that isn't the main aim of PF. This is a forum where people can come and learn and ask questions about the currently accepted, mainstream science. It is not a forum aimed at developing or publishing new theories-- that is what scientific journals are for.

PF did used to have a theory development forum in its early years, but it was a mess. If you want to discuss such 'theories', then your best bet would probably be to join another science forum-- there are plenty out there on the web with a lower level of scientific rigour.

Cyrus

You did not run across a 'theory', you can across a 'hypothesis'.

Then you are free to leave.

Again, misuse of the word theory.

No. We don't tolerate crackpot ideas. If you have an idea, do an experiment and validate it. Then get it published and report back to us.

.............. Okay.

It is pseudo-science. Sorry if this comes off rude, but if your only aim here is to post made up hypothesis, this isn't the place for you.

If you want to learn, we can tell you what books to read and learn what science is.

ZapperZ

We have already addressed this a gazillion times on here. Please spend several minutes browsing through old threads in this forum on the reasons why we have that rule.

Zz.