Announcement Changes to politics discussion policy

[Ryan_m_b]

I agree - I should have said "decides".

The reality is that in many cases it's likely to be a judgement call from the mentors. I have no doubt that there will be cases in which it's very difficult to decide if a political discussion is permissible or runs counter to PF rules, because in many cases there will be no line that separates the science policy from the political ideology. For those concerned about this I'd say that we are also concerned and are committed to making it work as best possible, this will include talking it over amongst ourselves extensively when cases aren't clear. Luckily the mod team is pretty politically diverse, in addition to being from several different parts of the world. That diversity should keep us in check, at the very least we'll balance out each other's unintended bias. And if all else fails we're just going to have to err on the side of caution and reiterate that above all this site is a learning and teaching resource, not a general purpose forum.

 

[XZ923]

There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the rule; my takeaway is basically "what subject is being discussed".

Hypothetically:
"Donald Trump is an idiot because he's a climate change skeptic"-not allowed because the subject is Donald Trump
"I read an article skeptical of climate change, what do you think of the facts stated here?"-allowed because the subject is climate change science

 

[Evo]

We have rules on discussing Climate Change, the discussions have to be accepted science. But basically we can discuss climate change science if it meets the rules (posted in the Earth Forum), we just cannot discuss the politics of climate change, but it has been that way for quite a while now.

 

[peroAlex]

I strongly support the idea that Physics Forums should be separated from any political discussion. It is a place where [we] students can find many answers, sometimes even ask one if its required and expect solid, reliable answers. Unlike Stack Exchange, this place is much more "ask nicely and you'll get a nice answer" orientated, where people actually help you instead of downvoting and/or closing your questions.

I think that this forum has a potential to become so much more. Aside from politics, science doesn't care about ideology, religious belief or nationality. Science is common contribution towards better tomorrow. On that note I would like to thank everyone who helped me, and thousands of students like myself, to comprehend, invent and develop. I hope that one day I will be capable of helping to the same extent others helped me here.

Sorry for the long post, but I had to share this. Amazing experience here, nothing but kudos to developers, administrators and users!

 

[phinds]

The easiest method would probably be to just report the first post in the thread and tell us that you'd like it moved to the new subforum. That way Evo isn't bombarded with requests and it ensures things happen in a timely manner if Evo leaves to go to a vacation in Hawaii or something.

What ? No, wait ... Evo cannot go on vacation. We need her here !

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

The change is now complete.