There is a dedicated community on this website for Flat Earth [FE] stuff:
https://scored.co/c/flatearthresearch/new
There is no need for FE here on conspiracies IMO. If people want to explore FE they can easily seek it there or elsewhere on the internet.
My position: FE doesn't belong here. I believe the proponents of FE are ruining any chance this forum has to gain a larger following. They are time wasters and trolls who reject logical and reasonable rebuttable of their assertions. If someone disproves their idea they say it's lies and fakery without justification or evidence. If it's tiresome for me it must be annoying for others too, and perhaps it is dissuading lurkers from taking the leap and interacting here. No one should have to spend time wading through FE madness if they didn't seek it out.
My position wont change through argument. That's not what this post is about. I want to know:
Do individual, regular users on Conspiracies support banning FE posts and "discussion" from this forum?
If this motion of mine passes, the FE users would be allowed to stay, but submissions they make claiming the Earth is flat would be removed and result in a 3 day ban.
Comments arguing for FE would be removed too, if they are reported or I see them.
A note on the side bar would be added, making it clear that FE is banned here, and a link to the scored/communities FE community provided.
I think that's fair.
Since voting is easily manipulated, the way we'll decide is this:
Reply below, a top level comment, with either a YAY or NAY
YAY= I want FE banned
NAY= I want FE allowed
1 vote per user
Caveats:
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Any top level comment without a clear YAY or NAY at the beginning of the comment will be removed.
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YAYS or NAYS as a reply to a top level comment will not count and will be removed.
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Provide justification, opinions or suggestions about all this along with your vote, if you like, but place it on a separate line below your YAY or NAY.
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Replying to users is fine too, as long as you yourself have also made a top level comment with a yay or nay.
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If a top level comment is edited, the edit history will be checked and the comment may not count or may be removed.
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We have about 100 regular users/contributors, my estimate, so I hope everyone replies with a YAY or NAY. We'll give it plenty of time to ensure everyone sees this post.
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Upvotes or Downvotes on comments or on this post will be completely ignored
We're counting YAYs or NAYs from individual users only.
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Top level comments without a clear YAY or NAY will be removed.
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Duplicate YAYs or NAYS will be removed.
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Handshake account YAYs or NAYs are welcome, but they will be scrutinized and possibly ignored if they seem like sock-puppets, regardless of how they are voting. This is to ensure the minimum of vote manipulation.
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Older accounts with little to no history - or where their last comment was several months or years ago - will also be scrutinized and may not count.
I reserve the right to edit this post based on interactions and suggestions below. I may not have thought of everything. Edits will be labelled and placed at the end of this text.
EDIT
Vote over
Minus sock-puppet accounts it's 61 Nay, 44 Yay.
Most of the nays are casual, non-contributing users banging on about censorship and free speech who don't give a damn about quality content nor FE. I encourage those users to engage with FE instead of ignoring it. If you did that you would probably come to regret voting to allow it in this forum.
I'm not even convinced that the earth is flat. I admit I do not know 100% one way or the other.
But so many conspiracies tie into flat earth. Space / NASA being fake and gay. Satellites being attached to balloons instead of actually being in orbit. That 25 space bloopers post was gold.
There's lots of generally good and compelling evidence of flat earth despite it not convincing me and the model not quite adding up.
Also, I think guys like you genuinely do believe flat earth and generously share your evidence and arguments. I voted Nay. I don't even see flat earth posts as a problem. It's not drowning out other topics.
Also, people treat flat earthers poorly. Flat earthers treat you better than globe theorists treat them. If civil debate is encouraged here, then flat earthers have been far more kind to other community members than globe theorists have vice versa.
I used to be totally against anti-Vaxxers. I thought people like Jenny McCarthy were crazy. We would have banned anti-vax conspiracies 15 years ago. After covid, we're all anti-vax now. At least anti-fake-vax.
Even if flat earthers fail at proving the earth is flat, they do a good job of exposing NASA as being frauds and proving other lies about space, satellite orbits, etc.
Everyone here loves posts about facts, and things that can be proven, demonstrated, or atleast shown plausible. IMO, the moon landing appears to have been faked, but to go from that (and its associated evidence) to “therefore the earth is flat/space is fake” is just unjustified to me.
The problem with flat earth-ism is that like Q-ism and Scientism it isn’t presented from the context of isolated frauds or proven phenomena, it’s based on an all encompassing worldview which allows the believer to be able to flit from topic to topic without reconciling with what they got wrong or right. In their world nothing can be established as fact - yet paradoxically they’re beyond “convinced” of their beliefs. Atleast the ones I’m talking about when I vote yay. A handful of the best users on this site either have been convinced or lean strongly towards it. I’m not talking about those genuine, good faith users, I’m talking about the proven most prolific shill on the site, with THOUSANDS of accounts, having flat earth shit be one of his go to slide and manipulation topics