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:
-
Any top level comment without a clear YAY or NAY at the beginning of the comment will be removed.
-
YAYS or NAYS as a reply to a top level comment will not count and will be removed.
-
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.
-
Replying to users is fine too, as long as you yourself have also made a top level comment with a yay or nay.
-
If a top level comment is edited, the edit history will be checked and the comment may not count or may be removed.
-
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.
-
Upvotes or Downvotes on comments or on this post will be completely ignored
We're counting YAYs or NAYs from individual users only.
-
Top level comments without a clear YAY or NAY will be removed.
-
Duplicate YAYs or NAYS will be removed.
-
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.
-
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.
Nay. Censoring the free debate of ideas is antithetical to all that we value. I detest Flat earth but we can't ban it just because we don't like dealing with it.
Do you ever engage in debate with FE? FE threads are not a free debate of Ideas. They are a toxic mess that degrades this forum.
Many in thread are taking a single blanket stance against censorship of any kind that is unrealistic, unworkable, impractical. Everyone says they believe in it, but no one really does. You may proclaim you are against censoring things, but actually there is plenty that you want censored, and expect to be censored in society and on the internet.
Unless it is illegal in nature there is no excuse to censor it.
So laws are your red line? You have complete faith in all laws that are passed? Everywhere?
In many European countries free and open debate of the Holocaust and WW2 in general is banned. By your logic, under those laws, removing such historical revisionist discussion would be completely legitimate censorship, but removing Flat Earth posts would be a gross violation of free speech. Does that make sense to you?
Many Blue and Red Politicians would give their right nut or breast to be able to ban free and open debate of the Holocaust in the US like in EU countries. So don't think that such laws could never happen in America. All it takes is for the internet to be declared some kind of unreal state of existence that is not governable by the US constitution for online discussion to be locked down. But you know what will never be a priority to any such authorities? Banning Flat Earth. Because keeping things around that keep people fucking ignorant and stupid is always preferred by authoritarians.
I'm talking about freedom of speech laws. Stuff that is illegal (such as death threats, dozzing, pedophilia, rape, etc) should undoubtedly be banned. But banning Flat Earth just because we may disagree on it goes against my values. I hate FE retards, but I'm not about to support ostracizing them from society. It's more fun trolling them by pretending to be curious and then dumping boatloads of debunks on them and watching them writhe and squirm like Fauci getting grilled by Rand Paul.