Just a heads up to everyone that likes to post here. I've decided to make this section public again in order to promote activity in it, but this will come at a cost of members using it inappropriately. Exilement is now a mod here and we'll try to keep watch, but cannot guarantee any sort of response time. Just report anything you see that breaks the rules here and we'll get to it when we can.

Is there anything (avoiding mini modding obviously) that users can do in their own posts to try and mitigate the quality drop?

Quote from Skeletonxf

Is there anything (avoiding mini modding obviously) that users can do in their own posts to try and mitigate the quality drop?

Could you be more specific? I'm not sure what you're referring to.

Quote from Skeletonxf

Is there anything (avoiding mini modding obviously) that users can do in their own posts to try and mitigate the quality drop?

All we can do is report it. I think that's enough.

Such as trying to get people to give reasons for their posts (when they aren't) and making sure they understand the differences of this sub forum?

For example: a while ago Scarecrow made a huge post on a derailing vaccinations thread as it turned out some people really didn't know what they were talking about, and that set the conversation back into meaning.

Edit: @Zed, I didn't mean to imply that helping people out like that was mini modding. I guess I was just clarifying on the "Do not try to contribute to topics that you know nothing about." to see if making them aware of topics is encouraged or not. (Responding intelligently to a supposed 'spam' post got me infracted once).

Pointing out that someone's point is unsupported is an important part of debating. I think you can tell someone that they need to say more without it being minimodding.

However, if someone makes a factual assertion and then concludes with "that's just my opinion" they have earned a week ban and should be reported without the dignity of a response.

Quote from Skeletonxf

Such as trying to get people to give reasons for their posts (when they aren't) and making sure they understand the differences of this sub forum?

For example: a while ago Scarecrow made a huge post on a derailing vaccinations thread as it turned out some people really didn't know what they were talking about, and that set the conversation back into meaning.

Edit: @Zed, I didn't mean to imply that helping people out like that was mini modding. I guess I was just clarifying on the "Do not try to contribute to topics that you know nothing about." to see if making them aware of topics is encouraged or not. (Responding intelligently to a supposed 'spam' post got me infracted once).

If the debate is digressing in an unintended direction, you can correct and counter their points by saying that it's irrelevant to the topic at hand. Saying that something is off-topic is attune to a counter argument, so I see nothing wrong with it.

Ex. Hypothetically speaking the topic is "Can you count science as a religion?" and an argument is "Christianity is dumb because of 'x reasons'" then yes of course you can criticize them by saying it's not relevant to the argument. Of course, someone may rebutt that it is, and so on and so forth.

People who aren't capable of debating properly won't last very long here now that I'm moderating the section. Don't worry about it.

Given that Exilement is well-versed in debate, I don't think we have anything to worry about so long as we are actually debating.

Can I propose a rule? I find it really annoying when people just post a link to a video and present it as an argument. It's acceptable if you use it to add to your existing argument or have already contributed a chunk, but for Christ sake learn to summarize.

Yeah, as part of a larger argument they're not a problem, but someone showing up just to post a video will wind up with a warning at the very least.