Rules
1. This is not a free speech zone. I reserve the right to ban anyone for any or no reason.
I intend to be a benevolent dictator, but a dictator I remain. I accept no accountability for the manner in which I tend my garden.
2. Adhere to civil discussion norms. Avoid fallacies.
Whatever you do, do it well.
3. Keep the tone civil and polite.
If you make someone angry, they might offer stupider counterarguments as a result, and you might lose the opportunity to change your mind.
Respect doesn't mean agreement. You can respectfully say that a position seems unreasonable, or thoroughly debunked. It's the difference between tolerance and acceptance.
Use people's preferred names and pronouns wherever this is reasonably feasible. (The infeasibility clause should be invoked only in truly extraordinary cases, such as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.)
4. Clear language is preferred.
Use common words in common ways, rather than insider jargon; but use technical terms correctly where this allows precision. Say "big" rather than "brobdignagian", but "mass" rather than "heaviness, but the kind that still happens in space".
Use capitalization and punctuation in common or standard ways, so that the reader can, as easily as possible, parse your sentence and understand your meaning.
5. If someone fails to meet any of these standards, refrain from flaming them; instead, ask for clarification if necessary, or offer a better rephrasing and ask if it reflects what they meant.
6. I have disabled nameposting. Rational debate is about the message, not the messenger.