What is the purpose of Freethought Forum?

[democracy]

Is there an early thread on this topic? I have tried searching and get nowhere.What is the purpose of this place? Has this topic ever been discussed before? I am beginning to ask this question all over the social web. In every forum I am asking "What is the purpose of this forum?"


Please keep the dramatic comments to yourselves. This is a problem solving discussion.
Insert :serious: smiley here.

[mickthinks]

was created twenty years (count ‘em!) ago for the purpose of providing you a platform for that question.

What took you so long?

[Crumb]

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[ChuckF]

BLAgGAGAGagAG

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by democracy

Has this topic ever been discussed before?

Are you posting from a memory care facility?

[democracy]

What is the purpose of Freethought Forum? Is there a formal statement? I am writing a constitution for this forum, as I am doing for a number of groups. So far, I can write one article for ff.


Art. 1. Name of the Organization
The name of this organization shall be Freethought Forum.


Article 2. Purpose of Freethought Forum
???



What's the purpose?

[Ari]

Don't we already have that?

Given most if not all the forums FF was made in response to are long gone, perhaps we need a "final one standing!" trophy or something.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Ari

Don't we already have that?

Given most if not all the forums FF was made in response to are long gone, perhaps we need a "final one standing!" trophy or something.

There's this:

Freethought Forum Rights, Duties and Privileges - Freethought Forum

I don't know why we need much more, and I don't really want democracy writing the constitution for . They can do it for themselves, for their own personal fulfillment, but I don't want or need it.

[mickthinks]

[mickthinks]

Originally Posted by democracy

Is there a formal statement?

How hard have you looked for one? Something tells me you haven't even tried.

[democracy]

What is the purpose of FF? 240330_1186.mp3 - Google Drive

[seebs]

Ooh this is fun.

I assume you would be okay with me writing a Constitution for you, and then you would of course agree that, as I'm some rando on the Internet and decided to write a Constitution for you, that Constitution would fully define and bind your purpose and activities thereafter?

If not, then doesn't that raise foundational questions about your exercise here?

[democracy]

Originally Posted by seebs

Ooh this is fun.

I assume you would be okay with me writing a Constitution for you, and then you would of course agree that, as I'm some rando on the Internet and decided to write a Constitution for you, that Constitution would fully define and bind your purpose and activities thereafter?

If not, then doesn't that raise foundational questions about your exercise here?

Yes, I will submit to your constitution if it ensures maximum free speech and also brings strict order to the administration of this forum.


This is a free speech forum. Write your constitution and I'll write mine. We shall compare the two.

[seebs]

I did not propose to write a constitution for this forum, I proposed to write one for you as a person, and I did not ask you to opine on what it should ensure or why it should ensure it.

And if you do not want some random person telling you what your purpose is, even if that's not the purpose you had in mind or want, then I wonder why you think anyone should care what purpose you think they, or their forums, should have?

[democracy]

OK. The question in the OP is "What is the purpose of this forum?" If we don't know, then let's find out.

[ChuckF]

lol fuck off you little weirdo

[democracy]

Originally Posted by democracy

Art. 1. Name of the Organization
The name of this organization shall be Freethought Forum.

Article 2. Purpose of Freethought Forum
???

Regarding article 2, I propose that we begin with the words "free speech." This part should at least contain some form of that idea because this is the reason for the forum. It might be good to look at the early history.


Let's draft a few ideas.
1) The purpose of Freethought Forum is to provide a free speech area to the public.


This would seem to be in line with the initial formation of this project called "Freethought Forum." Is there anyone on this forum that is not in favor of free speech? Because, if so, we can change the purpose. Are we willing to extend the right of free speech to those who are against free speech?

[democracy]

I was invited by the following quoted material to participate in the administration of the Freethought Forum project.

Freethought Forum is inspired by the following four principles:
1) Freedom of thought
2) Freedom of expression
3) Community
4) Self-determination

Provided these principles always remain in focus, we are not only open to any suggested changes in the forum administration, structure, software or methodology, but are eager for the community to participate in administrative discussions.

What I have drafted so far would seem to be in line with what is stated above.

Art. 1. Name
The name of this organization shall be Freethought Forum.


Article 2. Purpose
The purpose of Freethought Forum is to provide a free speech area for public use.

Also, given the formal purpose that I have drafted, the following regulations are in order.

Originally Posted by democracy

1a) The administrators and/or mods shall not remove, edit or delete posts, nor delete threads, nor ban users, nor use any other automated moderation without the consent of a majority of the active elected membership.

1b) Rule 1a may be amended by a 2/3rds majority of the active elected membership.

A constitution regulates the power structure of a community. The above regulations allow the active elected membership to gauge or measure the nature and amount of free speech on this forum.

The idea of this constitution and set of regulations is to both increase the free speech and increase the quality of administration of this forum. In other words I am proposing to both loosen the limits on speech by restricting the activities of the administration and increase the orderliness of this project.

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by democracy

What I have drafted so far would seem to be in line with what is stated above.

Yes, in exactly the same way that Lara Trump tune is "in line" with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

A blog is a philosophical kingdom of one.

[seebs]

Originally Posted by democracy

OK. The question in the OP is "What is the purpose of this forum?" If we don't know, then let's find out.

The forum already states what its purpose is, and your proposed policies are, in fact, just plain not actually useful to it.


Also, like, just plain factually-incoherent. You say they shall not do various things, all of which are manual actions, "nor use any other automated moderation". But "other" is just wrong there.


The forum currently works fine. There is no problem that needs to be fixed here. The very limited set of rules the forum imposes is pretty much the sweet spot for encouraging functional freedom of speech, which is drastically reduced if a forum does not, say, do something about spam.

[Stormlight]

Originally Posted by democracy

Yes, I will submit to your constitution if it [...] also brings strict order to the administration of this forum.

Oh god yes please. The admin here is totally unhinged!! I've been banned literally dozens of times for no reason at all!

[Crumb]

That's it, you're out!