I'd probably try going for less volume - actually. A single topic picked by the mod(s) weekly that reflects one of the biggest topical thorny issues of the week. Perhaps hold an online poll where people could vote on the topic.
Actual Discussion
Are you tired of going into controversial threads and having people not discuss things, circlejerking, or using emotional responses in place of logic? Us too.
Welcome to Actual Discussion!
DO:
- Be civil. This doesn't mean you shouldn't challenge people, just don't be a dick.
- Upvote interesting or well-articulated points, even if you may not agree.
- Be prepared to back up any claims you make with an unbiased source.
- Be willing to be wrong and append your initial post to show a changed view.
- Admit when you are incorrect or spoke poorly. Upvote when you see others correct themselves or change their mind.
- Feel free to be a "Devil's Advocate". You do not have to believe either side of an issue in order to generate solid points.
- Discuss hot-button issues.
- Add humour, and be creative! Dry writing isn't super fun to read or discuss.
DO NOT:
- Call people names or label people. We fight ideas, not people here.
- Ask for sources, and then not respond to the person providing them.
- Mindlessly downvote people you disagree with. We only downvote people that do not add to the discussion.
- Be a bot, spam, or engage in self-promotion.
- Duplicate posts from within the last month unless new information is surfaced on the topic.
- Strawman.
- Expect that personal experience or morals are a substitute for proof.
- Exaggerate. Not everything is a genocide, and not everyone slightly to the right of you is a Nazi.
- Copy an entire article in your post body. It's just messy. Link to it and maybe summarize if needed.
For more casual conversation instead of competitive ranked conversation, try: [email protected]
That's actually a very interesting idea. I don't want to discourage community engagement by limiting main posts, but maybe a pinned "Topic of the Week" would be fantastic!
Yes, sorry - didn’t mean that you should kill submissions, just not try too hard to generate traffic. I prefer quality over quantity.
Should the disclaimer for people wandering in from viewing All? Keep in mind, this is meant to be for people on phones who never read the sidebar.
Er, I think you may have missed a word or two here, as it's not very clear.
That aside, considering your "people on phones never read the sidebar" point, it may help to have a pinned post that's basically a copy of the sidebar. Although I have to point out a little snag with this, which is that it may not appear pinned on other federated instances, seems to be some odd Lemmy bug.
Edit:
Realized what you meant by the disclaimer part, having viewed some other posts here. I think if you were to retain it, it might benefit from some revision. I take it you meant this btw:
Remember: Up / Downvoting in this community is not an agree / disagree button. We upvote good or constructive conversation and downvote off-topic posts or badly-voiced opinions. If you disagree, you respond like a human in good faith and prove out your position.
You might revise it to something like:
Reminder: this post is from the community Actual Discussion. You're encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. Thanks!
I think it conveys roughly the same intent as the original, but reads maybe a little more tactful? That may be my personal bias in having written it though.
Okay, the new rules are live and I basically stole your Disclaimer. Hope that's okay!
All good by me! Btw if you intend to keep the links in the disclaimer, you'll want to adjust the community link to be like [email protected] or to keep the formatting, make the part in parentheses: https://lemmy.ca/c/[email protected].
This ensures the link takes them to this community federated on their instance instead of to it on lemmy.ca.
Fixed! Much appreciated.
Err, so I messed up on that, sorry. Lemmy's changed some stuff with the community links which I didn't realize. That second version I provided was subtly being split into two links right at the /c/, which I'd missed.
Gonna check this again:
Actual Discussion
[Actual Discussion](/c/actual_[email protected])
The above should work as I'd intended, sorry for the mixup!
Fixed the question about the disclaimer! Much appreciated.
I like your version of it and the idea of adding maybe a link to it to the disclaimer? I'll be adjusting the pinned thread today hopefully to add a little more detail than the sidebar allows.
Great suggestions!
My biggest suggestion would be moving it to a host that doesn't do Internet Fantasy League Points (a.k.a. "voting"). I like the spread of topics that have been done so far, and the rules seem fine.
Personally I don't mind upvotes as much as downvotes. I think if you get rid of the latter it gets rid of a lot of toxic behaviour. (Upvoting your comment for fantasy league points).
I would really like to do away with downvotes as well. I hope this is actually something that's coming in the Lemmy software itself - an ability for communities to have a bit more customization and options.
Sorry I had to. 😂
Haha... you ass...