Changes highlighted in italics:

  1. Instance rules apply.
  2. [New] Be reasonable, constructive, and conductive to discussion.
  3. [Updated] Stay on-topic, specially for more divisive subjects. Avoid unnecessarily mentioning topics and individuals prone to derail the discussion.
  4. [Updated] Post sources whenever reasonable to do so. And when sharing links to paywalled content, provide either a short summary of the content or a freely accessible archive link.
  5. Avoid crack theories and pseudoscientific claims.
  6. Have fun!

What I’m looking for is constructive criticism for those rules. In special for the updated rule #3.

Thank you!

EDIT: feedback seems overwhelmingly positive, so I’m implementing the changes now. Feel free to use this thread for any sort of metadiscussion you want. Thank you all for the feedback!

  • ZagorathEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    Avoid crack theories and pseudoscientific claims.

    Aww but I love talking about Altaic!

    • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzOPM
      2·
      1 day ago

      Nowadays Altaic is a discredited hypothesis, but I wouldn’t consider it a crack theory or pseudoscience. So there’s still some room to talk about it, within discretion.

      • ZagorathEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        If I said the variant of the Altaic hypothesis that includes Korean, can it be classed as a crack theory?

        • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzOPM
          1·
          1 day ago

          Okay Starostin, now you’re going too far. :)

          I’m joking. Seriously, it depends a lot on how you approach it. Macro-Altaic is heavily controversial, not supported by linguistic and/or genetic evidence, but it is not blatantly false. So it should be fine to talk about it, or even propose that it might be true, as long as there’s no attempt to disguise it as incontestable truth or scientific consensus.

          Here’s some examples of things I’d consider crack theories, and remove accordingly:

          • Obnoxious and insistent claims that English is Romance, Romanian is Slavic, Japanese is Sinitic etc., even in the light of evidence contrariwise
          • Claims that all languages are a degenerated version of Hebrew, Sanskrit or ULTRAFRENCH
          • Crappy Proto-World reconstructions that make no attempt whatsoever to use the comparative method correctly

          The problem of those isn’t just that they’re discredited; they’re blatantly false and/or grossly disregard proper scientific methodology.