This forum is dedicated to continual re-education and our search for a unified and greater understanding of life. It has been started in the hope that we can help each other communicate complicated and controversial subjects in a healthy environment.

We have thousands of people passing through our site daily, from hundreds of different cultures and countries. We have a unique opportunity to structure some good old fashioned debate in a modern interconnected global community.

The rules and guidelines below are here to help you get the most out of our little, hopeful, enterprise.

The englishforums.com team.

You may not be right for this section if you..

-Take things personally.
-Are looking for a fight.
-Are not prepared to concede the possibility that you might be mistaken.
-Are overly religious, political, patriotic, masculine, feminine, irritable.
-Assume the worst about people immediately.
-Don’t take time to read posts before you comment.
-Can’t take criticism.
-Belong to any cult or extremist discipline.
-Are not used to serious, logical debate.

You may be right for this section if you..

-Are diplomatic.
-Like to discuss controversial topics with an engaging, constructively critical and open minded persona.
-Are ready to accept many different viewpoints without being devastated or seriously offended.
-Are able to stand outside of your own world and see yourself from another person’s or culture’s perspective.
-Are ready to identify with any gender, set of politics, nationality or creed.
-Can accept criticism.
-Can give constructive criticism.

The following applies: (IMMEDIATE DELETION)

-The forum guidelines.
-Keep common political, religious, gender specific viewpoints to a minimum.
-No extremist comments.
-No flaming.
-No tempers.
-No sarcasm or touchy/glib comments (for the sake of inter-cultural "translation")
-No personal comments.
-No overly long posts.
-No substantial re-editing of your post, after somebody has replied.
-No drifting off-topic.
-No claiming that the majority of people agree with you (This does not include referencing a "common" morality or perspective for the sake of debate)

Be descriptive, specific, and succinct in your postings. This way your opinion and point is clearly understood and referenced. Remember, people from all over the world read here with English as a second language.

ABSOLUTELY NO FLAME, REACTIONARY OR INTOLERANT RESPONSES WILL BE TOLERATED

Sarcasm doesn't translate well though.

Thanks Elena - it's nice to hear from like-minded folk!

Might I suggest some extra rules?

I suggest:
- No drifting off-topic
- No claiming that the majority of people agree with you

The latter suggestion is not a dig at any one poster, but what I hope is a sensible strategy for more clearly defined debate in future. You see, it is easy to simply claim the support of the majority - anyone can do that. Politicians do it all the time. However, such claims may never be substantiated. Moreover, it doesn't actually matter whether such claims are accurate or inaccurate, because they will be, in any case, off topic, and irrelevant to the discussion at hand. To claim that most people agree with you is posturing, pure and simple.

And the vast majority of people agree with me about this.

To the "You may not be right for this section if you.. " section of the rules, may I suggest adding
- are not prepared to concede the possibility that you might be wrong.

Without this, a debate is not a debate, it is simply a stage for soapboxing.

Rommie

But Conus, claims of support are, in general, off topic. And irrelevant to the debate - unless it's actually the topic of that debate. It wasn't so long ago that the majority of humans believed that the Earth was flat - but they were still wrong, weren't they? So, citing majority support on a debate about whether or not the world was flat (back then) would have been a distraction.

The point is that it doesn't MATTER what other people think. They are not the ones debating. They might be wrong too. Let's leave them out of it. If they want their opinions entered into the debate, let them join in and voice their opinions themselves.

Such claims are arguably arragant and assumptive. They can never be proved or disproved. They are often disbelieved. And can you know anyway? Has anyone actually ASKED the entire human race? Such claims provoke arguments, demand proof, etc., etc., and are in any case utterly and completely irrelevant. If you can't talk your way through an argument on its merits then your argument is weak. If you can, then you don't need this distraction.

But I don't set the rules. I just follow them. If and when a decision is taken, I will follow it.

Rommie