G'day all,
Hmm, talk about going off topic! Going off topic for a while isn't necessarily an issue, unless it means that someone interested in the thread's actual topic finds the whole thing too confusing.
It seems to me that most threads in the Science discussion forum meander a little but are generally polite and discuss the topic at hand. Climate science seems to be a little different in that all topics seem to degenerate into one overall topic, whether any critiscm of any aspect of global warming should be tolerated at all. There is a book being recommended on this site right now: "Kicking the Sacred Cow: Heresy and Impermissible Thoughts in Science" by Hogan. According to this text, it seems that global warming is one of those sacred cows and any discussion concerning it is not permissible within scientific communities. This forum tends to support Mr Hogan's views (although I have taken this from the review - I haven't been able to get a copy of the book yet).
I don't want to suggest limiting the freedoms of any participant in the forum discussions, just perhaps have some "guidelines" (generally accepted modes of usage as opposed to hard and fast rules) that those that do participate in this "sacred cow" subject agree aid the discussion without removing the rights of those that disagree with whatever is written.
Right now the forum guidelines really are a bit stark. And for good reason. They are to protect the forum owners and the moderators and in place to remove offensive, defamatory or any material that might cause problems with the poster or the forum. Indemnity conditions are not all that good at protecting moderators or site owners, especially not in the US. Canada has actually shown itself to me even more restrictive with basically any forum being deemed to be a publisher and responsible for any and all comments posted on it, even if not seen by the owners or operators or even condemned by them (The current case concerning this is to do with P2P networks and I'm not even going to mention the participants).
I was a moderator for many years on a site and was give absolute control over the site by the owners. So I could do whatever I wanted and then did almost nothing because its easy to obtain such power but much harder to use it without causing problems. I changed the guidelines to the site and it did have an effect over time but these guidelines were mostly aimed at protecting the feelings of those on the site (the site including forums that supported those with health problems).
In this case I would simply like to see threads, when they related to Climate, relate to climate! It would be really nice if they mostly related to the title of the thread as well but it seems to me that this requires censorship and I don't like censorship much. Diversity of opinion is a given. Personally I would also like to see respect towards other participants in that only the topic is discussed without mention of what someone thinks of the individual. If it was the Origins forum where religion is being discussed then naturally it gets much more personal but it isn't. It is supposed to be about science and this forum is very good at providing differing views on a great many science subjects.
Anyway, it is something to consider.
Regards
Richard
