this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2024
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Actual Discussion

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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:

DO NOT:

For more casual conversation instead of competitive ranked conversation, try: [email protected]

founded 6 months ago
MODERATORS
 

So now that we've been around for a week or so and have tried to populate things with some controversial topics, how would you like to see this Community grow and change?

Should I add post guidelines? Maybe adjust the pinned thead?

Should I change the rules at all?

Our disclaimer is currently:

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.

Should the disclaimer be changed? It's primarily for people wandering in from viewing All threads (instead of just their subscribed ones), or for people on phones who never read the sidebar. It is there to show, in point form, how we operate to people who don't come to us purposefully.

Are there any topic you'd really like to see covered?

Are there any other Communities we should do a link swap with that have a similar ethos with?

Are there types of threads you want to see less or more of? More descriptors?

I'm open to any and all good ideas!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Yes, sorry - didn’t mean that you should kill submissions, just not try too hard to generate traffic. I prefer quality over quantity.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Okay, the new rules are live and I basically stole your Disclaimer. Hope that's okay!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

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!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

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!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Haha... you ass...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

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).