CELESTIAL KOAN’s SITE ETHOS AND USAGE POLICIES
Ethos
The principal purpose of this site is to facilitate the development and sharing of wisdom. All activities and policies are assessed with regard to their effect upon that objective.
Joshua of Nazareth emphasised that we should love others as we love ourselves. Celestial Koan accepts that injunction, and recognises that many other religions put a very similar emphasis on loving one’s neighbours. Sadly CK also recognises that it’s very hard to do, and that all too many people are struggling to even love themselves.
The universal ethic for interpersonal interactions is that we should treat others as we would like them to treat us.
Manners have been defined as the oil that enables people to interact without friction. Behaving politely, and communicating politely, are simply part of exhibiting good manners.
CK therefore requires that all communications on or through this site should be polite, kind, and respectful.
The opportunity to share wisdom will be increased if newcomers to the site find it to be a friendly place. We would therefore like communications to be kind and welcoming. Expressions of encouragement and gratitude are valuable.
This site is not a platform for people to promote their own politics, religion, agendas, or perspectives. It is a place for people to share their wisdom and knowledge for the benefit of others.
Please consider the viewpoints of others and make time for what they have to say. Your own contributions may get a more favourable hearing when it is clear that you have been open to considering the contributions of others.
Visitors, Members & Users
Anyone can visit this site and read its content. At this stage we have no restrictions on usage.
Visitors can post comments anonymously on The Blog.
One can also post comments on The Blog with identification.
All users, whether visitors, users or members, are required to respect the Ethos and policies of the site.
In due course we expect to create a membership category or categories. Members will gain special benefits. They will also be required to agree to respect the rules of membership, which will substantively mean, ethos and policies listed here.
Blog Comments
Blog comments are currently posted immediately without moderation.
Other users can flag comments for the attention of the moderators.
Moderators will evaluate such flagged comments for compliance with the ethos and policies of this site. Any flagged comments that do not comply will be removed. Moderators will also remove any other comments, whether flagged or not, that fail to comply with site ethos or policy.
Commenting anonymously does not mean one can post comments that fail to comply with site ethos and policies. If a significant number of such comments are made the privilege of commenting anonymously will be removed, to the detriment of all users.
Facts, Opinions, and Truth
Celestial Koan places a high value on truth. Facts should not be confused with opinions. Facts have a truth value. Wisdom is concerned with truth. Indeed, one of the significant benefits of wisdom, the ability to see a subject from many different perspectives, is that it enables one to discern reality with greater accuracy, bringing one closer to ‘truth’.
While facts have a truth value, many wisdoms amount to opinions derived from conceptual models and factual / evidential observations. Opinions do not necessarily have a truth value in the same way as facts. It is possible to arrive at alternative opinions based on different models and different interpretations of facts. Valid conflicts of opinions can arise.
Debate and dispute is permitted on this site. Indeed, debate has been a basic tool for discovering and sharing wisdom since before Socrates. This site encourages reasoned debate, and will be seeking to produce improved tools and forums for debate to occur. Such disputes and debates must be reasoned and polite. The objective is the discernment of truth and enlightenment. One may attack / point out flaws in the arguments and opinions of another. One does not attack the person. Equally, emotive language is not acceptable under any circumstances. Statements such as “Your argument is stupid” are no more acceptable than “You are stupid.” “I consider your argument to be invalid for the following reasons …” is perfectly acceptable.
Unfortunately many people are unclear as to what are facts and what are opinions.
Whether God exists or not is a question of fact.
Whether the rich are getting richer is also a question of fact.
As clarified in the CK Oracle under proof and evidence, it is almost impossible to prove many fundamental facts. Even 2+2=4 cannot be proven absolutely.
Some facts can be proven. The statement “According to the United Nations report on Climate Change global temperatures are …” can be confirmed as true. That doesn’t mean the report is correct, but it is true that the report includes the statement regarding global temperatures.
Whether the rich are getting richer or not is a question of fact, not opinion. The validity of this statement can be challenged, and evidence to support or disprove the statement should be tendered. Site users who consistently make statements of fact without regard to their truthfulness may be banned from commenting or contributing. Users who treat statements of fact as statements of opinion may also be banned.
People ARE entitled to their own opinion. Whether the rich are getting richer or not is NOT a question of opinion. People ARE NOT entitled to their own fact.
The difficulty is that the truth value of some facts is difficult to determine. God may or may not exist. The Universe may or may not contain dark matter. These are questions of facts, but the facts are still uncertain / open to interpretation.
The statement: “I don’t believe God exists,” is a true statement of fact. You don’t apparently.
The statement: “I don’t believe dark matter exists” is likewise a true statement of fact. You don’t apparently.
“God does not exist,” is a statement of fact that may well not be true. Unless you alone of all people are actually able to demonstrate the overwhelming evidence of the truth of such a statement, do NOT use it on this site.
“Dark matter does not exist,” is a fact that may well not be true. Unless you alone of all people are actually able to demonstrate the overwhelming evidence of the truth of such a statement, do NOT use it on this site.
We will almost certainly know before the end of this century whether or not dark matter really does exist. The God question may take a little longer to resolve to the satisfaction of all believers and sceptics, but we shall see.
In other words, think about what you say and how you are saying it, carefully. It is not acceptable to say that a meteorite killed off the dinosaurs or that dark matter does not exist. It is acceptable to say “Most scientists believe a meteorite killed off the dinosaurs and many scientists doubt that dark matter exists.” Those are statements of fact that can be supported by the evidence.
Incidentally, as Celestial Koan evaluates it, the evidence that it was the meteorite hit that killed off the dinosaurs is looking pretty shaky. But that is just CK’s opinion. He can provide evidence to support his opinion, but it is still just an opinion. His opinion may change as more facts come to light. We’ll let the scientists continue to argue about that one for a few more decades.
Finally, while we do accept that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, this does not mean that all opinions are equally worthwhile. Many opinions are formed in ignorance. In too many cases opinions are formed on the basis of what most ignorant people believe. “Well if most people believe eggs are bad for you then I believe it too.” Ignorant opinions, even if held by the majority of people, do not mean it’s a valid opinion, or that it is of equal worth to an informed opinion.
If this site is to achieve its aim of improving the development and sharing of wisdom it is important that its users learn to recognise these issues concerning facts, opinions, and truth, and display that recognition in their on-site communications.
Respect and Listen
Try to listen to and understand others with whom you may disagree. Encourage others on the site to also be welcoming and respectful.
Attacking People or Content
Personal attacks are not allowed on this site, nor are disrespectful or insulting attacks directed at other people's comments. People should be civil and respectful in disagreement with others and should not:
make attacks or otherwise disparage other people,
refer to other people's content with insulting or disrespectful language,
harass others on the site or
advocate self-harm, even in a joking manner.
These behaviours can hurt the CK Site community and deter users from helping to create a better resource.
Do your best to see the world from the perspective of the person who posted the comment. It is often not helpful to criticise or challenge the fundamental beliefs of the contributor or the contribution itself in a comment. For example, if someone has commented that "Going to church only at Easter and Christmas still amounts to regular worship", the following comment would be considered disrespectful and unacceptable: "There is no God and religious rituals are a waste of time anyway." This is disrespectful, and is also making two statements of fact that you cannot satisfactorily evidence. Use good judgement and be empathetic. It is acceptable to post a comment saying “While your statement is logically valid, personally I doubt that God exists, and therefore also doubt that religious observance is of much value at any time.” This is clearly stating that this is just your personal opinion. In short, you can express your wisdoms, and contribute your two pennies worth without being rude or disrespectful.
Be Aware of New Users
In general, comment threads on this site are interactions among strangers. Given that other users on the site may be new to the CK Site and/or doesn't know you, a higher level of politeness is required than on sites where users generally know one another, where more adversarial social norms may be established and tolerated. Comments should NOT discourage or intimidate other people on the site.
Disagreement and debate on this site is encouraged and is often helpful in developing and disseminating wisdom. Disagreement is fine as long as your comments are polite, kind and respectful, and as long as you give the impression of assuming good will on the part of the person you with whom you are disagreeing. A good way of framing this test is: "If I am new to this site and / or don't know you, would it be reasonable for me to perceive your comment as hostile or disrespectful toward me or what I've written?" The answer should be no.
In multi-comment threads where there is significant disagreement among people, a person should stop commenting on the thread before creating the reasonable impression that they are harassing, attacking, and/or bullying another person.
Examples
Examples of behaviours that contravene site ethos and policy include:
Personal attacks, including hurtful, insulting, or hostile comments.
Making unjustified accusations against other user(s).
Engaging in a pattern of behaviour that constitutes harassment of a targeted person or persons, e.g., by making threats, repeated annoying and unwanted contacts, repeated personal attacks, or posting personal information.
Racial, sexual, homophobic, ageist, religious, political, ethnic, or other epithets directed against another contributor.
Using someone's affiliations as a means of dismissing or discrediting their views (this does not include pointing out a conflict of interest of relevance to the discussion at hand).
Speculating on the real life identity of an anonymous user.
Harassment
Harassment is defined as offensive behaviour that appears to a reasonable observer to have the purpose of adversely affecting a targeted person or persons. The intended outcome may be to make using this site unpleasant for the target, to undermine them, or to discourage them from using or commenting on this site. Examples of harassment include (but are not limited to):
making threats,
repeated annoying and unwanted contacts,
posting the personal information of another person,
using sexually explicit, profane, adversarial, or flirtatious language toward another person if such language would likely make the person uncomfortable.
Hate Speech
Users are not allowed to post comments or adopt a tone that would be interpreted by a reasonable observer as a form of hate speech, particularly toward a race, gender, religion, nationality, ethnicity, political group, sexual orientation or another similar characteristic. Comments concerning generalisations in these topics should be phrased as neutrally and respectfully as possible.
Retaliation Is Never Acceptable
It is never acceptable to violate the requirement to be polite, kind and respectful, even in response to another person who has violated the policy. You can mark their comments for attention by the moderators, and the comment will be removed if it breaches site policy.
Racial and Ethnic Slurs
Using any of the words on Wikipedia's list of ethnic slurs is not allowed in any contributions or comments, unless the purpose is to ask a sincere question about the usage/background of the word, or to provide helpful information and understanding.
Emails
The polite, kind and respectful ethos also applies to emails sent to Celestial Koan.
Moderation And Blocking
Where comments are removed by a moderator, an email explaining the reason for its removal will be sent to the email of the commenter, where available. Emails cannot be posted to people who comment anonymously.
In extreme cases:
Comments that violate this policy may be reported to and removed by the moderators, and the administrator may issue a warning or implement comment blocking or a site ban.
Depending on the severity of the violation of ethos and policy, a user may be banned immediately without warning.
English (and other) Languages
Celestial Koan is an author. He appreciates, and tries to write, good English. Using good English assists in clear communication. Celestial Koan therefore tends to write, “listen to people with whom you may disagree,” rather than “listen to people you disagree with.” Similarly, “I wouldn’t disagree if I were an optimist, but …”, is the correct use of the conditional form of the verb "‘to be’. “I wouldn’t disagree if I was an optimist, but …” is technically grammatically incorrect, but so common colloquially that most people just accept it as normal. Indeed, even superb English writers such as John LeCarre use “if I was” about twice as often as “if I were.”
CK tends to use British English spelling, but isn’t rigorous about it. For example, quotations will generally be left in the original spelling.
So - whether using British, American, Indian, Canadian, Australian or some other version of English spelling, please try and use good English on this site. Check your posts before you hit the ‘post or send’ button. Pay a little attention to whether your message properly communicates what you are trying to say.
That said:
English is a very easy language to learn badly, and an almost impossible language to master. CK has been working on his English for too many decades, and doesn’t claim to have mastered it yet.
It is very easy to make mistakes when posting things to a web site, including comments. And proof reading is not easy either. We all make mistakes.
English is not everyone’s first language, and people who can communicate in multiple languages are a blessing to the world, and to be encouraged.
The expression of valid viewpoints and wisdoms should not be stifled by grammar police or limitations with English.
So, tolerance for imperfect English is encouraged on this site too.
CK would be delighted to see this site become multi-lingual. CK lacks the ability to communicate fluently about nuanced topics in other languages, and assistance will be needed if this site is to translate or operate in other languages.