Suggestions, Comments and Support

...and why so much leniency. Most these people just want a place to infest their crazy idea so that they don't feel out of touch...they don't care what anyone thinks, nor will they change their minds. They don't come here to do that. I dont mind speculation but you might as well place a metaphysics and philosophy forum back in with half the crap that gets allowed. *sideshow bob's shutter* Whatever happened to the good old days with the ruling with iron fist?

Not so. I rather think the expected response to a declarative sentence followed by question-mark is denial. Example: Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, was a Martian? Answer: No, he was from Ohio. Journalists use this ploy: A declarative headline with a question mark is often an invitation to contradiction or challenge. This is in the Suggestions, Comments and Support section because it contains a Suggestion. Namely when a SFN member starts a thread with a patently false declaration followed by "?" that we consider the possibility that he or she is doing something constructive for us. Opening a discussion, eliciting a counterargu…

How long you plan to keep that archaic logo that's been here since I frigging signed up. I'll even make you one....I'll evne make it the same dull boring scientistish way of looking if that what you like, but just more...or better. COME ON to survive you have to evolve, The other science forums are laughing at us and stealing our lunch money! How long will you allow the abuse to continue.

Just curious why there is no earth science or planetary sciences forum. Do we need a certain number of threads in that area to warrant collating them into such a forum?

These two threads have been moved to some forum where regular members (such as me) can no longer view or contribute. Can these please be reinstated soon? Thanks for any feedback or additional information. Politics: Top secret DoD documents containing Bible verses released Psychiatry and Psychology: How Religion Hijacks Neurocortical Mechanisms, and Why So Many Believe in a Deity * With the second thread above, another member here has already PM'd me trying to figure out what was going on, and why he could no longer find/view the thread. He'd expressed interest, and had a desire to explore the research shared, but since there was so much of it, ha…

We should probably paint the logo on the sides of the sharks just so there's no mistaking.

Not sure if this belongs in this section or not, but there is alot of people around the world that are on this site and have a brain haha. I've see a list of articles in what would be the best places to live as far as money, job employment, happiness etc. And i'm currently at a point in my life where i have alot of freedom to pick up and move someplace else and start a new. So my question is where would you guys/gals concider to be the best place to live in the world. With the paramiters of happiness, job employment, low crmie, health care,etc. Not lookin for a utopia but maybe there is something better than this american view that we're the createst and capitalism an …

I think we can use a science fiction addition to the boards, where enthusiasts can post stories that are extrapolated from modern science knowledge and prospects, with readers offering input and maybe even critique if asked. Who knows, it could turn out wildy popular, and besides -- it might help a solve an issue we tend to have.... Pseudoscience carries a negative aura. It's like the armpit of the science forums, marring a professionally laid-out website, gathering the ridiculous in its stinky corner, and where little of the discussion is expected to be productive. Maybe we can even rename it to "Science Fiction and Wild Guesses" As a side effect, peop…

How many thanks do you have to spread around in order to give thanks to the same person again? Is there also a time limit to say thanks twice to the same person. Some people devote a lot of time and energy to helping people with qualified answers but a month later I still can not say thanks again (Martin comes to mind here). So, what are the rules?

I've noticed that no justification is ever given for decisions to move threads, especially to the pseudoscience and speculations forum. It would seem to me that this is an important detail in the decision, and that the addition of this to such posts would surely relieve most of the authoritarian, personally-threatening connotation that many misguided minds glean from the terse post, hopefully overall conveying less of a sense of intimidation and more of a sense of rationality versus bias.

I am having trouble setting up a new poll. I check the poll box at the bottom but it doesn't do anything. Edit - Never mind, I figured it out.

When the forums software puts URL tags around links, it fails to do a complete tag-wrap if the link ends in a parenthesis. See the examples below.

Somebody gave me some reputation points, but the whole point of doing so was so they could spam me. The comment is "Embroidery Corporate clothing tee shirt printing t shirts printing" in the form of a bunch of hyperlinks. Is there any way to delete that garbage?

...if you want to send it by PM to another member?

What up? .... Edit: Ohhhhhhhh! I didn't realize what day it was! I like it, and it works well in our new pseudoscience forums.

Have I been half asleep for the last few weeks, because I never noticed when scrolling down to the bottom of the threads, that there are now 'bookmarks' and 'similar threads'. Are these new additions, or am I being incredibly non-observant.

Now that I think about it, I think the existence of the quote tags in vBulletin has degraded the quality of discussions on SFN. Instead of constructing a well-reasoned response to another user's post, you can merely take it apart sentence by sentence without having to construct a solid cohesive thought of your own. Think about how "proper" debates -- the ones you'd have in a debate competition -- work. Instead of stopping your opponent every three sentences to correct him, you think about his statements for a while, determine the best response, and deliver one well-reasoned speech that refutes it. (Ideally.) But the quote tags make it easy to just say "no, you're wron…

Is there any way we could have "private threads" tied to social groups? We have the private messages within a group, but it's not the same thing. It would be really great if on the main forum page, there was a primary topic called "Social Groups" and a forum in there for each group you are subscribed to - and if you are not a member of any the section just doesn't display. That way you can see new posts right there, instead of going through the back alleys of your profile to check your "group" out for updates. One thing I think could really help is it would immediately alleviate the stress in "General Discussion" when say, someone wants to discuss religion …

Is there a way to delete your own thread? I realize one that I posted was rather childish and I would like to remove it to keep the high standard of the forum.

So, what's the deal with all of the staff changing avatars to Battlestar figures? While I certainly like Moo's avatar of Number Six, the others seem ... hmm... how can I say this? ... the others seem likely to drive away the few female members who post here.

Does anyone have any thoughts about virtual reading groups via this forum? I think it could be good, but I am worried that due to the vastly ranging education and backgrounds of our members that it would be difficult to find a topic that would attract enough members and then keep it going. My thought was to pick a topic then use this forum to post a synopsis and discuss any issues and/or questions as they arise. Right now I am not thinking about topics, but if we think that such an idea could be fulfilled. What do you think?

It seems that the code tag is deactivated in for comments on user pictures. There probably is no reason why it should be deactivated there. Could you [where supposedly "you"="Capn", as always] activate it?

Just wondering if there are any plans to update the homepage i.e Book of the Month, and the Richard Dawkins talk. It's just there's no longer a media / book discussion forum...plus, it might look better with something more current (with the homepage being the first page any newcomers will see.) Just a thought.

It's probably too difficult of a mod, but it would be nice if moderators could set a 'heat factor' on a thread, starting at 'mild' to 'almost hot enough to close' so people have an easier time gauging how close to the edge of acceptability a given thread is. Right now I feel like in the "Do you believe in Thor" thread I'm walking on eggshells out of concern it could get too hot and be closed, but it's not easy to guess how concerned the mods are at any given moment. Perhaps I am being overly concerned, and if a mod finds it concerning at all they'll just make a comment to that effect.

might I suggest that allowing people to post a reply without specifying which post it is in response to renders threaded view pretty well useless. seems to me that making that impossible would be a minor change.