Constructive Dialogue Rules

Version 1.2

Summary

The constructive dialogue rules mean that comments:

1. should, where possible, find common ground,
2. must be relevant to the original post or to the specific topic under discussion,
3. must refrain from personal attacks,
4. must supply evidence or sources for any assertions,
5. should admit when you are arguing from experience, and
6. should avoid straw man arguments.

Comments that do not meet the rules are subject to deletion.

The super-short summary: relevance, evidence, civility.

To apply this to a discussion, you might include the following text at the bottom of a post.

Constructive Dialogue Rules apply: relevance, evidence, civility.

You can include a link to here, like https://bit.ly/2W98J8W or https://github.com/sprowell/cdr, but since links are usually trapped and expanded on, say, Facebook, that may not be what you want and probably isn't necessary.

Details

Too many discussions of controversial topics--even mildly controversial topics--degenerate into yelling which is neither constructive nor persuasive. That is, you aren't contributing and you aren't going to change anyone's mind. The constructive dialogue rules exist to provide the pretext to eliminate these "dead ends" in a conversation. Disagreement is welcome; personal attacks, off-topic comments, and assertions without any support are not.

Find common ground

Too often many disagreements are due to fundemental differences about how the world works. As a way to avoid this, find something that you can agree on and build from there.

Be relevant

A comment must address something from the original post or be a follow-up to another comment that satisfies the rules. If the topic is global warming and you are posting about socialism you might be on topic... but probably aren't. It is up to the commenter to make the connection sufficiently clear.

Be polite

You don't have to like everyone, but you must be polite. This means you must refrain from personal attacks, even against people not on the thread.

Be prepared to provide evidence

You don't have to provide citations for everything you write, but you should be prepared to provide evidence when asked. Remember, not everyone agrees, but everyone who debates thinks their voice is worth something. Because of this the burden of proof falls on every individual claim, even as simple as "that's not true".

Admit when you are arguing from experience

To some degree all views are based on experience. It is important to recognize this, and more important to accept that it won't change anyone's mind without additional reasoning. Similarly, recognize when someone else is doing this as well and recognize that this experience will add reassurance that their view is right.

Avoid straw man arguments

Too many people try to argue what they want to argue agianst instead of arguing against what has been presented. Verify that you understand what others are saying by reiterating it clearly as if it is valid and correct. Once both parties accept the statement, then it can be discussed without misunderstanding.

Contributing

Like the rules? Use them! Don't like the rules? Change them! You can change them by:

• opening an issue,
• submitting a pull request, or
• forking this repository.

Semantic versioning is used here. This is interpreted as: changes that would not change the disposition of comments increment the minor number. Breaking changes increment the major number. See https://semver.org/.