[CraigS]

I contend that without a clear set of guidelines defining appropriate behaviours in the Science Forum, there will be no science and there will be no clarity of understanding, learning or interchange of meaningful knowledge.

The closest analogy I can think of, is like the optics of a telescope. If the optical elements don’t start out with precision, or are misaligned through careless usage, the end result will be some kind of blurry image, from which no-one derives any satisfaction.

Signposting of these guidelines isn’t critical. Remaining vigilant about practising these behaviours and enforcing them with ruthless compassion, is crucial.

Otherwise, we collectively stand for nothing more than yet another site propagating nonsense.

The first step is to define those behaviours amongst the broader community. I have done my best to do this in this thread and on the whole, I feel it has been met with consensus and broad agreement.

Others are more than welcome to have a go at it.

These are the first small steps.
The ultimate decision about it all lies with those whose focus is to improve the quality of the site.

Cheers & Rgds

PS: Paul [1ponders] (our active mod in the science forum), does a top notch excellent job, and I have total confidence in his judgement. I am trying to help him out, by producing some easy to understand, collectively agreed guidelines. Cheers.