I know this is probably going to seem weird (and perhaps a little hypocritical as well), but does anyone here think there should be an LQ policy that can apply to /General (and other forums if necessary) about existential and/or philosophical questions/discussions? I'm not saying they should be totally banned or anything, but to me it seems that they can be nearly just as volatile as religious/political discussions.

I know that the same existing rules apply to any thread in any forum, but I was just wondering if there should be any special cases for philosophical discussion...?

Take the xkcd fora, for instance: they have a whole forum section called "Serious Business" where philosophical/existential topics are pretty much the only content, and they have very strict and specific rules about posting there. I was wondering if there could be a similar system for philosophical threads here? I'm not asking for a new subforum or anything, but a small note about it (possibly in the /General header at the top of the page, or in a sticky) might be an idea...

XKCD fora are geared towards a different audience than LQ - though, obviously, there are crossovers. My point of view - and let's not forget that I've been modding here for 30 years, man and boy - is that we don't really need a specific rule for these threads; the existing Rules and netiquette pretty much have them nailed down.

Looking at the XKCD rules for that sub-forum, the majority of their rules are our rules and the rest are site specific.

We aren't a philosophical/religious/political forum, so really any of the threads are somewhat oddities and will be dealt with on a case by case basis. In your example, the thread has kicked off some informative posts and is polite, therefore there is no real need to shut it down.

You must have been lonely, modding a non-existent forum for 20 years.

Modding uphill, both ways, in the snow...

Well, all those years of practice have paid off, you're doing a great job. Ask Jeremy to promote you to Lord High Moderator.

I'll just see if he'll double my pay Anyway, enough derailing....

Yes. Anyway, MrCode, whose brand of existentialism are we talking about: Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Camus, or Sartre, to name but a few? I read a book on existentialism ages ago, and as far as I can remember, their ideas and beliefs varied.

I don't think we need to be singling out a certain brand of philosophy here. To be honest, I have to agree with old man Xavier above me and say that this kind of topic seems to be somewhat rare and out-of-place here and dealing with it on a case-by-case basis would be the best approach. If this is an attempt at humor, however, I wish to extend my hand in a gesture of "sum dat, bro" as you made me chuckle with this.

The /General forum intro text reads "This forum is for non-technical general discussion which can include both Linux and non-Linux topics." so philosophical topics definitely are welcome. Theodore Zeldin said: "(..) a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought." I'd say in general having successful discussions does not rely on any particular topic but on what participants bring to the table.

@XavierP: I had that thread closed because I specifically requested it. I was getting tense and nervous every time I checked the thread for new responses, and had taken the issue elsehwere anyway (actually it was the "Dear SB" sub-subforum in XKCD's "Serious Business"...there was already a thread entitled "Am I Free?" and I responded to it).

@unSpawn: I know that stable, sane discussions often depend on the stability of the individuals involved, but there are (IMO) some topics that tend to be universally "sensitive", if you will. I'm sure there are all kinds of religious flamewars all over the internet. Not that I'm saying that LQ has a lot of "flame-prone" members, though (the vast majority whose posts I've seen are actually pretty polite).

I suppose what I really need to to is show a little of my own self-control, i.e. I need to just avoid existential topics myself if I don't want to get involved in them. I posted that little thread out of frustration, because I wanted to know if I was the only one who was having the same problem of seeing lots of evidence that we're not really "free", and at the same time wanting to *be* "free".

Anyways, I won't rehash that thread here, so...

Sure you requested the thread be closed but the reason I closed the thread however was not the reason you gave as yours was irreconcilable with the LQ Rules.


It has nothing to do with member stability or topic sensitivity. Please read the quote as is and more carefully instead of trying to interpret it.