Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
While I personally believe there are important conspiratorial issues related to the "War On Drugs" and related government malfeasance, there are
four primary reasons we prefer to avoid this topic.
Reason Three: Stoners
This may seem like stereotyping or "stoner profiling", but the all too often inane chatter and personalities attracted by discussion of drug use
will end up detracting from our long-standing broader efforts to approach topics that are normally ridiculed with a new level of intelligence and
civility. Quality professional writers, researchers, and journalists with important information in our genres are beginning to be attracted by the
high-quality of material being exchanged by our members. The direct involvement with our membership if such experts has been a long standing goal of
ours. But people such as these will not be attracted to a place where certain types of discussions are known to crop up.
All of these core rationales can easily be applied to topics about illegal drugs, computer hacking, hate crime/racism, and child pornography.
I respect your policy, it is after all your site and i am a member who liked to join, and accepted the terms.
Most of your reasoning i can follow but this particular quote is quite stereo typing a very large group in a very bad way.
You like to attract a "higher quality" of members.
But try to say in the same line that people discussing "illegal drugs, computer hacking, hate crime/racism, and child pornography" are not of this
quality, or repel people of this "quality"
I am not trying to change your mind on the topic, but i just like to point out how this statement comes across.
Maybe i could remind you of some great thinkers in our history that admitted using illigal drug, and discussing it in public.
Sigmund Freud, medical doctor, psychologist and father of psychoanalysis, is generally recognized as one of the most influential and authoritative
thinkers of the 20th century.
In the early 1880's the cocaine alkaloid was first extracted from coca leaves and some studies were beginning into its medical use. Freud was
intrigued by the drug and was among the first to study and use it. "I take very small doses of it regularly and against depression and against
indigestion, and with the most brilliant success," wrote Freud.
Another scientific luminary who has been public about the benefits to be gained from mind-expanding drugs is Kary Mullis. Mullis won the 1993 Nobel
Prize in chemistry for developing a now commonly used technique called the "polymerase chain reaction," which allows scientists to quickly and
easily duplicate segments of DNA.
These people seem to be "Quality professional writers, researchers, and journalists with important information in our genres"
So i can understand that you dont want to allow the discussion of drugs use, but not on the basis that it atracts only "stoner profiling" kind of
people.
Dont you think you could, on the same basis, ban all ufo discussion, because it attracts the wrong people ?
Or all discussion about terrorism, religion, weapons etc. etc.
Do we have to go to these "other" forums for these discussions to
I hope this post is of high quality enough, so i dont repel these "Quality professional writers"
Respect Jaamaan
[edit: i wanted to post the source link to the [ex] quote but it is to a drug discussion site, so i wont post it]
[edit on 16-12-2007 by jaamaan]
