As an institute, we are committed to transparency, civility in debate, and mutualistic good faith criticism in the service of scientific exploration. We have not and will not blocked accounts on the grounds of scientific criticism, but reserve the right to mute, unfollow, or block accounts for the violation of our social media policy:
1. We are here to share knowledge and resources and learn from each other. Critique and debate respectfully, to the degree it is humanly possible — we all know about the perverse affordances and incentive structures of social media, and how they reward knee-jerk reactions, outrage, and inflammatory polarizing discourse. Science is inherently pluralistic and we celebrate that; it’s also a human enterprise, and humans are fallible. We practice humility as we stand together in the face of the world’s deepest mysteries, and encourage you to join us in this practice as a prerequisite for effective collaborative discovery.
2. Establish relevance and keep things in context. Frame your posts to help others understand how they're linked to the study of complex adaptive systems. Please make an effort in threads to read relevant linked material before commenting, and to point to actual research when possible in your replies.
3. No political or religious arguments. If you think an idea is scientifically unsound, offer constructive critique and link to supportive research. Be willing to learn and change your mind. Attack ideas, not people. Spam (meaning irrelevant self promotions) will be filtered aggressively to maintain cohesive discourse.
4. Don't waste people's time. We all get lots of notifications and there are always plenty of bystanders on large public threads, so please make sure you're contributing something worthwhile to the discussion. Again, read articles and threads before commenting. Please respect the limited time and energy of our communications staff, our scientists, and our audience. We’ll do the same for you.
5. Participation is conditional. In order to ensure the best possible learning experience for everyone, SFI reserves the right to hide/remove posts or comments, and/or rescind social media connections or forum memberships at any time. We also follow and unfollow accounts routinely in order to shape our newsfeeds according to current research and communications priorities. No one is entitled to a public response about why we chose to do so. Omnia Exeunt In Mysterium,
SFI
