Phil and I have talked it over, and we feel that the Conspiracy Theory section of the forum is starting to get out of hand. If you take a look through the CT section, easily half of the stories on the homepage are about 9/11, and have nothing to do with space and astronomy.

So, effective immediately, we're instituting the same policy that we have for the Against the Mainstream Section...

... only post topics relating to space and astronomy.

We'll start closing up topics on Friday, and from this point on, any threads which aren't specifically about space-related conspiracy theories will be closed immediately.

Thanks!

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Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today - Free space news delivered by email every weekday.

*Claps loudly, hoots, and hollers * Well done!

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"I have this theory that the Apollo missions were faked when NASA found out that general relativity was wrong because the Earth was expanding due to the Sun's iron core being influenced by magnetic waves from the electric universe after being perturbed by Planet X and thereby causing global warming. Where should I start a thread about this?" ~ ToSeek

"Those are the people that wonder how a thermos knows whether to keep something hot or keep something cold." ~ NeoWatcher

Just a thought... why not close all the existing 911 threads, to discourage further posting on the subject?

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This is not an idea to be tossed aside lightly - it should be thrown with great force

It's on the list.

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

It might be worth pointing out to anyone who objects to this policy that they are free to join the fairly civilised 911 conspiracy discussions on the Education Forum or Apollohoax.

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"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head" Terry Pratchett

Do science related conspiracies remain?

Well, if not, this move does reduce the workload of the mods and makes it easier on the rest of us (not to mention the server, I bet!).

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I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid...and I went ahead anyway. - Crow T. Robot

Godspeed, John Glenn. - Scott Carpenter

And these atomic bombs that science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men that used them.
- H.G Wells, The World Set Free

To the conspiracy crowd, radiation is a big Boogey Man that inspires terror and death in all who encounter it. - JayUtah

That's a good question.

Speaking personally, I'd like to see the end of "Einstein stole {insert your favourite here}'s ideas!", and "Tesla's brilliant ideas have never been adopted because {insert your favourite conspiracy here}!", and similar, conspiracy theories (if that's what they are) too. Just my personal preference.

Just a thought: The non-space conspiracies do seem to have quite a bit of interest here. Is the issue that you want to make it easier for people interested in space-related conspiracies to find relevant threads, or is it the difficulty of moderating non-space conspiracies?

If the former, why not set up an "Off-topic Conspiracies" forum?

well no more metaphysics that you can not prove or disprove, or 9/11 threads that can go into politics.
happy days are here again.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

This means of course people will say that TPTB have got at BAUT to prevent the truth being revealed

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Fame, glory adventure, a cyber warrior craves not these things.

It's not like they haven't already been saying that. (With some justification, I might add. I love payday. )

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

about time. After all the site is BAUT, not a general Conspiracy site

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

It is worth noting that a very large fraction of our complaints come from posts in the Conspiracy Theory area, which is (for the most) part covering things I have little interest in or little desire to moderate. I am delighted that we can stop this down to astronomy and spaceflight only.

I know we'll lose a few very active members because their interests lie in non-astronomy discussion, and I'll be sorry to see them go, but it will be nice to moderate a forum that interests me again.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Gack...nevermind...brain not function well sleep without... sorry.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

I am a little bit sad about this though I do
not have any time for the majority of stuff
posted in the CT forum. But I have had my
shout on a few things here and was grateful
for many informed responces. Items arise in
the media/news that have a technical content
and the crowd here are the best I think for
getting sensible replies. If we now post in
babbling, the moderators may jump and say
"conspiracy" and thats that! Still I know
how hard they have been working lately to
keep things going.

It's the latter. Many of the moderators (see antoniseb above) are tired of dealing with issues involving threads that have nothing to do with the purpose of this forum.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

you could nominate mods just to moderate the CT section.

My thoroughly unscientific recollection of the relevant Report Posts (etc) is that complaints about moderator actions in the CT area are far more numerous than complaints (about mod actions) from all other sections combined ... and it wasn't threads on astronomy- and space-related conspiracies that generated the complaints ...

Folks can always go to apollohoax.net for their discussions if they wish

I think the moderators do a great job in the conspiracy forum. We often see the "persecution" card being played against the mods, but the posters who use this are often complaining about everything ...(unlike me, I never complain.. )

I will miss some hoax theories but not all. (I still think that archaelogists are actually just good sculptors.. Hey look! A sculpted head!)

Pete

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PJE

There's so much I don't know about astrophysics. I wish I had read that book by that wheelchair guy.

There is no objective way to identify members whose complaints we may simply dismiss on these grounds, however.

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Forming opinions as we speak