One board per question
Ask a question once and it stays open for good, with a live vote. No second thread, no reposts, no "asking again for the new season".
When you open a board, we check the title against every board that already exists. A close match sends you there to answer instead, and a near match waits for an admin to look at it. Everything else goes live, and the vote never closes.
Live example: Reclining your seat on a plane is rude., Stance with 0 votes so far.
Three kinds of board
Three kinds of question, one set of rules: one vote per member per board, changeable whenever, with one take attached to it. The numbers below are made up.
The opener sets the list. Members at Member and up can propose more options.
The average is the headline because how strongly you feel counts: a 10 pulls harder than a 7. The chart underneath shows the spread.
Members write the answers. Similar ones merge into one row, and an answer with enough votes becomes a pickable option.
Two numbers on every board
The popular vote counts heads. The reasoned vote counts the same votes, but a vote with a strong take behind it weighs more. You always see both, side by side.
The gap is the interesting part. If a bill is 75% opposed in the popular vote but ahead in the reasoned vote, the people who did the reading are leaning the other way. The boards where the two disagree most show up on the explore page as Most contested. A vote with no take counts as exactly one. A spam take counts for a quarter of that. A strong, sourced take can count for up to three. Silence beats spam, and effort beats silence.
Weight is per board: writing well on one board does nothing for your vote on another. A trend line for both numbers appears once a board passes 25 votes, so a board with four votes never shows a wild swing.
Where a take's weight comes from
- Your vote always counts once in the popular vote. Nothing on this page changes that.
- In the reasoned vote your vote is multiplied by your take's quality. A take nobody has rated yet counts for about 1.2x. If readers rate it Strong it climbs toward 3x, and if they rate it Low effort it falls toward 0.25x. No take at all is exactly 1x.
- One rating barely moves it. Quality is an average that starts from a neutral guess, so it takes several ratings pulling the same way to move a take far. One harsh rating cannot sink a good take.
- Who rates matters. Each rating counts according to the rater's standing. A Pillar's rating moves a take about three times as much as a Contributor's, and a Toxic member's barely registers. That is all standing does: it scales how much your ratings of other people count. It never touches the weight of your own vote.
- Your own side counts half. Ratings from people who voted the same way as the take are discounted, so a side cannot pump up its own takes.
| Rater's level | How much their rating counts |
|---|---|
| Toxic | 10 to 19% (the floor) |
| Contributor | 20 to 34% |
| Member | 35 to 49% |
| Trusted | 50 to 69% |
| Respected | 70 to 89% |
| Pillar | 90 to 100% |
| Same side as the take: half of the above. The higher the level, the more a rating moves a take. | |
Your take carries your vote
A take is your position and your reasons, attached to the vote you cast. One per member per board. Edit it whenever you want, and every version is kept.
The exemption for buildings under ten units covers most of the housing stock in the three wards that objected, so the cost estimate opponents quote is for a version of the bill that no longer exists. The council's own fiscal note puts the net cost at a third of the figure in circulation.
32 sources
- 1Standing chipThe author's level. It tells you how much their ratings of other people count. It says nothing about this vote.
- 2Quality badgeLow effort, Fair or Strong, from the ratings so far. This badge sets the weight of the author's vote on this board.
- 3SourcesEvery link in the text becomes a source row with its domain. Up to 5 per take. A take with none is allowed. On boards that highlight sources it gets an Unsourced badge.
- 4Rating pills and reason tagsAny member except the author can rate a take once, and change it later. There are only three levels because nobody rates consistently on a wide scale. The reason tags are feedback for the author and never touch the weight.
- 5EditedEvery edit keeps the previous version, and anyone can open the history and see what changed. Ratings carry over across edits, and a big edit tells the people who rated the earlier version.
- Rate the case, not the sideA rating is a verdict on the argument, not on whether you agree. Ratings on takes from your own side count a little less, because people are generous to their own team.
- A handful of ratings cannot swing itQuality is an average weighted by how much each rater is trusted, and it starts from a neutral point, so one person cannot push a take to Strong or Low effort alone.
- Link ruleshttp and https only, and no link shorteners. Every link opens in a new tab. Links are checked against a block list when you save, and a bad one stops the take from posting until you take it out.
- The editor is plainBold, italic and Link on selected text. No images, no embeds, no formatting tricks. The words have to do the work.
Standing: how much your word counts
Standing is the only reputation score on the site. You never spend it, and it does one job: it scales how much your ratings of other people's takes count.
- Toxicunder 20Takes collapsed by default, ratings barely count, no replies, no flagging.only by being rated low
- Contributor20 to 34Read, vote, post takes, rate takes. New accounts start here.start
- Member35 to 49Open boards, propose poll options.
- Trusted50 to 69Reply under takes, add framing notes.
- Respected70 to 89Flags carry more weight, suggest fit changes.
- Pillar90 and upRatings count at full weight.
- It never touches your own vote. Your vote weight comes from your take on that board. Standing only changes how much your ratings move other people's takes.
- It rises and falls with your writing. Takes and replies that rate well raise it once enough people have rated them. Takes that rate low, get hidden by flags or get removed by an admin lower it.
- It follows your recent writing, so old history fades and the way back up is always the same: post better.
- Toxic is earned, never assigned. A new account is a Contributor with a New mark for its first three days. Nobody starts at the bottom. You only get there by being rated low, hidden or removed. Starting over with a fresh account does not buy much, since new accounts are capped, marked New and watched for exactly that.
Replies are earned
Replies sit under takes. They are a way to push on a point, not a chat room. Nobody can pile on, and nobody is left waiting on a reply.
- The opener can always reply under any take on their board. Pushing is the opener's job: ask for a source, challenge a number, ask for more.
- Trusted and up get one reply under any take that is not theirs. The take's author may answer that reply once.
- Replies carry no weight. They never touch either vote. They are rated like takes, and those ratings feed the author's standing only.
- Flat threads. A reply can point at an earlier reply and shows "to @user", but nothing nests. A thread closes after a round cap and shows "exchange closed".
- @mentions offer the members on that board, link to the profile and notify the member.
Keeping openings honest
The opening frames the board, so it has to stay neutral. Readers can correct it in two ways, and both need people from opposite sides to agree, so one camp piling on never gets anything through.
Framing notes
Any member at Trusted and up can attach one note per board. Other members rate it helpful or not, and we note which way each of them voted. A note goes public only when both sides find it helpful. The opener is told right away and has a week to edit the framing, or they take a small standing hit.
Fit check
A board opened as the wrong kind gets a nudge, not a fight. Members at the right level can suggest a different type, once per board. Below a threshold only the opener sees the count. Above it the board shows a quiet notice and the opener has a week to change the type. If they do not, an admin decides. Polls and open boards keep their votes when switched. Anything involving a stance starts the vote over, and everyone who voted is told.
Opening a board
Nobody approves boards by hand. A new board goes through two quick automatic checks and then goes live.
We compare the title and framing with every existing board. A close match sends you there to answer. A near match is held for an admin, with the nearest boards attached.
Short, and it lets things through by default. It only looks for the three things listed below.
The board goes up with your vote and your take as the first one. The vote never closes.
- SpamLink farms, the same post over and over, and ads dressed up as questions.
- Organizing people against someoneBoards that exist to point a crowd at a person or group rather than argue a question.
- Content that is illegal to hostCredible threats, doxxing, sexual content involving minors. These go to an admin first.
A held board goes to an admin with the reason and the nearest matches. The opener is told why and can appeal once. Who can open: Member and up, with an account at least 7 days old. The opening has three parts: the question (title, type, category, tags, poll options), a neutral framing that says what the question means and what counts as evidence, and your own vote and take. Your opinion goes in the take, never the framing.
Bots and new accounts
We try to stop bots at the door, label the ones that get in, and be honest about the limit. Sign-up needs a verified email and a bot check, and it is one account per person. After that, two marks tell you who you are reading.
On every take from an account under 3 days old. It drops off on its own.
Set automatically. The account's takes collapse by default and its votes drop out of both results until an admin clears it or the member passes re-verification.
Accounts are checked automatically for patterns that look like automation. New accounts are also limited in how much they can post, and they cannot open boards at first, so an account that posts junk drops to Toxic quickly.
What is public
Public
- Takes, replies and notes, under your username, with full version history.
- Your standing and level.
- Boards you opened.
- Every board, every result, to anyone, signed in or not.
Private
- A vote with no take attached. There is no setting to make it public.
- Your email, used for sign-in and the digests you turn on.
- The reason tags on your takes. Only you see the tally.
- Who rated what, and who follows what.