# Is there an online forum w/intelligent people and little moderation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151 "2008-12-07T18:54:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![hapkido1996](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@hapkido1996](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hapkido1996)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/62 "2014-07-02T07:59:51Z")
> [@Cagey\_Drifter](#): > > I’m looking to join an online forum or message board where there are intelligent people who talk about all kinds of stuff, including possibly taboo and offensive subjects, but where there is little moderation or organized efforts to “control” the dialogue. Anyone know of any? Not 4chan, please. [www.rationalia.com](http://www.rationalia.com) The mods pretty much only get involved when someone reports someone else for a rule violation. No personal attacks, etc. Otherwise, you can say what you want to say. Taboo? No such thing there, really. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/64 "2014-07-02T16:18:28Z")
> [@Cagey\_Drifter](#): > > I really don’t feel like I can be myself here. I do find it useful when I have factual questions, and I do find it interesting to read-- but I sort of feel like I’m in the home of one of my parents’ friends and I need to speak politely and not say anything too controversial. (“Quote snipped for brevity” - a note that needs to be added on this board almost exclusively, because people get their knickers twisted about the most minor things here.) Hear, hear! I’ve had posts deleted and given the dreaded MODERATOR NOTE because of some pretty minor stuff. Why is it we need to act like we are in a court of law, presided over by an octogenarian with a heart condition and a bad startle reflex? Is the SDMB so inundated with lawsuits and legal action that we need to censor so aggresively? Are so many potential users turned away because they read an expressed opinion they didn’t agree with? The end result is that it seems like GQ is limited to \<10 responders who are responsible for most of the ouput. (/rant) ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/65 "2014-07-02T17:55:05Z")
What’s the relationship between this board and The Giraffe message board? I recognize some of the usernames as old Dopers, and I’m wondering if it’s a community of ex-pat Dopers? It seems like a hair-down version of SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/66 "2014-07-02T18:11:52Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > What’s the relationship between this board and The Giraffe message board? I recognize some of the usernames as old Dopers, and I’m wondering if it’s a community of ex-pat Dopers? It seems like a hair-down version of SDMB. There is no official relationship but there is a large shared user base. That is, a large percentage of the Giraffe Board membership also posts here and the GB is much smaller. Of the ones that don’t post here most, but not all, used to post here. ---
**Author:** ![ST93](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@ST93](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ST93)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/67 "2014-07-02T20:01:17Z")
City data might be one ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/68 "2014-07-02T20:02:09Z")
Cagey, here’s what I recommend for posting here: Don’t just post shit off the top of your head. Dress it up a little before you hit the “Post” button. Give it some substance. You CAN polish a turd. It’s still a turd, but at least it doesn’t stink as much. Also, grow some skin. You might get some flack from somebody like **Czarcasm** , but don’t let it bother you. Like Richilieu said, “Give me six lines written by the most honest man in the world, and I will still find something to hang him.” Just regard the haters as barking dogs that stay in their yard and never venture out. Finally, you’ll know when you’re being a jerk when the mods yell at you. I’ve had that happen a couple of times, so I’ve got a better feeling of where that line is that I shouldn’t cross. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/69 "2014-07-02T20:09:06Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I wish more people would just be themselves here, dissenting opinions or not. What turns this place into a groupthink more than anything is the dissenters not posting their opinions, creating a vicious circle. I think I’ve said this more than once; this board is what WE make it. You have to contribute what you want it to be to help make it want you want it to be. I agree… and I’ll say this- there needs to be more effective moderation of a gaggle of certain arch-liberal posters on here who really stifle good debate with hyperbolic and absurd statements and/or hijacking of said threads to post said hyperbolic and absurd statements. I mean, you can’t really have good balanced debate about a social or political subject when one side comes in and accuses the other side of being evil, and that every thing they ever did in office was motivated by malice toward the poor and minorities, and that GWB was worse than Pol Pot, Hitler and Stalin put together. And (more amusingly), everything that Obama or Clinton did badly or didn’t do at all was the direct result of said horribly evil political party. That kind of thing just doesn’t encourage the opposite side to stick around, when it’s not slapped down by the moderators for being ridiculous. As a result, we get a lot of groupthink around here in political/social threads, where there aren’t many dissenting posters due to the abuse they suffer. Some of it is deserved because they hold unexamined and/or ignorant positions that society and intellgent people in general have discarded or is in the process of discarding on issues like racism and bigotry. But a sizeable portion is because they just don’t agree with the party line (literally!) or to certain “commonly” understood truths around here, and they’re shouted down, called names, etc… and not for saying something horribly racist, but for saying things that are merely disagreeing with what most people on here think. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/70 "2014-07-02T20:10:01Z")
I came onto this board about 3 months ago after being banned for the 4th time in a few months on my last board. On that one just about any conservative comment that wasnt totally PC would get you banned. This one has much more diversity on it. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/71 "2014-07-02T20:16:44Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I agree… and I’ll say this- there needs to be more effective moderation of a gaggle of certain arch-liberal posters on here who really stifle good debate with hyperbolic and absurd statements and/or hijacking of said threads to post said hyperbolic and absurd statements… We’ve got our share of conservative assholes, too. Not all the conservatives are assholes–but a few are. (This is not the place to name names.) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/72 "2014-07-02T20:26:55Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Cagey, here’s what I recommend for posting here: Don’t just post shit off the top of your head. Dress it up a little before you hit the “Post” button. Give it some substance. You CAN polish a turd. It’s still a turd, but at least it doesn’t stink as much. > > Also, grow some skin. You might get some flack from somebody like **Czarcasm** , but don’t let it bother you. Like when I point out that you are responding to a five and a half year old post made by someone who hasn’t been here for about a year? ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/73 "2014-07-02T20:27:14Z")
> [@ST93](#): > > City data might be one Too many vapid, stupid people/threads to qualify for the OP’s requirements (plus the issue of this thread being six years old and the OP apparently long gone.) And it’s much more strictly moderated by far than SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/74 "2014-07-02T20:30:51Z")
City Data is actually the one place I’ve been on the internet with worse moderation than the SDMB. Most worthwhile places leave posters and threads alone unless they violate (usually reasonable) rules. City Data moderators will literally delete posts they don’t agree with. It’s not even worth visiting. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/75 "2014-07-02T20:38:00Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > City Data is actually the one place I’ve been on the internet with worse moderation than the SDMB. Most worthwhile places leave posters and threads alone unless they violate (usually reasonable) rules. City Data moderators will literally delete posts they don’t agree with. It’s not even worth visiting. Indeed - they delete entire threads too, on a regular basis. It’s a very busy forum and can be useful for regional information. But the stupidity tolerance is extremely high, so you have to wander through acres of dumb posts to find the good ones. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/76 "2014-07-02T21:09:53Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > City Data is actually the one place I’ve been on the internet with worse moderation than the SDMB. Most worthwhile places leave posters and threads alone unless they violate (usually reasonable) rules. So where are these great fora with better moderation than the Dope? Hell, getting back to the OP’s long-ago question, where are these fora that are as good as or better than the Dope, regardless of quality of moderation? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/77 "2014-07-02T21:31:59Z")
Yeah, I wonder where this guy ended up? And why would you want to go somewhere where you _didn’t_ feel bad about posting drunk? ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/78 "2014-07-02T23:28:05Z")
> [@Cagey\_Drifter](#): > > The commentary never gets much beyond arguments about how the accompanying video is dumb/no it’s awesome fuck you, crazy wackjob conspiracy theories, and lots and lot of LOLZLZZLZOZLZ!!1 But if it could be reigned in somehow-- harnessed, if you will-- it could be a neat place to hang out. What ? The comments are just left there to help reduce the number of “reports” to moderators saying “No 0.9999… is not 1 !”… By giving the person somewhere to vent, the venting is done and everyone is happy 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/79 "2014-07-03T00:08:06Z")
There are a few hi-q societies that have message boards. If you have the right scores on one of the tests they approve of, you can join. I have no idea what goes on in any of them other than that though. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/80 "2014-07-03T00:27:43Z")
Tests? I don’t wanna take a test just so I can post. I’ll show you–I’ll stay here. And JREF (bad choice if one wants LESS moderation) and Giraffeboard (bad choice if one doesn’t want to be around **Giraffe**. ;)) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/81 "2014-07-03T01:35:14Z")
> [@colibri](#): > > i think this is probably better suited for imho than gq. > > Colibri > general questions moderator damn your controlling behavior !!!11!!!1!!!11111!!! lol, I just realized that this board autocorrects all caps messages. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/82 "2014-07-03T03:34:23Z")
There is a certain irony here … our departed op wanted a light mod touch and posters free to say what they think … \*unless \*what they think is that something someone else said was offensive. A smart board that I can, without comment back, act idiotally on, I guess. Thing is that some not insignificant fraction of thoughtful posters posting what they think will post things critical of what they think as ignorant, stupid, bullying, or hateful speech. It often comes with intelligence and thoughtfulness. Our departed op wanted an intelligent board that does not attract people who will condemn out loud that which they percieve as one of those things … and in fact it came off as if the op was too sensitive to deal with being called out for acting like an idiot. FWIW my experience is that those who feel the need to identify as high IQ are most often those saying fairly unintelligent comments with little thought involved and who have little else in their quiver than some test score. I’ve not seen one of the posters whose _posts_ evince their high intelligence ever comment about how high their IQ is. They don’t need to do that for validation I guess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151.md?page=5)