Absolutely!

I want to foster a community that values open, honest and civilised discussion. Civilised being the key word.

I do not want to see extreme views espoused here, on any axis of the political spectrum. "Treat others as they would like to be treated" is a slightly different wording of The Golden Rule that I like to live my life by, and that going to be my philosophy of moderation.

Disagreement is possible without resorting to personal attacks, and just because someone has a different point of view on a topic does not make them objectively wrong, or a bad person. Remember that anonymous user is a fully formed person with their own life, experiences, hopes, dreams and fears. They put their underwear on one leg at a time, just like you do.

I have no intention of allowing members of this community to spread misinformation or falsehoods.

I have no intention of allowing hate speech of any kind.

Ultimately, my ability to moderate relies on our users making use of the report function. I am only one person and I'm not always on here. So if you see something you don't like, please bring it to the attention of myself or Dave and we will deal with it in an impartial manner.

I doubt I'll go back. The internet is vast, and with places like Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, etc, it's easy to get stuck in that looping cycle of "well there's nothing on Reddit, I'll check Insta. There's nothing on insta, i'll check Twitter. There's nothing on Twitter, I'll check Reddit"

It's a shame that StumbleUpon is no longer around, that was an amazing tool to open your eyes to new resources and sites.

Thank you! It's my favourite story to tell from my journey around Japan, second only to when I almost got into an altercation with someone who was clearly in the Yakuza by accidentally walking into them and spilling beer on them. But that's for another time.

And yes, I do not miss the sideburns.

This is a very reasonable and rational response, Dave.

I will preface this story by saying that this is the absolute truth. You can choose to not believe it if you like, and I don't blame you if you do, it's the internet after all and everyone lies on the internet. I can't provide any sources or back up what I'm saying, but I am telling you that this story is 100% real and true.

Back in 2014, I went to Japan on my own for 3 weeks, not long enough but it was all I could afford at the time. As part of that trip, I stayed in a monastery in Koyasan, south of Osaka. The second day of my stay there was my 28th birthday and I spent the entire day surrounded by incredibly beautiful temples, haunting graveyards and utter serenity. At this point in my life, I had huge sideburns. This is relevant later on in the story.

Around lunchtime, I got a sandwich and noticed a bit of a hullabaloo near one of the temples, so being a nosy tourist I wandered over to see what was happening. Walking up the steps of the temple there was a small crowd of people, clearly waiting for someone, so I decided to wait with them.

A few minutes go by and some obvious security personnel walk up the stairs followed by a small Asian man in yellow and maroon robes. This man was very familiar, but I couldn't place him until he got closer.

It was His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

I was absolutely floored. I was maybe 3 meters away from the head of one of the major world religions, on my goddamn birthday no less. He went along the front of the crowd of people, nodding and smiling and shaking the occasional hand. Until he got to me. Now I'm a 185cm tall 120kg white guy, to say that I stood out in Japan is an understatement. When His Holiness reached me in the line, he looked up at me, made direct eye contact, put the backs of his hands to his cheeks and wiggled his fingers, then burst out laughing.

The fucking Dalai Lama made fun of my sideburns on my birthday at a temple in Japan.

Its possibly the best and weirdest thing that has ever happened to me.

That seems a very typical "hands over ears going lalalalalalala" CEO type response. When a huge part of your userbase protests your changes, you would hope it would at least cause some discussion at a high level, perhaps a compromise. But for them to just stay the same course seems absurd. I suspect this will be one of the nails in the coffins of Reddit. It won't go out with a bang, but with a whimper.

Voyager was "my" Star Trek growing up. I live in a country where we didn't get things as they aired, so we were behind in the broadcast seasons, 1 season behind, from memory. I was too young to really appreciate TNG, but I really liked the feel of Voyager, even as a kid. I always thought that the Enterprise was never too far away from a Federation starbase, but Voyager being all alone really struck a chord with me.

Also I was 13/14 when Seven of Nine came on board, so of course that ratcheted up my desire to watch the show a million percent.

But going back and watching it later, with older sensibilities, god DAMN was that a good show overall. Yes, some episodes were terrible, and some of the writing really fell flat, but The Year of Hell particularly stood out for me. I haven't seen anyone mention The Doctor in the comments so far, and I have to say that Robert Picardo was the perfect choice for that character. The Doctor had one of the best character arcs I've seen on TV. He never got "flanderised", his character was consistent and always entertaining to watch. Chakotay as a character was poorly handled, he was very milquetoast, never really did anything interesting to stand out, he was always just....there.

Ignore Tamaki, he was just a useful idiot for the purposes of discussion. What I am trying to get across is that a truly open and free space for the exchange of ideas can only be hindered by restricting what can and cannot be said, and will ultimately create an echo chamber. We live in an increasingly divided world; we are divided politically, religiously, ideologically and plenty of others. Restricting what ideas can and cannot be spread can only serve to widen those divisions as those who are being restricted to retreat to their own echo chambers and find more and more extreme ideas.

If we want to create a truly open place where people can come and share their experiences, their thoughts and their ideas, then we do ourselves a disservice by restricting what can and can't be said, or who can and can't say things.

Endless Space 2. The best OST I have ever come across in 20+ years of gaming. Several hundred hours in and I'm still not sick of any of the tracks.

I got a Nissan Leaf. I wanted a full EV over a hybrid to save on maintenance costs.

I got a Leaf and I'm surprised how well it handles, that low center of gravity with the battery pack really helps it feel planted through the corners.

Yes! Absolutely! Pair that with paying for shit with my phone and I feel like I'm in Star Trek, except without the uniforms and cool shit.