Dive into the discussion today.

ADQ is a closed group dedicated to open minds that provides a broad range of opinions on a broad range of topics. ADQ allows members to post claims and also allows those who are interested to pinpoint their exact position to questions chosen by members of the group. The goal of ADQ is to encourage learning, discourse, and respectful debate.

Free Expression – Have a thought you want to crowdsource? A claim to test publicly? Ours is a group of individuals coming together to exchange ideas. It’s what makes us so colorful.

Eager Education – participation in Agree Disagree Qualify requires an open mind and a sense of humor. We want contributors who bring their own ideas to the table and walk away with many others, as well.

Utmost Respect – every person in the community deserves to be heard. Without human respect, there is no ADQ. This includes verbal abuse, personal attacks, etc. Further discussion on abuse of ADQ Core Values can be found here.

These three values do compete to some degree. For example speaking openly might include insults, which would violate our respectfulness policy. Posters and commentators are expected to use their best judgement when they exercise their right to express themselves freely, and not infringe on the rights of others to enjoy a safe and hospitable community. A good practice is to err on the side of caution. If a commentator is unable to express themselves without the use of insults or attacks, they should either rework the point they are attempting to make and phrase it in a way that doesn’t create a hostile environment or reconsider making such claims.

If you are curious to see what others have said about this or would like to weigh in, use the “search this group” function in our Facebook group to find the thread on it, searching for “three main values”.

It’s really quite simple. Here at ADQ we celebrate:

Free Expression by making it our first value. What makes our ADQ community so great are the differing worldviews and perspectives of our members, who come from different places, backgrounds, ethnic origins, religions, and cultures.

Eager Education is the sincere disposition toward open­mindedness and curiosity. It’s what keeps our threads moving as intelligent discussions, rather than crumbling into flame wars and personal attack. In terms of Eager Education, the correct way to respond to a comment or claim that you disagree with is stating your own position and the reasons why you disagree. You may consider backing up your own position with links to sources or other types of evidence that defend your position. This is in stark contrast to questioning the integrity or intelligence of the person that made the claim/comment, or by calling the claim/comment “stupid”,etc.

Utmost Respect is absolutely critical to the integrity of our community. By participating in this group, you will be exposed to distinct perspectives and worldviews, some of which may conflict with your own. You must be aware of this potential conflict before you engage and consider the diversity of people in­ the thread. Always remain polite, courteous, and civil. A great strategy is to remain objective, which means refraining from taking personal offense to the views presented here. Nobody likes to be dumped on, attacked, personally criticized, belittled, etc. Nobody wants to feel that their personal identity is being questioned or discredited by another commentator. Everyone wants to be treated as though their opinions matter. And in ADQ, every opinion does matter.

When making a post or commenting on another thread please ensure the second and third values (Eager Education & Utmost Respect) are built into your wording. There are a few easy ways to do this:

1. Come to the table with both a questioning nature and with an open­minded perspective (there are a lot of good ideas out there);

2. When disagreeing or discrediting a claim or thread comment, phrase your rebuttal so that you are not also personally attacking the person who made said claim;

3. Try to learn from the insights of others (if everyone in the group does this, just think of what we can accomplish!); and

4. Do not take personal offense from the perspectives of others. They’re not personally against you, and so you should not respond in a personal way. If you feel like a personal comment was made against you do not respond to it and do not engage. Private Message (PM) or tag the Mods, and we will handle it from there.

There are three hard and fast rules:

- Attack arguments, not people.

- Phrase all ADQ posts in the form of a claim. Never post as a question.

- Initial statements in the comments section that are not asking for clarification should also begin with A, D, or Q. If the commenter has posted Q, they should qualify their position or ask the poster for more clarification about the claim.

As far as behavior, there is no official set of rules, per se. However, if the Mods determine you are in egregious and open opposition to the ADQ Core Values, you may be warned or asked to leave. Each Mod issue is handled on an individual basis.

Early experiments show that the most common issue is disrespectful discussion. Insults break the lines of communication more quickly than any other encroachment. Mods are here to ensure discussions continue to flow organically and without interruption.

Love your Mods! Group Moderators (mods) work hard to keep site, discussion, and format quality maintained at the high levels you expect. Mods hold administrative rights for the group. They issue warnings and other measures for personal attacks and hate speech, since these have been ruled to violate the third value. Keeping in mind John’s comment on banana value from the above claim, see Judas’ comment as an example of a personal attack:

“D!! Bananas suck! You suck! Monkeys suck! Everyone here is stupid!”
– Judas

Truly, abuse and disrespect are serious issues for ADQ. We take them seriously because we take you seriously, so please give others the respect and civility that we all deserve. If you believe a rule has been violated you can 1) private message, or PM, the mods; 2) tag the mods in a thread; or 3) select the “Report to Admin” feature from the drop­down menu (top­right of any post in ADQ).

Because our mods require administrative rights to manage ADQ, there are a couple of conditions to your continued use of the ADQ community. We ask that you:
1. Never block a mod.
2. Refrain from over ­messaging a mod.

Mods care a great deal about your ADQ experience; however, being available to thousands of members at any given time is no easy task. They take time to reply to each mod and member requests, so time and energy are always in short supply. Just be sure to thank any mods that assist you and they’ll love you always.

All claims posted should start with “ADQ:” and should prompt others to agree, to disagree, or to qualify (show support for credibility of) the statement. For example:

“ADQ: Bananas are fantastic.”
– Susie

Members weighing in should begin comments with a response of Agree, Disagree, or Qualify. Using the shorthand version of “A,” “D,” or “Q” to weigh in is also acceptable. In the above example Susie has made a claim, which John agrees with. John’s response might something look like:

“A. Bananas are ripe with energy, vitamins, and essential minerals. And monkeys love them!”
– John

You may post anything you would like, as long as it:

- Follows Standard ADQ Format, beginning with “ADQ,” followed by a claim

- It is not insulting to others (read, insulting rather than “offensive”. You may offend people. If you call someone a name though, you are being insulting)

- It is something that makes linguistic sense

Excepting any claim that would break one of these three guidelines, feel free to post away!

Try using the “Search this group” function at the top right of the Facebook group page. It’s really handy. If you really loved a specific thread, there is probably a keyword you can use to search and pull it back up.

You can invite friends to the group, but be judicious. Request people who you believe would be interested and can comply with the group’s aims. These contributors must be approved by the moderators to gain entry.