Comments
CaptainFact is no ordinary social platform. Its vocation is to focus on facts, evidence, sources, arguments and context but not to opinions. The comment section can be used to open the context but must not deviate from the initial subject. Off-topic is sanctioned by the community.
The Approve
and Refute
buttons should only be used when evidence
allow for significantly tilting the verification to one side or the other.
A minor error on a date or a slightly coarse rounding on a number do not
necessarily deserve to be invalidated: one can confirm
the statement as soon as the order of magnitude is good or post in commentary
if faced with an acceptable approximation.
Statements
To have its place on CaptainFact, a quote must fill out at least one of the following criteria:
- Be verifiable
- Mention a source or a content on which a comment could make the link
- Present incomplete or approximate elements
- Making a false, misleading or deceptive argument
It is also recommended to ask the following questions before adding a quotation:
- Could a typical person, upon hearing the statement, ask himself if it's true? For example, the statement "The sky is blue" is verifiable but doesn't really need to be sourced.
- Is the statement likely to be repeated and shared?
- Is this a minor error or an acceptable hyperbole - often used in politics?
About opinions in statements
Opinions should as far as possible avoid appearing in quotations.
You can, if it does not deprive it of its meaning, replace the judgments of
value (best, worst, stupid...etc) by [...]
.
For example :
This social measure was the worst. It disgusts me. It has created an increase in unemployment, which is madness.
Can become:
This social measure [...] has created an increase in unemployment