I want to remind our posters of our objectives and expectations for this forum. This forum was set up to provide a resource for readers of the works of Will and Ariel Durant to seek answers to their questions concerning the Durants as well as to provide a forum for dialogue concerning history, philosophy, and their various applications in current and past society. That provides a wide umbrella for the generation of discussion, but there are clearly some things that qualify as "off topic" to the purpose of this site, and do not belong here. Please bear that in mind when posting your messages.
This forum is also not intended as a relay for messages to the directors of the Will Durant Foundation that do not involve Will Durant business. If someone has matters for us that do not involve Durant, they should contact us through personal channels.
This forum, by its subject matter, is designed to attract a scholastic and educated audience. It is not intended to be a place for people to regularly meet. Indeed, it is our hope that our readers have such full lives that the idea of spending hours each day on Internet forums is unappealing.
The World Wide Web being the beast that it is, it is not entirely unexpected that we will encounter the occasional individual who feels the relative anonymity of the format is an opportunity to incite argument for the sake of his own entertainment or as a vehicle to express his resentments or anger. Such a person is not welcome here. To that end, posters with hidden agendas and posted messages that contain personal attacks or that are clearly "baiting" an argument will be deleted. In addition, posters are expected to post under their real names. Pseudonyms of any kind will not be accepted, and posts made under such names will be deleted, whether they are valid or not. Dr. Durant was never afraid to accept credit for his ideas and opinions, which very often ran contrary to the prevailing line of thought, and we would expect the same of our forum posters.
We expect discussions on this forum (whether they involve disagreement or not) to be conducted in the spirit in which Durant himself debated his ideas and the ideas of others: with sophistication, a respect for differing ideas and, most importantly, differing people. We have no interest in allowing this forum to devolve into a place of negative or hateful commentary, and to that end we believe these guidelines will help ensure that such a thing does not happen.
With all of this in mind, I hope we can continue to provide this forum as a resource for appreciators of history, philosophy, and, of course, Will and Ariel Durant.
