Guidelines for the Literature, Studies, and Academics Forum.

[Harimau]

Guidelines for the Literature, Studies, and Academics Forum.

Topics covered in this forum-Anything to do with academics or any kind of studies not covered by the other forums in the Academic Garden. This can and does include literature, sciences, military sciences, philosophy, social sciences etc. Please note that only academic and topics that are related to any kind of academia is allowed. Unrelated topics will be deleted or moved, whichever is appropriate.

Use clear and precise titles to your topics. This is to avoid confusion or misunderstanding of the topic.

Asking for help on anything is encouraged, and should you do, please be specific on the criteria that you need. If it involves mathematics or sciences, please explain the notation, as we all might not use the same notation on the internet.

Always write a clear and understandable introduction to the topic.
(Do: Give background information.)
(Dont: state the topic and ask opinions. Its boring that way)

NO Spamming. Spamming is posting with absolutely no value to the topic and is aimed at increasing post count. All spam will be deleted and the posters be sent a clear and concise warning. Spamming includes:
- Short unnecessary lines like: "Cool", "I agree"
- A post with smilies only
- a link to a bogus site
- a misplaced topic

NO Flaming or Trolling. We will come down like a ton of bricks to anyone who wants to try this out. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It is NOT your right to attack them (the person) personally.

Post in the right forum. If its for the Pub, post in the Pub.

Please try and make an effort to improve your posts by proofreading them and making them easier to read using paragraphs to seperate different points.

Enjoy yourselves! This is a forum for learning new things from other people and enjoying their company.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions about this forum here.

[James]

I would like to elaborate on the scope of this forum's topics. Here are some great sample ideas for topics in this forum:

“I just read Magician Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist, what does everyone think of the Riftwar Saga?” (Discussion about a novel series).

“I would like to know about Macintosh magazines, what do you think is best; MacAddict or MacWorld?” (Discussion about magazines).

“I feel Sun Tzu’s book, The Art of War, can also be applied to the real world in very helpful ways!” (In-depth discussion about literature).

“I am taking math 1050 at the college, and I am having trouble with this Algebra equation; can anyone help?” (Help with homework).

“In class today we were exploring the possibility of genetic dispositions (DNA) and murderers, do you think this is true?” (Modern science and academics).

“I am considering an education in Computer Science, I would like to discuss the following points…” (Academics).

Of course all of these topics would come with a good introduction to the subject and the author’s thoughts or arguments. Also, if anyone wants to make a good topic for those things above please feel free.

This forum is intended to have a broad scope of topics. In college classes very interesting topics are discussed, why not share them with everyone here to get some other opinions and further our educations?

[Rhiannon]

As some of you may have noticed, this forum's name underwent a change a while ago, from Literature, Studies, and Academics to Literature, Academics, and Philosophy. This forum was purely not being used enough for what it could be, and Current Affairs was piling up with a lot of threads that could be better discussed here.

This reflects a bit of a change for both forums, but one I'm sure you'll all come to enjoy. This morning, I did a major move of threads from CA to this forum (LAP). Some may be pruned later this summer, when I do my seasonal pruning. More may be moved over as well. But for now, I give you the list of what threads I've moved and why. ^^

Religious threads:
Afterlife: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=492
End of the World: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=1039
Must be Christian to be good?: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=2773
Death, Afterlife, and God: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=2748
Book of Revelations: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=3366
Religion (The Sticky): http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=112

Religion is philosophy, in a sense, and while it can also have current affair relevance, most of the discussion that takes place is of a philosophical nature. Threads on topics such as the Catholic Sex Scandal or the theocracies of the middle east, however, will stay in CA. Thus the big Religion sticky, as well as smaller religious discussions, are here in LAP to stay.

Threads with philosophical nature to them:
Success in Modern Terms: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=808
Rationalism vs. Empiricism: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=846
Open Minded: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=1381
The Definition of Evil: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=1208
Life is Percentages: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=2661
A Perfect World: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=2879
Freedom v. Equality: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=2674
Good & Evil, Right & Wrong: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=2841
Is Knowledge Always Good?: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=3715
Culturally Relative or Objective: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=3846
Can Knowledge be regarded as property: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=4096
What if Humanity lost all accumulated knowledge?: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=3771
Are some people too skeptical?: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=4660

These threads have a philosophical bend to them. While they may briefly discuss Current Affairs, the topics span a broad range of time and require intellectual thought alone, not news and current affairs.

Others:
Scholarships: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=1832
Who's Who Among American High School Students: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=4335
Grieving: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=2464
How Lonely are you?: http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=674

School related topics belong here, obviously. ^^ As well, discussions of emotional material... well, those last two, I'm caught between belonging in the Pub and here. They may get moved to the Pub later. But they don't belong in CA.

[lessthanpleased]

Just wanted to add a few points to some of the things that Wild-Eyes, James, and Harimau have mentioned:

1. Although the name of this forum may be Literature, Academics, and Philosophy, no formal training is presupposed or expected in the above subjects: philosophy, when literally translated, means "love of knowledge" and, as such, a love of knowledge is all that is expected of any and all who post here.

2. This is an intellectual safe space and, as such, you should feel free to ask any questions here that do not violate forum rules and that fall under the guidelines of what is to be covered here in the LAP.

3. If, for some reason, you should get into a debate here on a philosophical, theological, ethical, or literary issue, please supplement your arguments with proof or evidence. All of us have something to learn from each other, but, in order for a formal debate to get anywhere, all good arguments need objective or empirical evidence to be substantiated.

Please make yourself at home here in the LAP. After all, to quote Socrates, "The unexamined life is not worth living."