Helpful Guidelines

We are keen for you to post your ideas on Probably42 and have produced these Guidelines to help you do just that. They aim to ensure that you are not unduly constrained but that postings are consistent with the ethos of the site. 

Ideas Input

The easiest way to get started and input an idea is by posting an overview of it in the ‘New Topics’ Discussion Forum to see what further ideas and support you get.

Ideas Documents

At any point you may find it more convenient to create a document using your own word processing software e.g. Microsoft Word, just use the 'save as pdf' facility in it and then upload this in the Probably42 documents section (select Ideas in the navigation tab).

Guidelines

If you haven’t already read the section ‘Personality of the Site’ please do so.

The most important thing is to make sure the description of your idea is Balanced, Impartial and Well-considered and respects the personality of the site.

Most new ideas have both positive and negative aspects and there will be varied opinions of them, possibly from those with vested interests. Our aim is to find ideas that would be acceptable to a significant majority of the population, rather than divisive ideas. So, in particular we would recommend that you think through the pros and cons of your idea and include both in your description. Then, either identify ways of avoiding or mitigating the cons, or explain why on balance the idea should be adopted. As well as considering obvious consequences it is useful to give some thought to possible unintended consequences of your idea too.

Other techniques can be useful to ensure you have thought about all aspects e.g. consider why you are you reaching the conclusion that this is on balance a good idea, separating out different viewpoints.

• Logical view – pros and cons based entirely on logic
• Emotional view – recognising what you emotionally feel based on your view of the world
• Pragmatic view – justifications not necessarily based on logic or emotion but because they work in practice

In early versions of your idea, do feel free to include questions on things you don’t know, or facts you don’t have, so that other members can contribute to the development of the idea. Think of other members as friends who are helping you. Just clearly label any question with the word Question:

Similarly do recognise when you are making assumptions and label them with the word Assumption:, so that others can contribute if they know of facts which will support or contradict the assumption.

Safeguarding the quality of the site

Our aim is to interfere as little as possible with what is published on Probably42 but we will ultimately act if we feel the personality of the site is being compromised in any document or posting. It is up to us all to keep an eye on this and we would encourage all members to point out to the author any lack of balance or other missing attributes in a very positive way, so that they have the opportunity to address it. Do, however, take note of the stage an idea is at e.g.an embryonic idea should receive much more latitude than one that is being put forward as a finished proposal.