What Chains of Reason is, and is not
From Chains of Reason
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Chains of Reason is a wiki
Chains of Reason is a wiki, which is a website that allows users to edit its content. The most well-known example of a wiki is Wikipedia - 'the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit' - and this site is powered by the same free wiki program, MediaWiki. For more information on wikis, see the Wikipedia article on wikis.
Unlike Wikipedia, users of Chains of Reason must register and login in order to contribute, are required to reach a consensus on the relevant page's 'talk page' before an edit is made, and edits can only then be carried-out by trusted users, or 'admins'. To be clear, admins do not have any more of a say than non-admins in how to edit content - they merely implement edits that have been agreed - and an edit cannot be made by an admin without any discussion with other users (or at least an attempt to start a discussion).
Chains of Reason is not a forum for debating particular beliefs
Chains of Reason is not a wiki version of the web forums, and electronic mailing lists, where people debate particular beliefs - moral, political, scientific, religious, etc. Contributing to Chains of Reason is not about defending one's beliefs and challenging contrary beliefs of other users. It is not even about working with other users to objectively try to determine whether the reasoning behind particular beliefs are sound or unsound.
Chains of Reason is a new form of intellectual discourse
Chains of Reason is a place where people work together, regardless of their own beliefs, to try to determine simply how best to present the reasoning behind particular beliefs in the chain format, with people left to make their own assessment of the soundness of that reasoning.
All of this is in contrast to the current, traditional form of intellectual discourse, where interaction between different camps is in the form of confrontation, rather than collaboration, and where reasoning is always presented with its perceived soundness, or unsoundness, also being stated. The other major difference is of course the chain format itself, which is aimed at helping to maximise clarity and brevity, with the ultimate aim of increasing both the quality of discourse and its understandability to the general public - see Why this format?.
