Discussion Rules

Dear interlocutors,

Please find below several rules for holding discussions on the Futures Studio platform, both online and offline^[1]. Compliance with these rules would help all the participants to turn the debate into a substantive, meaningful and, most importantly, productive dialogue.

Futures Studio, as the name implies, is a platform on which we jointly search, discuss and formulate possible long-term scenarios of the future of Armenia and Armenians, discuss global and local challenges of sustainable development, analyze the past and present in order to identify optimal scenarios of the future.

In order for our conversation not to be too far removed from the intended topic, we propose to refrain from the disputes about specific events in our history and mention them only in the light of how they influenced our present and, probably, the future. It is more important for us to identify what contributed and what prevented the preservation and prosperity of Armenians in the past centuries and how we can take this experience into account in the 21st century. Our present is also of our interest as the starting point of the route, which should lead us to the desired point. For this reason, we do not discuss current events and do not give them an assessment, but comprehensively analyze the state of affairs, predicting the long-term consequences in both local and global contexts. We hope that the statements of the participants in the discussion will be impartial, and the opinions of the disputants will be based on a thoughtful analysis, including a comparative one, and be supported by the results of various studies.

We want the participants to speak freely, so we do not censor the statements. But to maintain high standards of discussion and the conversation as a whole constructive, we urge:

to always speak on your own behalf and/ or on behalf of the organization you represent;
to be responsible for your words and behavior during the discussion;
to strive to reach agreement, and not defeat opponents;
not to reformulate the statements and distort the positions of the interlocutors;
to argument your own position;
not to refer to unverified and/or unreliable sources of information, opinions of third parties, general opinion, conspiracy theories;
if possible, to try to discuss the topic and not mix different issues during the discussion;
not to violate the rights of other people and organizations, whatever they may be – be it privacy, trade secrets, copyright or patent law and so on;
not to use the discussion platform for advertising and promotion of any goods and services, as well as their manufacturers;
not to encourage or protect outsiders and organizations and their activities;
not to mislead the participants in the discussion;
not to provide information and not to express oneself with the purpose of harming, insulting or denigrating disputants or other persons.

On our platform, statements about the superiority of some races, ethnic groups, nations, states, communities, social strata and groups, separate individuals, etc. over others are not allowed. It is important for us that our discussion space is free from aggression, hatred, extremism, intolerance and mutual insults, and we will take the necessary measures if needed.

For this reason, we reserve the right to stop the discussion, as well as broadcasting if any of the disputants violates the rules of the discussion platform.

^* We like the rules of conduct introduced by Andrei Movchan on his Facebook page and outlined in his book titled “Russia in the Post-Truth Era”, published in 2019 by “Alpina” Publishing House. With the permission of the author, we have adopted some of them.