My ideal country

Have you ever wondered what it would be like having or running your own country?

I am pretty sure that once the idea germinates into the minds of other people (including the ones that are criminals), every single person on the planet would dream about their ideal country and what would be permitted and what will not be permitted. Also, I am pretty sure most of you will be thinking about the type of people you'd like to have live with you in said country and what the politics and the policies in this country would be like.

I'm going to go ahead and give you my version of this:

My Own Country

The naming:

I would pick a name that is easy to pronounce. I would also pick an area that is away from the major continents and would only let select members of the public know about it. I would choose a name that suggests 'respectable' and 'worth'.

The Citizens:

The citizens of said country will all have fluency or mastery of the nation's language. They will be respectful to one another and live by the axiom: "Treat your neighbor the way thou wished be treated".

The laws of the land:

Citizens will be allowed to live the lives that they choose and will be responsible for their own health and wellbeing.

A citizen will be allowed to subscribe to or formulate their own religions. However, they will need to agree to the nation's fundamental law that they are not in anyway, shape or form allowed to force the average Joe in the nation (including immigrants) to conform to their beliefs. They are not to demand respect for their religious beliefs while deploying methods or tactics that forces or compels another citizen to subscribe their religion that they are trying to promote.

To assist with the process of manufacturing a religion, the laws of the land shall make some recommendations as to what to consider and what to exclude. The ultimate decision will be left in the hands of the individuals or the congregation who are forming or manufacturing their religion. They will also be guided on what to do if a member of a said religion commits a crime that is punishable by the nation's laws.

Furthermore, they are not allowed to cause harm in the name of their religion to any citizen for whatever reason - even if they say it is being done for the greater good. If they do violate this fundamental law, they will be taken to the nearest shore and be drowned for their atrocity.

The Justice System:

When it comes to Crime and Punishment, the country shall decide that the perpetrators or the offenders will suffer a fate worse than death itself. Since prison time is becoming less effective in reforming these offenders and prevent them from repeat offenses, a psychological penalty should be more effective than that.

The punishment for causing harm to a citizen if one citizen disagrees with the life choices of another is automatic banishment or death (depending on the nature of the crime and severity of the alleged crime).

To decide on these matters, instead of a system of jurors and a judge like in the western hemisphere, there will be a panel of 3 - 4 judges chosen before a case can be presented in court.

The Education System:

Public education will actively be discouraged in this country in favor of homeschooling. The government shall provide life coaches who are qualified in passing down life skills and will encourage their clients/students to gain as much life experience as possible throughout the course of their life.

Children will be encouraged to learn their language skills from their parents and once reaching the age of 7 years, the parents will send in their expressions of interest and or their applications to seek a life coach for their children.

The only private education allowed will be tertiary education and even then, these tertiary educational institutions will be required to price their courses and their degrees quite fairly. They must use the life experience gained by a potential student to assess said student's eligibility for admission into an institution and the courses being offered. Literacy will also be tested as well as meeting with the parents.

Entrepreneurship following graduation:

If after graduation, a citizen has an idea to start the business, they will be given access to all resources available to assist in getting started. The entrepreneurs will however, need to provide adequate training to whoever they are choosing. They will be required to choose candidates from the country and will receive tax breaks for doing so.

Manufacturing:

All manufacturing will need to be staying within the country and the government will encourage this by offering tax breaks and salary supplementation if needed. The government will work with individual businesses to negotiate this.

Importing goods into the country:

Goods may be imported into the country but will attract higher taxes to consumers than those produced and sold within the country. Importation will only be allowed when a government approved inspector accompanies a supplier of goods to a proposed country and examines the conditions of manufacturing. This will be the deciding factor when approving a supplier to import goods from a country.

Trade agreements will also be revised by the government upon input and feedback received from the citizenry.

Consumer Law:

All citizens are afforded the right to dispute faulty goods and services with a supplier should a problem arises. Suppliers and retailers alike are not allowed to place restrictions and limits on consumer goods when it comes to guaranteeing their safe usage. However, to take advantage of this beneficial to the citizen piece of legislation, the citizen or consumer in question will need to be honest and a mediator will be chosen to act as an observer during the initial stages of the dispute between the consumer and the supplier of goods/services and will need to file a report to the relevant governing body. The next steps will then be advised by the governing body based on this report.

Selecting of a senator or a congressman into government:

When selecting a congressman or a senator to represent the citizens in government, the government shall select an individual from the general population and request referrals and recommendations from the citizenry. It will not be the same as voting, but if enough people recommend a selected individual, said individual will be appointed as the nation's representative into government.

As for governance and leadership, the nation will have a president and a governor.

Military and Defense:

All military personnel will be afforded the ability to invent futuristic and powerful weapons to defend against invaders and will be tasked to work with manufacturers in the country to secure defense contracts for the supply of said weapons. Any manufacturers who are willing to step up to the plate and assist the military personnel in defending against enemy troops will be awarded a special benefit by both the the citizenry and the government.

The Media:

The media shall be independent and all journalists will be required to be as objective as possible. There will be a governing body that will release a report to the citizens based on feedback (including complaints) received from the citizens and rating the media on a scale of A - F (with A being a top notch, reliable, credible and trustworthy source of news and information to F being a complete joke to the country).

The Entertainment Business (including filmmaking and Broadcast television):

Filmmaking and Filmmakers:

All filmmakers will be afforded the right to make films and content as long as they are able to demonstrate that their work doesn't unnecessarily glorify something that happens in real life or influences a citizen of the country to break any laws. Quotas will be set if said filmmaker is in the habit of making too many romance based movies concerning the opposite sex and has been found to be constantly glorifying it for no reason. The quota in question will be a 50/50 measure: for every film that a filmmaker produces containing two characters that are members of the opposite sex, said filmmaker will need to produce one for the LGBT community.

Same goes for broadcast television:

All rules that apply to filmmakers will also apply to broadcast television as well. There will be no special locations alloted to the celebrities because they are celebrities and the citizens will be required to respect their private life since these celebrities will be living amongst the citizenry.

Why Quora is the worst Q & A site on the planet and detrimental to your knowledge base

It was by chance that I found Quora. At first, I found this site to be interesting and noticed that the biggest feature was voting on answers and responding to and commenting on answers. Not to mention the recently added ability to choose your credentials when answering a question. While this can be a benefit in most circumstances, it can be used to mislead the asker as to who is giving the answer.

Not long after signing up and starting to use the site to exchange knowledge, I soon found out that the moderators are not very well qualified (any Joe Shmoe or an unqualified dick head can be promoted/elected to be one).

I found that the site allows anyone who is a provocateur to delete, report and insult you when you try to engage in a civil discussion about it. Now, I am not denying that when a topic is a subject of controversy, some people will get emotional, but I tried to keep a cool head the entire time and tried to reason with the provocateur - big mistake. One even accused me of being an 8 year old sitting in front of his father's computer and failing to understand the reality of the world. Contrary to said accusation, I am old enough to have gained enough life experience to know that you cannot win a debate by insulting people or win an argument by using the strawman fallacy. You win an argument or a debate through reasoning and acknowledging the other point of view. And this is something that my mom always keeps reiterating. Also, I will show you the respect you have earned if you do the same. 

However, what I found to be the problem with others (both on the Internet and real life) is the fact that I am expected to give people the benefit of the doubt while excusing their inability to understand my point of view. Well , enough is enough. If you'd like to hear my point of view, I will be more that happy to share it and let you know upfront that I will not allow myself to be forced into accepting another person's point of view. Plus, when I try to ask sensible questions, I am shut down and blocked.

Quora is not the only culprit in this scenario. Other platforms like Facebook and Twitter are also guilty of the same crime - whether it is legal or not. Let's start with what makes them hypocritical to begin with.

The Be Nice Be Respectful or BNBR Policy is a complete joke and a farce

While every social media site has to have a policy that regulates their users and ensures that the platform is safe and secure for them to use, there are a quite a number of examples where a user (possibly a troll) has violated this policy and Quora does nothing to act on it. However, I have found myself in a situation where I wanted to find out more about why a user would believe a certain way and challenged them on their beliefs, said user ended up reporting me, deleting my comments to their comments, and receiving an email from Quora advising me that I have violated policy. I also keep wondering how on Earth are they still in business? I would have imagined that a mass Exodus would have taken place like it has been reported recently about Californians leaving California and moving to elsewhere in America.

For what it's worth, Quora has a policy, but platforms like theirs tends to enforce it against the wrong kind of people - the opponents who disagree with a certain narrative. Fortunately, we have a term in the legal books called "Selective prosecution". I am also left to wonder how on Earth is there no class action lawsuit against social media giants like these ass holes, or even a record of it being talked about it.

The support for members

Support for members who need it only exists by means of messaging. I tried appealing a couple of times where a comment of mine was found to be in violation of their terms of service or their BNBR policy even. All I received was confirmation that said comment was in violation of policy but no evidence pointing to what about the comment violated the BNBR policy. I responded by challenging the response and I have not heard back since.

Also, they will arbitrarily delete or not approve one or more of your answers that you have posted on certain forums and not respond when you ask them why they declined it.

Furthermore, what happens in some instances is that commenting is disabled for some answers from the get go or in the middle of a conversation with another user. Not sure if this is a glitch or whether members are doing this on purpose to avoid scrutiny, but there is definitely something to raise an eyebrow at.

People asking questions to answers that can easily be found using a google search

I primarily answer questions relating to screenwriting, the film industry and filmmaking. However, questions like: "How do I become a good screenwriter?" or "How do I become a better director?", or "What do I need to make a great film?". While I am pretty sure that the answers that the asker will receive by asking these type of questions will have some good advice, but when it comes to advice from professionals, it is non-existent. All you have to do is take a look at the credentials included of the person who answered the question and you will find that most of the people answering the question have no relevant qualifications to give the answer any credibility.

A lot of these questions can simply be answered by typing these exact questions using major search engines like DuckDuckGo, Google, Yahoo or Bing. I will admit that some of the answers posted on Quora will come with recommendations that a simple Google search will not necessarily include in the search results, but I also can't help it think that the asker is either lazy or trying to ask as many questions as possible to take advantage of the partnership program where they are paid to ask questions on a daily basis. Yes, there is a partnership program where you get paid to ask at least 10 questions on the site daily.

Users copy pasting a question verbatim before beginning their answer

I have found quite a few instances when I asked a question on Quora or when someone else asks a question on Quora, a few of the users have a super annoying habit of copy pasting the question verbatim before they start answering said question. It is mind numbing why they do this.

I asked one of these users why they did this and the response was less intelligent then a thermometer showing that your temperature is normal. The response: "In case the question is lost or is reminding the asker what they have asked. You can clearly see the question displayed before the answer. I have to wonder if they were blind to this fact.

If you have found other problems with Quora, please mention them in the comments below.

Knowledge is either incomplete, biased or sourced from Wikipedia

When looking through the answers that other users have written, some of the answers are either super biased, sourced from Wikipedia or incomplete to the point where further research is required. It would be a waste of time for a user to do research and post those findings on Quora only for some idjit to report the answer and get it removed for reasons ranging from the answer being politically incorrect to being downright offensive.

I have moved away from relying on Wikipedia for information on any topic because any Joe Shmoe can create an account and write whatever he/she wishes (no matter who incomplete or inaccurate) and Wikipedia doesn't do a darn thing about correcting it - even when someone points it out to them.

The last draw

The last draw for me came when a user responded on one of my answers with an opinion. I calmly pointed out that this was an opinion that I had and that I will be respecting their opinion but they will need to return the favor. I also pointed out that they were using forceful tactics to make me agree with them.

The same thing happened as before: I received a message from Quora advising me that a comment had been deleted because it was found in violation of their terms of service.

Remembering what happened the last time this occurred, I immediately deleted not only their comments to my answer, I also deleted my comments corresponding to their comments. I did not even bother to appeal this one, because I knew what the response from Quora will be.

I then emailed an account manager or an account admin requesting that they delete my account on Quora because I felt attacked and not respected while giving the respect the users expected of other people.

I am done with Quora and if anyone reading this is considering signing up for Quora, run. Run as far away as you possibly can until you have found the one Q & A site that does not do what Quora and other social media platforms are doing to some of their genuine user base.

And if you haven't already after you have read this article, raise holy hell against Quora or start a class action lawsuit accusing them of unconscionable conduct.

To conclude:

There are much better websites that will serve the purpose that Quora will and if anyone out there is thinking about starting a competing Q & A site, have a policy where you specify that people will be shown respect if they themselves give it, and have users sign up by invitation only.

Quora is not the site it was marketed to be. It is mostly for those who need their feelings, their belief systems and their political ideologies validated and attract attention towards themselves.

As long as it doesn't end in violence or other sinister acts being commited, we all can respect each other, and acknowledge each other's beliefs and points of view while not forcing the objectors or the opponents of a viewpoint or a belief system to confirm to our ideology.