FAQ
Who creates the content?We believe that the most scalable and fair solutions need to be open but carefully controlled. Therefore, content on Discourse is built on suggestions from the community but ultimately put together by our content committee.
Our content committee is composed of experts across areas such as journalism, medicine, and politics. This group is responsible for taking suggestions from the community and using those to develop our content in a way that is succinct and robustly sourced.
We have strict
content principles and guidelines that govern everything from the format in which we present information to the type of language we use.
To keep pace with rapid information change, correct inaccuracies quickly, and reduce any potential bias, we also allow any reader to suggest edits. Our team of experts will review every suggestion to ensure all content is fact-checked, relevant, and abides by our
content guidelines before it is published.
How is Discourse funded?
Discourse is entirely self-funded and operated independently by its team. We do not earn revenue from advertisements, permit any pay-to-play content, or accept funding from any organizations. If we do, we’ll be transparent with our readers.
Are we affiliated with any political parties or movements?
We believe that the best solutions to the world’s problems are arrived at through a combination of empirical evidence, sound logical reasoning, and rigorous debate. We do not align ourselves with any political party or ideology, and believe that the best and most viable solutions to our challenges come from being able to bridge the gap between multiple perspectives.
How do you determine what sources are credible?
Our content committee vets and cites every source that informs our content. We only reference reputable sources which include:
- News organizations that employ professional journalists, produce original content, are transparent about their ownership, identify the authors of their articles, adhere to industry standards, have a commitment to fact-based journalism that represents the views of diverse communities and interests, and strive to present fair balance between different viewpoints in their articles
- Research from academics or from academic institutions that is impartial, transparent about how the research was conducted, conducted independently, transparent about any external funding for the research, and timely and relevant to the topic
- Federal or state government departments that have published research directly relevant to the topic
- Public officials with relevant experience
- NGOs or non-profit organizations with specialist expertise in the topic
How are you ensuring a truly balanced perspective?Our diverse team of experts source and summarize the most important information from credible publications and organizations across the political spectrum. We have strict internal guidelines that govern everything from the format in which we present information to the type of language we use (
see our public facing content guidelines).
These principles were built upon journalistic and content curation best practices to ensure integrity, neutrality, and fairness are upheld consistently across the topics we cover. Community suggestions and contributions are also a key factor in us being as balanced and accurate as possible.
How are you controlling for misinformation?We only reference reputable sources and heavily cite throughout each article so readers know where information is coming from and can click through to read the full source content.
We also allow any reader to suggest an edit to ensure there is ample opportunity for our community to flag and correct any inaccuracies. However, all reader suggestions are evaluated by our content committee to ensure they adhere to our
content guidelines and sourcing standards.
