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Notes -
I think replying "That seems like a pretty controversial claim, do you have any evidence to back it up, my evidence for it not being true is so-and-so".
The (I guess) inflammatory statement was part of the top level post, which to me seems like a clear example of an effort-post. If the post was just this one statement, I think our mods would likely have asked the submitter to put more effort in by proactively providing evidence. But if one cancels every lengthy post which contains some claim which might be controversial and is not backed by evidence then there will be very few posts left.
I'm not asking to cancel every length post. A mod saying
Is completely fine.
Removing the rule is also fine.
Changing the rule to allow unsupported controversial claims in effort posts is also fine.
But don't write rules that sound lovely, but which you're not willing to enforce.
I don't personally believe this. I have every confidence that OP could have omitted or supported that sentence, if they had felt like it was expected of them.
I think people fall to the standard they can get away with, and it was clear when the top-level comment was posted that the mods were never going to mod it.
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