At the time of writing, the ‘Basic Physics’ group has a jaw-dropping 2.1 million members. The community has grown by leaps and bounds since it was founded in early October of 2018. The members are very active and in the last month alone, they’ve made 286 new posts.
Meanwhile, the team running ‘Basic Physics’ is fairly large. It’s made up of 7 administrators, as well as 9 moderators. It makes sense to have so many people from all over the world on the team, considering the massive size of the group itself.
The team managing the community calls it a ‘scientific group’ and claims that its mission is to present the public with highly educational posts about physics and its various branches.
According to the group founders, these include classical mechanics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, electromagnetism and electronics, relativity, quantum mechanics, string theory, quantum gravity, loop quantum gravity, optics, atomic, molecular, and optical physics, condensed matter physics, high energy/particle physics and nuclear physics.
However, not all posts have to be super serious and focused just on physics. General memes about science and math are welcome, too.
According to the administrators and moderators, as the community continues to expand, it’s important, more now than ever before, to create a welcoming environment while also staying true to the group’s original vision.
The team running the entire project stresses that it’s vital that members are respectful of one another. They urge Facebook users to treat each other like they themselves would want to be treated. Especially during online arguments. “Healthy debate is natural, but humility is also necessary,” the team writes.
The ‘Basic Physics’ admins and mods also want every member to feel safe. “Bullying of any kind is not allowed and any derogatory comments related to things like race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender, or identity will not be tolerated,” they explain that there’s no tolerance for intolerance.
On top of that, there’s a certain expectation that all members give back more to the community than they get from it. That means that everyone should avoid spamming the group, posting irrelevant links, or promoting themselves. “To be a part of this group, there will be a need to establish mutual trust. Authentic, passionate discussions improve the group, but these discussions can also be sensitive and personal. Content shared in a group must remain in the group.”
