the debate forum is stupid Options

[rawtheekuh]

no offense. half the topics are related to religion, and every topic eventually turns into a stupid bashing session. i think people should earn their right to participate in the debate section.
the debate forum is just turning into a dumping ground. (well, it has been for a while.)

[pandora]

lets call the WAHmbulance.

[brooklyneast05]

lets call the WAHmbulance.

why?

[pandora]

I just think people are taking what Jusun said out of context, and way too far up the butt.

[brooklyneast05]

seemed like valid input to me

[pandora]

When you remark on something that you're taking completely out of context, how is that valid?

[brooklyneast05]

well it's how tung feels i guess

[pandora]

that means it's valid?

[brooklyneast05]

why wouldn't it be? it's his opinion. it's as valid as anyone elses opinion.

[illriginal]

that means it's valid?

apparently if atheist can take things out of context, it still makes their points valid. so I guess we should just take things out of context at any given time.

[pandora]

you mean it's as valid as anyone elses invalid opinions.

[Melissa]

I'm just wondering - if someone like NoSex or the handful of other people I see in the debate forum that really involve themselves in the actual debate were willing to mod that forum and that forum only, would it really be such a hard thing to do? Maybe try it out for a month? Give them access to mod that forum only and if it's successful, make it permanent, if it's not, then just de-mod them.

Just wondering.

[pandora]

I'm just wondering - if someone like NoSex or the handful of other people I see in the debate forum that really involve themselves in the actual debate were willing to mod that forum and that forum only, would it really be such a hard thing to do? Maybe try it out for a month? Give them access to mod that forum only and if it's successful, make it permanent, if it's not, then just end the experiment.

Just wondering.

I'd be willing to at least TRY this for a few weeks and see where it goes, but I still feel as if the people staff should be able to handle this. I don't know where the rest of the staff stands on this though, so I guess we'll wait.

[brooklyneast05]

you mean it's as valid as anyone elses invalid opinions.

mostly i just meant that his opinion wasn't really worthy of bitchy reply.

[pandora]

I thought it was. I guess that's my opinion.

[brooklyneast05]

true story

[pandora]

i would say your face is a true story, but no one has ever seen it, so i can't say for sure if it's true.

[brooklyneast05]

oh ok makes sense

[illriginal]

I'm just wondering - if someone like NoSex or the handful of other people I see in the debate forum that really involve themselves in the actual debate were willing to mod that forum and that forum only, would it really be such a hard thing to do? Maybe try it out for a month? Give them access to mod that forum only and if it's successful, make it permanent, if it's not, then just de-mod them.

Just wondering.

Are you kiddin me? Do you not see how biased and condescending he is? Ha! You'd need a non-biased mod. Keep this forum as democratic as you can possibly keep it, please.

[Melissa]

When I say mod, I mean someone who'll get rid of the extraneous posts (i.e. nquack's inputs that make no sense to begin with). I don't know Nate, but even though he has his mind set in his own beliefs (as do you, Tama), I don't think he would misuse power. People who debate like it when there are contradicting view-points. Otherwise, there'd be no debate, am I right?

But yknow, that's just my opinion.
I'm not as into the debate forum as you and Nate are.

[rawtheekuh]

i like the moderating idea, but who exactly would be doing the moderating? shouldn't there be a set of guidelines as to what a person should be looking for in terms of good/bad debate posts? if there is any bias in a debate mod, we should call them out for it, imo.

[libertie]

Yes, I would like to have a new set of rules for the debate forum before we think about anything else, but I figured this is a possibility for keeping it moderated by allowing SOME of that responsibility to be passed along to people who really care about the debate forum.

But first, what exactly would need to be moderated? We do need stricter debate forum rules.

[Melissa]

Idk. When the topics start to consist of two people going back and forth throwing personal attacks and going completely off-topic - that's something that should be stopped. Maybe a verbal warning, then an actual warning. I know that this goes on in every forum and it's the people staff's job to regulate this, but it seems as if most of the staff members tend to overlook the debate forum, thus letting such arguments go on for pages and pages. That's why I think letting someone interested in debate moderate it (like the people staff moderate the rest of the forums) would be a pretty good idea.

And also, spam should be cut down. Posts that consist of a smiley face or a personal jab or the shit that nquack would post should be... I dont wanna say deleted but... just cut down somehow?

[illriginal]

Idk. When the topics start to consist of two people going back and forth throwing personal attacks and going completely off-topic - that's something that should be stopped. Maybe a verbal warning, then an actual warning. I know that this goes on in every forum and it's the people staff's job to regulate this, but it seems as if most of the staff members tend to overlook the debate forum, thus letting such arguments go on for pages and pages. That's why I think letting someone interested in debate moderate it (like the people staff moderate the rest of the forums) would be a pretty good idea.

And also, spam should be cut down. Posts that consist of a smiley face or a personal jab or the shit that nquack would post should be... I dont wanna say deleted but... just cut down somehow?

Debates can go from consisting evidence to personal views. When you become condescending then things tend to fire up, causing personal attacks, flame wars, hurt feelings etc...

[Melissa]

yeah, but wouldn't it be nice to stop the personal attacks/hurt feelings before they span 3 pages?

[rawtheekuh]

i have an idea that i saw on another forum: on there, they have a subforum called politics & religion that is only visible to certain members (kind of like the VIP lounge) and one has to have a certain number of posts in order to post in that particular subforum.

seems like i'm beating a dead horse, but it works for them really well. they get some really interesting discussions on there.