A thread that shows exactly why discussion should be allowed in polls.

[Sarahfeena]

Not all debates are factual, though…some are philosophical. And, anyway, it doesn’t really matter. I know it’s the pedantic nature of this board to nitpick exactly how debates are “supposed” to work, but ultimately, isn’t the point to get people talking? If a poll is a good jumping-off place, then why not?

[Peremensoe]

nm

[Crazyhorse]

@Sarahfeena

Not all debates are factual, though…some are philosophical. And, anyway, it doesn’t really matter. I know it’s the pedantic nature of this board to nitpick exactly how debates are “supposed” to work, but ultimately, isn’t the point to get people talking? If a poll is a good jumping-off place, then why not?

I agree it probably wouldn’t cause any real harm in terms of the usefulness of the forum for debating seriously because serious debaters would discount any poll results as meaningless. Looking at it from the perspective of a IMHO poll that has turned into a contentious debate, I don’t see what harm there would be in moving it to a forum the debate could rage on. But looking at it from the perspective of people starting polls in GD as the initial means of getting a debate going somehow seems un-GD-like to me - though I guess I can’t exactly put my finger on the distinction there would be.

[Steophan]

@Crazyhorse

I agree it probably wouldn’t cause any real harm in terms of the usefulness of the forum for debating seriously because serious debaters would discount any poll results as meaningless. Looking at it from the perspective of a IMHO poll that has turned into a contentious debate, I don’t see what harm there would be in moving it to a forum the debate could rage on. But looking at it from the perspective of people starting polls in GD as the initial means of getting a debate going somehow seems un-GD-like to me - though I guess I can’t exactly put my finger on the distinction there would be.

Ideally, a debate thread on an important issue should be more nuanced than any reasonably sized poll could represent. It’s rare enough that actual GD threads are like this without making them more polarised.

[Joey_P]

@guizot

Real discussion is one thing, but when 85% of the “discussion” is people simply saying how they voted and nothing more (which seems to be more often than not)? The whole purpose of the poll apparatus itself is to quantify that kind of fluff so we don’t have to wade through what effectively is a bunch of “me toos.”

To the people who do that: Sorry, nobody’s keeping track of your personal poll answers.

That bugs the crap out of me. Even worse then cut and pasting your poll answer is a post that’s simply “3” or “4”, so now I have to refer back up to the poll to see what it was, not that I care, but I for some reason I just can’t bring myself to not know.