But what if it is both: a parade of “stupid” and “you can cram it” along with citations from the NIH and the CDC, with meat to the argument? That was what I intended to convey.
Again, if there is meat, you can do without the insults.
More than “the out,” it was deliberately inserted to avoid mentioning the exceptions.
In GD, cites and tight reasoning are expected. In the pit, they are optional. I would also say as a very general rule (i.e. there are many possible exceptions) discussions of personalities rather than arguments belong in the pit. So Politician A is a liar could go in GD if one wanted to discuss varying definitions of the core terms, the extent to which Politician A meets them and how unusual that is among politicians, lawyers and the general public. But absent intent to make such careful distinctions, the topic is probably pitworthy.
In GD you can’t call a liar a liar. That right there is enough to drive people to the pit.
Exactly. And I really like Dex’s “deliberately inserted to avoid mentioning the exceptions”. When it boils down, I think it should just be the call of the Pit mod. Since somebody has to decide, it seems that he is the natural one. Gfactor has Giraffe’s even temperament and good judgment. In addition, Gfactor knows a debate from a brawl. I’m down for pretty much letting him set guidelines and then use his own judgment.
I’m watching both of these threads, and I’ll take what people say into account.
I get a different set of statistics than Fenris did. The following non-political posts are on the Pit’s front page:
Sea Shepherds; Innefectual self-important dipshits
Prohibition, Prospective Profit Prompt Pothead to Post.
Getting into Web-based database geek jobs: this process sucks!
Westboro Baptist at it again
Mamas, don’t follow your babies into the men’s room
“Work” related: just really really need to rant
Nut With Gun at Town Hall (Not so much about town halls as about guns and nuts)
I quit my job and I end up in the cuckoo’s nest!
Woman fined $1.9 million for illegal song downloads
Hey, druggies! Screw you.
RO: Converting a Hindu to Christianity
I pit online shopping from outside the US (long, sweary, possibly incoherent)
I pit whatever technology shoves my home city in my face.
Shreveport Officer Wiley Willis reinstated
Left Bank Books
begbert2 cannot debate like an adult
FUCK Human Resources in public education
Intelligent Design prof requires student to troll on ‘hostile’ websites.
Stealing Focus
I’m not a bitch because you aren’t listening.
Eyeball glass, Cellulits, Shingles, MRSA, Pulmonary Embolisim with a cherry on top.
Sylvia Browne Is a Dirty, Stinking Whore
“Refuse new coins” e-mail
Man, Michael Moore has a bit of an ego to him… (closed)
Stupid Untrustworthy fiance… now ex-fiance!
By my count that’s 25. There are a total of 47 front page posts (not counting stickies). So, that’s far away from 75% of the threads being about politics. It’s less than half, actually. And Frank’s rant, by the way, is still on page 1.
Here, FWIW, is the thread in the Pit: What is Pit-worthy? - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board
Of Lib’s list, I would count the following threads as political:
Sea Shepherds; Innefectual self-important dipshits
Prohibition, Prospective Profit Prompt Pothead to Post.
Westboro Baptist at it again
Shreveport Officer Wiley Willis reinstated
Man, Michael Moore has a bit of an ego to him… (closed)
Borderline:
Nut With Gun at Town Hall (Not so much about town halls as about guns and nuts)
So MfM scores 19-20 nonpolitical threads, rather than 25 by Lib’s count. So at most 60% of pit threads are political (47% by Lib’s count) . That compares with 78-86% of GD being political, using my calibration. (Suggested name of hypothetical nonpolitical GD forum: Left Behind. 
)
Opinion of pit: its primary value lies in the 5-10% of threads that constitute the board’s safety value. Beyond that, it’s basically entertainment, so I’d be inclined to defer to the moderators’ convenience.
See? We can’t even agree on what constitutes a "political’ thread. This is a recipe for more problems, not less.
You cannot call ANOTHER MEMBER a liar. You can certainly call an outsider (such as a politician) a liar. Our assumption is that we can have political debates (in GD) without one side calling the other side names. (We assume that it is possible to debate political topics without one side lying, as well, but that’s neither here nor there.) If you must flame another poster by calling them names, whether liar or idiot, that belongs in the Pit. That’s usually no longer polite discussion.
Oh, it’s here and it’s there. The amount of lying that goes on in GD is grotesque and handcuffing those who aren’t lying just forces stuff to the pit.
That suits me as well. Even 60% is closer to 50% than it is to 75%.
Note: (I have inserted blue bracketed comments within quote to cut down size of post and to avoid parsing it.
But we CAN call the post a lie. We can say, “Your premise is a lie,” for example. We just can’t attack the poster directly.
You might like http://www.topix.net/forum/topstories
I read it for a while, but I quickly O.D. on wingnuts. Might work work for you though.