# "Ask The.." thread in Great Debates **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 17, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097 "2010-09-17T16:20:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/81 "2010-09-17T21:53:10Z")
> [@MonkeyMensch](#): > > > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > > > If the OP is not willing to answer questions then the thread needs to be closed. > > The OP is not willing to answer ALL questions unconditionally, it’s true. The OP is free to decide which questions to answer. If the OP starts an offensive thread and them refuses to answer the relevant question about it, then the thread needs to be closed. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/82 "2010-09-17T21:54:12Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > > [@Czarcasm](#): > > > > Since the topic that got the thread moved from MPSIMS to Great Debates in the first place is now off-limits, shouldn’t the thread be moved _back_ to MPSIMS? Any other controversial aspect of the topic is directly tied to the elephant in the room. > > Agreed. Move it back to MPSIMS. Not agreed. It’s an offensive OP which belongs in the Pit or nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/83 "2010-09-17T21:56:49Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > > [@John\_Mace](#): > > > > Agreed. Move it back to MPSIMS. > > Not agreed. It’s an offensive OP which belongs in the Pit or nowhere. Hell, man, not even **Der Trihs** insists on this for religious discussions. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/84 "2010-09-17T21:59:28Z")
I would not insist if the moderators didn’t make it a one way street where only one political opinion is allowed to be voiced. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/85 "2010-09-17T22:00:54Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Incidentally, are we still allowed to ask questions about the _morality_ of her actions, and other tangentially related political questions (like why I should have to subsidize her with my tax money)? > > Or does it all all have to be tea and sympathy? Mostly tea and sympathy after all, God gave them the land. I agree that you shouldn’t be able to start a thread like that and then have a moderator come in a shut down discussion on the topic regardless of how rudely the question is asked. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the illegality of the settlements and their poisonous effect on the peace process are natural topics for a thread where the Op specifically states that theya re settling on the other side of the green line. BTW, for anyone saying that international law cannot apply to individuals… thats simply not true. The OP may not be a criminal under Israeli law but she may be breaking international laws. Just like the folks who tortured prisoners at Guantanamo were criminals despite the fact that they may not have been breaking US laws. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/86 "2010-09-17T22:05:01Z")
> [@MonkeyMensch](#): > > > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > > > If the OP is not willing to answer questions then the thread needs to be closed. > > The OP is not willing to answer ALL questions unconditionally, it’s true. The OP is free to decide which questions to answer. Yes but why should Diogenes get smacked down for repeating teh question? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/87 "2010-09-17T22:17:33Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > > [@MonkeyMensch](#): > > > > The OP is not willing to answer ALL questions unconditionally, it’s true. The OP is free to decide which questions to answer. > > Yes but why should Diogenes get smacked down for repeating teh question? I think that precedent has been set with the warning for badgering **Bricker**. Plus, **Diogenes** has made it abundantly clear that he has no interest in anything other than his own hijack. He wants the thread shut down, for no other reason than he is not going to be allowed to repeatedly call the OP names. If you don’t like the thread, **Diogenes** , you are not compelled to participate. But, since I don’t see the word “Moderator” under your user name, no one needs to give much of a shit what you like, do they? > [@John Mace](#): > > Agreed. Move it back to MPSIMS. Hear, hear. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/88 "2010-09-17T23:17:18Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > > [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > > > Yes but why should Diogenes get smacked down for repeating teh question? > > I think that precedent has been set with the warning for badgering **Bricker**. > > Plus, **Diogenes** has made it abundantly clear that he has no interest in anything other than his own hijack. He wants the thread shut down, for no other reason than he is not going to be allowed to repeatedly call the OP names. > > If you don’t like the thread, **Diogenes** , you are not compelled to participate. But, since I don’t see the word “Moderator” under your user name, no one needs to give much of a shit what you like, do they? > > > [@John Mace](#): > > > > Agreed. Move it back to MPSIMS. > > Hear, hear. > > Regards, > Shodan When **John Mace** , **Shodan** and I agree with each other, either something is pretty damn evident, or pretty damn _wrong_. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/89 "2010-09-17T23:21:00Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > > [@John\_Mace](#): > > > > Agreed. Move it back to MPSIMS. > > Not agreed. It’s an offensive OP which belongs in the Pit or nowhere. There was nothing offensive about the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/90 "2010-09-17T23:59:38Z")
Obviously I need to cultivate a more controversial reputation so people can be stunned to realize they agree with me. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/91 "2010-09-18T00:43:50Z")
I feel ya, Bryan. Nobody ever says “Even LEMUR agrees with me, for chrissake”. We should form a club. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/92 "2010-09-18T00:53:41Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > > If I may suggest, the subject was broached in a tone more hostile than necessary. I suppose better phrasing would have been “How do you feel about organizations that claim your resideny is illegal?”, as opposed to “How do you feel about doing something that is illegal?” > > > > The OP of the other thread is under no obligation to recognize the authority of “international law” as defined by whatever agencies were being cited. Possibly the government of Israel is, depending on which treaties are in effect. > > I asked the second question because that was what I wanted to know. I am not interested in the OP’s opinion about what other organizations think. I’m interested in how the OP feels about being a criminal. That the settlements are illegal is a fact, not an opinion. :rolleyes: Why are so many people on this messageboard confused about what is a fact and what is an opinion? ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/93 "2010-09-18T01:08:48Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Obviously I need to cultivate a more controversial reputation so people can be stunned to realize they agree with me. I’m stunned that I agree with **Bryan Ekers** that he needs to cultivate a more controversial reputation. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/94 "2010-09-18T01:36:19Z")
The thread has been moved back to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/95 "2010-09-18T02:17:47Z")
I am sorry I have not responded sooner, but my employer keeps wanting me to actually show up at work. My Mod action, this morning, was intended to interupt the hijack that was already in progress. Under Great Debates rules, one may challenge any statement, of course. However, no such rule exists in MPSIMS, (and even in GD it is not an absolute rule). On the other hand, the only reason that the thread moved to GD, to begin with, was that posters were treating it as a debate and we have not had so many recent “Ask the…” threads that there was a clear protocol for handling a thread that was turning into a debate. At any rate, even in GD, I have, on occasion, limited the times and ways that certain questions can be “asked” when such questions were intended more as insults than as debate points and when they were liable to disrupt or hijack a thread. The construction of the “criminal” questions were clearly intended as insults and they were not going to result in a serious discussion. As such, they were already violations of the SDMB rules and they were endangering the thread. There is a lot of information that different people may wish to know from a first-hand account of a “settler.” A thread that deteriorates into name-calling (“criminal”) and demands that a poster respond in a particular way–a way that will be dismissed with further insulting, off-topic posts–limits the amount of ignorance that can be fought. Time and space wasted on the hijack reduces the time and space available for sincere questions and increases the probability that the OP will get frustrated and simply withdraw from the thread. That will make a few posters happy that they were “victorious” in some odd way, but it means that the majority of posters will have been denied a specific opportunity of learning. The notion that any poster (or gang of posters) has either the right or obligation to nail another poster to the wall on a single point is nothing but hubris on the part of that/those poster/posters. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/96 "2010-09-18T02:30:25Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I feel ya, Bryan. Nobody ever says “Even LEMUR agrees with me, for chrissake”. We should form a club. > > ☹ I think I may have said this once in Mafia III… ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/97 "2010-09-18T02:43:47Z")
tomndeb, with all due respect, I think you are once again illustrating how the mods here simply create too much work for themselves in service of no worthy goal. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/98 "2010-09-18T02:55:39Z")
> [@MonkeyMensch](#): > > > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > > > If the OP is not willing to answer questions then the thread needs to be closed. > > The OP is not willing to answer ALL questions unconditionally, it’s true. The OP is free to decide which questions to answer. At this point, it would not surprise me if the OP has set certain posters on Ignore and can no longer see their “questions.” I assumed **Shinna** was a lady, but I don’t know. I guess the name sounds feminine to me, but for all I know I guess it could be the Hebrew version of Chester or something. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/99 "2010-09-18T05:18:29Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > If the OP is not willing to answer questions then the thread needs to be closed. Why should the thread be closed – just because you seem determined to dictate the topic to YOUR terms? **Diogenes** , you do this all the time – how many threads do you have to ruin? I may or may not agree with **Shinna** , (as a matter of fact, I AM against the settlements, so don’t start on me), but I don’t think her thread is the proper place to start the whole, “YOU’RE A CRIMINAL!!!” hijack. Start a fucking Pit thread. You’re not trying to debate **Shinna** specifically, and you bloody well know it. Again – stop destroying every thread you get involved in. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097/100 "2010-09-18T09:24:09Z")
I think the mods should move this thread to one of the SomethingAwful forums. By force if necessary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-thread-in-great-debates/554097.md?page=6)