This may belong in IMHO if only because I really want to know what others think about the current trend toward literal betting in threads. I’m not sure whether this has been going on all along and I’m just noticing it or if it really is a new twist.
I don’t see any problem with poster A posting: I bet you one Euro that you’re wrong! And I actually appreciate it when someone with the wherewithal to call another poster’s bluff asks poster B to put up or shut up. I’ve even PMd one poster asking for deatils on one of his standing wagers… I never heard back.
I know Steven Hawking made a few famous bets and some view gambling itself as a science… Still, I can’t help feeling that wagering is a bit déclassé. Especially since it seems to short circuit argument and discussion. I know some issues have been hashed and rehashed and done to death, but in some cases I think there is something to be gained from stating one’s reasons for believing in a certain outcome. ( I understand that betting is often a way of saying simply that one does not believe in another’s analysis of a given circumstance.)
Maybe a brief way of getting to the point is to ask: If prediction is part of the scientific process, is betting just another equally valid way of testing a hypothesis?
Maybe an even better way of getting to the point: What is your opinion of wagering on the SDMB?
ISTR that there have been monetary bets on the boards in the past, and that the loser has paid up. It’s nice to think that on a board such as this, members have the grapes to admit when they are wrong and settle bets amicably. As long as the loser pays up with no hard feelings, I see nothing wrong with it. If someone reneges on a bet, it may cause some grief. If that happens, I predict a swift end to betting.
But as long as betting remains amicable, I see no reason why things shouldn’t be ‘made interesting’ for those so inclined.
As with other personal agreements between posters, such as Valentine card exchanges, and so on, we don’t care. We take no official notice of them, and will not participate in official enforcement of them, and there will be no official consequences if someone fails to follow through.
I, personally, have a bet with a poster on whether a Republican or Democratic president of the U.S. is inaugurated in January, 2009. I feel it safe to say that that will not inhibit our argument and discussion of the election.
One thing betting can do is to show sincerity. It’s easy to bloviate on topics hither and yon (and I know because nobody bloviates better than I do), but if you have to “put your money where your mouth is”, it can cut down on the rhetoric.
It can also be used as a tool to distract from the discussion at hand. It usually takes a fair number of off topic and increasingly nitpicky posts for the bettors to hammer out their details.
