I like those ideas, too, Askia. But also like DrDeth, I believe your last sentence describing IMHO could use just a little work. Perhaps, "This is the place for gauging public opinion.
Questionaires is nitpickery. Polling is used to mean opinion polling, or voter surveys on specific issues across the political spectrum. But I see more questionaires than anything – surveys used to gather information from any sort of demographic group, like men, women, singles, parents, divorced people, US Dopers, UK Dopers, etc.
It’s the difference between me asking (casting about for non-Great Debate examples) *Do you find your local government responsive and effective in a crisis? * and *Parents: is your city a good place to raise children? * or even Which moderator has written the snarkiest remark of all time?
But I’m sure you guys and the mods can tweak the IMHO wording, if it’s needed. My suggestions were just suggestions. I like **UncleBeer’s. **
As for your last question, DrDeth:
I agree. The quote and the spoiler functions are way cool.
Seems to me that “Great Debate” implies issues where there are no fixed answers, you believe what you believe, and it’s unlikely that your arguments will actually change anyone else’s beliefs. The ultimate examples are questions on politics or religion. I think your examples fit the GD mold perfectly. No one can prove or disprove either contention, you either believe it or you don’t. There are two (or more) sides to the issues, and no one is going to convince anyone else by empirical evidence.
I agree that the line can be fuzzy, but it’s usually pretty clear whether a question is about fact or about belief. Note the GQ version of your questions:
- Are any companies exempt from the minimum wage laws?
- Is there any validity to this scientist’s claim that he’s found [insert archaeological artifact here]?
- When was the Zionist movement form, and what are the Palestinian arguments against Zionism?
[sub]Aside: the second question, depends on what artifact you’re talking about. Note the difference between:
- Did an archaeologist find Egyptian chariots from 1250 BC at the bottom of the Red Sea? (factual, GQ)
- Did an archaeologist find proof of the splitting of the Red Sea story? (arguable, never to be decided)[/sub]
Basically, I don’t see any questions that don’t fit one or the other forums that we have already. Yes, of course, there’s some fuzz around the edges, but that’s true of all the forums. Even something as simple as a follow-up to Cecil’s column (CoCC) could be an independent (though vaguely related) question in GQ. So, I think we have agreed from the start that we’ll never have clear categories (many of our GQs would be very hard to put into a single Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress classification.) So, we’re really asking: are the current forums reasonable functional?
Reasonably. The only fine tuning I suggested was back in post #17.
My suggestions for new forums:
The Anti-Pit: A forum for people who want to post compliments about other posters or about people or things in their life.
The Social Forum: For announcements like marriages, births, jobs, kittens, etc. For threads on meetings and dopefests. Also for post counting parties.
Questions I Already Know the Answer To: For trivia challenges, riddles, puzzles, etc.