And I swore to myself that I would never post there, because I’m not as smart as those dopers, but I answered a thread about smoking changing one’s looks and wasn’t paying attention to where it was posted! (I was in View New Posts at the time).
Oh God! Those folks are gonna run all over my German ass! I didn’t even make an argument, but just posted a couple of personal anecdotes.
Sorry!
Q
Don’t let them intimidate you.
They aren’t smarter. They’re just more argumentative.
No you’re not, you’re in MPSIMS! 
Dude. I’m impressed. Going in there is like going into the Mines of Moria.
Are not.
Are so.
Cite?
Well, www.aretoo.com/sothere.nyeh says different…
And that’s the essence of GD, FWIW, IIRC, and AFIACT.
Oh, Quasi, you poor thing. In GD, unknowingly and all alone?
God be with you my friend, and if they start to attack, just give me a holler. I’ll be right there behind you [sub]hiding[/sub], ready to defend your honor [sub]from a safe distance and possibly incognito[/sub] and say something [sub]stupid[/sub] that will give them all long enough pause [sub]to pick their jaws up off the floor[/sub] for you to give 'em your best shot [sub] while running away screaming like a girl[/sub] and leave with dignity.
Seriously, you’re a smart guy and I’m sure you can hold your own. And if it gets really bad, you can always evoke the effective “I know you are but what am I?” rule.
Wow. I overshot Cafe Society once and wound up in GD and had to take a Klonopin and call my mom before I felt safe coming back to the boards. It’s scary in there.
Sheeesh! You’d think Great Debates was one of the rough fora like Comments on Cecil’s Columns.
I go in to GD all the time. It’s no big deal. Most people are friendly. The majority of them are polite (or, at least, fearful of the wrath of Gaudere). It’s a nice place. (Not too quiet, but nice.)
You just have to get into the Great Debates state of mind. Remember that if everyone else in the world is disagreeing with you, then either they or you are wrong. So the odds are 6,000,000,000-1 against it being you.
If you only knew the POWER of Great Debates!
:smack: I clicked on that
Hey – if it weren’t for Great Debates I never would have gotten my spiffy new sig line! 
Seriously, though, the first few times I posted there it was very intimidating. Part of the problem is that most of the topics have been discussed so many times in the past that it’s really hard to come up with anything new, and no matter what you say, those who disagree with you have all their counter arguments all lined up in easily citable format.
The secret, methinks, is to simply pick your battles very carefully. Wait until there’s a thread that is something you really know a lot about. But remember – fools are not suffered gladly there, and you won’t win any points by simply making broad, unsupported statements.
Regards,
Barry
Holy hat. The fake link I used is actually live.
I dipped my toe in the waters of Great Debates once and pulled it out fast and ran. Every time anyone would say anything. someone would be in immediately with links to at least three of the prior seventeen posts on the same subject. No wonder the poor hamsters are choking all the time, the GDers are busy pulling up their former threads to save the trouble of having to look up their cites all over again!
Love the www.arenot.com link, Dantheman. Too bad I can’t read it, the page being in Japanese and all.
Those folks amaze me at how they can dissect a thesis to it’s basic elements and systematically support or refute each point without losing sight of the main… Hey look… Donuts!