Is anyone else really annoyed by the Great Debates forum?
Actually, yes. I find it subtley annoying that there are all of these people who are smarter than me out there. The gall!
Yes, I find it deeply annoying that all the really fun GD threads, like “let’s conquer Siberia!” and all the moon landing hoax threads, get only a few responses and eventually disappear, while all the boring threads like abortion and gun control, just hang there on Page 1, getting longer and longer…
Hey, if I wasn’t gonna open it and read it when it was one page long, what makes you guys think I’m gonna read it when it’s five frickin’ pages? I’d like to see more self-policing by the Great Debaters in this area. “We’d better shut this thing down, two pages is long enough to talk about gun control. Anybody else wanna talk about crop circles?”
Except of course for Bicky and Seethruart’s moon landing hoax threads, which always get to stay there for 5 pages because Cecil is a member of the Illuminati, and they need those threads to stay there so they can signal in code to their Uzbekistan offices…
Why yes, the lack of responses to many of my Great Debates threads proves conclusively that most of those forensic weenies can’t handle a really tough question. What? You mean I’m not universally acclaimed as the ultimately insufferable know-it-all?
Yep. I haven’t been here long but I can already tell I’ll be spending more time in the Pit.
Actually, I’ve started using GD as self-imposed negative reinforcement. When I find myself spending too much time here when I should be working, I go to GD and force myself to read and respond at least once to the most wretched thread I can find. Then, once I stop bleeding from the ears, I can get back to work.
Last night it was an abortion thread. After that debacle, I got an entire article written without taking one break.
I’m not sure exactly what annoys you about GD. I love it. I hardly ever leave, except for two stints I did in the pit and the odd GQ or three.
GD is my MPSIMS. 
yah, GD just plain scares me. my reading starts at the bottom and works up. if i manage to get all the way to Cafe Society, i will just hurdle GD and go straight on to GQ. if i finish GQ and start looking at GD, i say “whoa there, david. i think you’ve hit your limit” and i have the bartender kick me out of my own head.
saepiroth, I feel much the same. GD is scary and intimidating. I browse sometimes, but I comment infrequently there. I don’t know enough about anything to hold my own in GD.
MPSIMS and IMHO are more my cup of tea, although these days I seem to be spending more time in The Pit. I guess MPSIMS is probably my favourite because it sums up my life so well. And I have a lot to give to Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share.
Well yeah, cazzle, but it helps if you’re arrogant and tasteless with litle regard for opposing views too. Look, go and find me a gun-control thread, then get behind me and watch. :D’
I’m afraid to post in GD because i know my argument will be shredded to pieces (probably in a very embarrassing manner) within seconds.
Shouldn’t this be in GD?
The shit of the folks who participate in GD stinks just as much as anyone else’s. Many of the participants are damned bright, but that doesn’t mean their views or their concerns are more valid than the views of anyone else participating on SD. Personally, I find great stuff in all the SD areas.
The mods ought to divide GD into two new forums.
- Debates and
-
Intellectual Wank Posturing.
Far too many threads are given over to some pretentious nimrod who thinks they’ve solved a problem which previously baffled the finest thinkers in the world, and refuse to let go until every else is fed up of arguing with them.
*First posted by *SomeNameThatImpliesI’mReallyDeep
Great satire, Alex B.
First, I agree with DDG. I want more crop-circles and alien invasion threads. Crop Circles!
How 'bout if we spilt GD into three new sub-fora:
Serious Issues That Won’t Be Resolved On a Message Board and Generally Feature Both Sides Talking Past Each Other With Arguments We’ve Heard Before: Abortion, Gun Control, Bush/Gore, Repub/Democ/Other. The Economy. (I mean, c’mon. What’s left to say about abortion? Every abortion thread can be summed up in two sentences:“You’re killing BABIES!” vs “It’s a woman’s CHOICE, dammit!”. 
)
The Interesting (yet possibly psychotic) Stuff: Massive Martian Rectal Probes That Cause Spontaneous Human Combustion. Satanic Camels. Aliens. Conspiracy Theory linking Crop Circles to the WTC attack. (Especially the Satanic Camels. When what the last Satanic Camel thread you’ve read?)
**Pseudoscience For Fun And Profit (or Skeptics of the World Unite)**Scientology. Homeopathy. Bigfoot. Seethruart. Majgiyck. Psychic Healing. Faith Healing. Repressed/False Memory Syndrome. Fire Walking. Seethruart.
There’d be some overlap (“Gore Is An Alien Who Implanted False Memories Which Caused Me To Combust!!!”) but overall I think that if we broke GD into those three categories would solve the "The Iteresting Stuff and Pseudoscience gets drowned out by the Serious Issues
Kidding aside, I’d love a Skeptic/Pseudoscience forum.
Fenris
Fenris,
You left out “Alien Transvestite Witnessing”, which is an area of vital interest to many.
I stand corrected.
That Alex B, he’s a clever chap.