If the SDMB were to decide to get rid of a forum, I wouldn’t mind seeing GD go. It’s probably the place I spend the least amount of time, although I do participate in threads now and then. But saying it my least likely to be missed is not the same as thinking it “should” be prohibited. So my strict answer to this poll is “no” although in the other poll I picked GD to eliminate. No contradiction there.
Setting aside a debate about your characterization of Great Debates, my point is that if I don’t recognize your name, it’s probably because you don’t post much in Great Debates. Thus your opinion of whether or not Great Debates should be retained or is just a place of shrill circular fighting is really probably only as valid as my opinion about whether the ladies’ undergarments section of any department store is worthwhile and should be retained, or even whether it could be characterized as shrill, circular undergarmenting, since I never utilize that department and wouldn’t have the first clue.
Which is pretty much exactly what I’ve been saying. I wouldn’t miss GD if it disappeared, because I never read it to begin with.
“What wouldn’t you miss” was not the poll question in either thread.
I’ll try to address the problem, the way I see it. I find that the “debates” consist almost entirely of people with fixed positions arguing over semantics to score points, which can be tedious, because nothing of substance moves; people only get to say “gotcha” whan someone slips up with their semantics. “But you said…” ::yawn::
No, I meant “everyone who thinks GD could/should go away”. Not everyone on the board but you.
But you mischaracterize the thread, I think. I took it: Of all of the forums which we would send away if I HAD to pick one, which one? And some people, myself included, picked GD. If you ask me, directly, “Should GD go away”? I wouldn’t think it should just be dropped. People like it, so it should stay. I wouldn’t vote for it to be gone, UNLESS PTB said one forum HAS to go, and then I’d vote it first.
See the difference? Personally I think the forums that should disappear first are the ones that are not on the list.
Ah, I see. Well, I tried GD (all of the forums, actually) several years ago, it got real old real fast, so it didn’t take me long to quit and find my entertainment elsewhere, yeah. I lurk more than I post in general, anyway, since it’s pretty rare that I actually have copious amounts of time that can/should be spent piddling about on the internet. So I read, mostly, and only post (anywhere) when I don’t have something else I should be getting back to. I can’t get overly invested/involved in the whole “someone is wrong on the internet” phenomenon, or Real Life will suffer, and I need to make sure that doesn’t happen.
I disagree!
The other thread proposes that one forum WILL be removed. Therefore, it only remarks on which forum you like least, and says nothing about thinking that any forum should be removed.
I answered “GD” in that other thread, and “No” in this poll. I find GD tiresome, and extremely dull most of the time. I don’t think it needs to go away, or should go away, but if one forum was eliminated, and I got to pick because I’m the Queen of Everything, then I pick GD.
See?
I don’t post there that often because I don’t have the time to point/counterpoint back and forth for 50 messages. But I do read it occasionally.
Do you really need for me to spell this out for you?
What the fuck I am talking about is that the Great Debates forum is for the most part populated by a bunch of pretentious, pompous windbags who’s opinions are no more relevant and interesting than a fart in the wind. That you, specifically, seem to have what would pass for normal faculties and yet you seem to be completely unable to entertain any thoughts other that those that conform to your own narrow little world-view. Further, the utter conviction with which you declare your opinion as if it were fact is ignorance of the worst kind. Your Shtick is old and busted. You have become a caricature of yourself.
Now if you were to confine yourself to that forum I would be enthusiastically in favor of it because it would mean that I could easily avoid the drivel that you produce. Since that forum does not serve the purpose of quarantining your ceaseless yammering it seems irrelevant.
Face the facts: This board lost its heart when the MPSIMS carebears overran the Pit. It is still a place to read an occasional interesting tidbit but look back at some of the older threads and tell me it isn’t a pale shadow of what it once was. It has no fire, so soul. So, yeah. Who really cares what happens to Great Debates. This board certainly is fighting very little ignorance, and certainly not in Great Debates.
Kay?
This isn’t the Pit, dude. If you have a problem with me personally, please start a thread there. You don’t need to shit all over this one.
Yeah, I mean, what would be the point of staying around? There’s far too many “social forums”, given the supposed purpose of the board.
I must have missed it when you became a moderator. Also, being admonished for thread-shitting by you of all people is freaking hilarious. How about if you have a problem with the way that I am posting you report it to a moderator, dude?
The other poll presupposed that one forum would be eliminated, forcing you to choose which you thought was least worthy or valuable. If the question was “Should any forums be eliminated?” I probably would have said no; but if you make me pick one, it would be GD.
In other words, what Hello Again said.
Ahhhhh… a debate on the topic of prohibiting debates. Gotta love this place!
Yup. Everyone who thinks we shouldn’t debate should stop debating.
If GD were eliminated, IMHO would become the de facto GD. So instead of:
Poster 1: 98% of Mooslems are terrists!
Poster 2: Cite?
Poster 1: <sputter> Um, well, I think I read that somewhere…
we’d get:
Poster 1: 98% of Mooslems are terrists!
Poster 2: Cite?
Poster 1: My *post *is my cite!
I fail to see the net benefit.
Instead of:
Poster A 98% of muslims are terrorists
Poster B Cite?
Poster A There you go.
Poster B That doesnt say what you said it said
Poster A What? Yes it does
Poster B No, it doesnt. 98% of muslims dont support terrorism.
Poster A You are reading it wrong, a typical leftie problem :rolleyes:
Poster B Its not the liberal attitude to terrorism that is the problem, its because of what Bush did. :rolleyes:
(The following post will be four pages long, and will multi-quote every line written in the thread so far. In the distance, lurkers are leaving)
Yeah, much better.
There’s no sense in it. The only boards that have no debate at all are insanely moderated (anyone ever read Television Without Pity?). No one here wants that. And if you allow debates but got rid of the debating forum, you’d have debating all over the board, and then it would be a lot harder to avoid.
I can haz cheeseburger!!! LOL