Well, I think I’d rather err on the side of letting it go too long rather than pull the plug too quickly.
LinusK, I want to make something perfectly clear. I was not picking on you, nor was I supporting some shadowy cabal of feminists. But I am here to moderate Great Debates and Elections and, in that role, my job is to facilitate debate and prevent - to a certain extent - train wrecks.
That thread you started had gone on 25 pages and was accomplishing little new or noteworthy. I’d had reports from both side accusing the other of insulting. It wasn’t pretty. I intervened earlier with a note on 8/16 in an attempt to get people to refrain from the snide comments and such and to get back to debating. Following that mod note in post #1283 you obliquely accused other posters of lying following yourself being accused of lying - sort of - earlier in the thread. Following that post in post #1284 - four minutes later - you challenge the validity of the mod note.
It’s at that point I decided the thread would no longer accomplish anything and shut it down.
The thing is, I don’t think anything further would have helped. You’re free to start a new thread on the subject if you wish. No one will stop you unless it spirals out of control again (though I doubt it’d be allowed to go that long again). But you can’t go into a thread with a sense of ownership and expect to take a position and people will not challenge your position and expect you to respond. That what you sort of did - or did not do, depending on one’s point of view - in your thread.
The SDMB - and GD in particular - is about the sharing and discussion of ideas. Just because people push back against you doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy. It may just mean you need to be firm in your positions to win them over - if that’s possible - or it may mean you’re demonstrably wrong. I take no particular position on your topic of anti-feminism. I’d prefer just to have people move forward and debate and discuss within the rules.
As for the subject of my doing a disservice by closing the thread and costing the owners of the SDMB money? It’s to Ed’s credit that I have never once had that sort of pressure placed upon me. I’m deeply grateful for that and for the opportunity given to me to help out on a message board that has been a part of my life for longer than I’m comfortable admitting.
We allow a great amount of controversy in Great Debates. I’m actually feeling a bit of pride that in one week I can be accused of both allowing and encouraging hate speech and racism as well as being accused of stifling any speech outside accepted parameters. We have allowed all manner of threads - including one from a professed pedophile, for heaven’s sake! It’s rich to believe that on this one subject we would stifle you with special intent. It’s simply not so.