Hey, you’re the one who wanted to start trading insults. Don’t start whining now that you can’t keep up.
Got that cite yet, or should I just write you off as fundamentally dishonest?
Don’t we even have debates here? or in GQ? IMHO?
You have yours?
I figured it was better to request something a little bit more specific than “interesting.” “Interesting” is highly subjective, and it’s difficult to tell what is meant by the term. An interesting subject can be rendered absolutely worthless if the person debating it is incapable of coherent thought on the subject, while a good writer can make the most mundane of topics interesting. So I’m just trying to narrow the parameters a tad, so we’re all using the same definition of “interesting.”
And I assumed that you were talking about Great Debates, considering your post was made in a thread that is about Great Debates. If you’re so upset about the hijacks in MPSIMS, maybe you should start a new thread for that.
OK, then, come up with a few actual example of serious debates in any forum that were permanently derailed by humorous comments. Or else shut up.
I’m pretty sure that “MPSIMS hijack” is an oxymoron.
Banana!
OSTRICH, you BASTARD!!!
You want a cite for “people on these boards won’t let you get away with unsubstantiated objective claims?” How about, “every post I’ve made to you in this thread.” Or the posts to you from Colibri, look!ninjas, and askeptic. There. Four cites, in this very thread! Right in front of your eyes, the whole time! Ain’t literacy grand?
Now where’re yours?
It’s time for another one: shut up, dropzone.
What’s a "serious’ debate? One where the OP thinks he has a serious point? The whole point being is that after the thread is derailed by “ha-ha-funny hijacks” then the debate is no longer a serious debate, thus I can’t show you any, of course.
But have you read this very thread we are posting in? Have you dudes read the OP? Has not the OP given a fair example? I think that* Muad’dib* thinks that his thread was serious. It was even in GD. Now, you might argue that the “lame humor hijack” wasn’t successful. But it started 3 minutes after the OP was posted, and the whole thread seems to have ended about a day later. I think here, that the “lame humor hijack” was successful. And that’s a serious debate, and even in GD.
Here’s a thread in the PIT that seems to have been closed as it got silly. The OP seems to have thought he was being serious.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=320306&page=1&pp=50
But come on, Colibri, you know different. You’re a smart guy, you read a lot of posts here, you post a lot. You have to know there are threads where the OP thought he was being perfectly serious, but the lame jokes derailed it. Many of them are locked.
** Miller**- just because three (or even twenty) other POSTERS jump on your bandwagon doesn’t make it a requirement, now does it? Yes, you may want a cite, but you can’t require a cite, or anything at all. Us, as POSTERS, can want any damn thing at all, but unless the SDMB staff and rules require it, then all you are doing is taking a poll, and taking a poll doesn’t make the results the rules. You don’t have any say at all in what I can or can’t get away with- as I don’t notice the magic words “Moderator” next to your name. Unless you have your “Junior Moderator badge” stuck up somewhere 'the sun don’t shine". :dubious: I linked to the PIT rules, and the rules don’t say anything about requiring cites. So- you’re flat out wrong. And, frankly- IMHO you only requested a cite to be disruptive, so you can go pound sand. You’re attempts at bullying are sad.
Now, where’s Askeptics cite for a requirement for cites? I thought so…
Ok, so you don’t have any real examples. Case closed.
Wow. You’re really a fuckin’ idiot, aren’t you?
The OP, however, was also playing along with the silliness. Try again.
I have to agree with Doc on this one. They’re not required in the Pit but you’re still obligated to provide one upon request. Refusing to fulfill a cite request because said request was made in the Pit is bad form.
“I’ve never heard of that. Yeah, I’d like to see a cite.” - Lynn Bodoni, 1-23-03
“Cite, as to numbers, december?” - samclem, 9-14-02
“grieny. You are assuming that the “facts” that december posted from the op-ed piece are truth. They probably are. But it should be up to you to support them with ‘facts.’ Just try one. Find another cite, preferrably from a neutral source, that supports the assertion”-samclem, 6-14-03
“When you get time, you might give us a cite which would allow us to applaud you on your memory. Until then, quit posting crap.” - samclem, 7-19-03
Shall I continue?
Well? Don’t leave me hanging.
My post is my cite.
(I know it is not as good now, but I thank DrD for giving me a second chance) 
I agree with the O.P… Just look at all the great national debates and dialogues completely stifled by a bunch of pranksters like Benjamin Franklin impeding progress by making jokes.
Well, it could be argued that sometimes their observations were brilliant observations masked in jest and that humor can be a social lubricant that keeps intense interpersonal friction from exploding, but you’d be… uh… well, alright you’d be justified in saying that, but the point is that you can’t be taken seriously or make a valid point unless you’re humorless. That’s why today everybody remembers the names of Roger Livingston, John C. Breckinridge and Reed Smoot, but nobody remembers the names of Lenny Bruce, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, H.L. Mencken, and Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm? To do justice to this man, thought by many to be the greatest name in German Baroque music, we present a profile of Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm.
I can’t believe you said that! Eat shit, you bottom-feeder!
Daniel
On a totally different note, does anyone remember enough about a wonderful GD thread awhile ago (in which we had to decide whether to shoot our dying child in a car accident) that they could link to it?
I think it’s the best example ever of a GD thread being hijacked by jokes, and is a compelling argument in favor of doing so.
Daniel