What is the Raging Debate in your area of geekery?

In My Humble Opinion
1

What topic is the subject of massive, knock-down, drag-out debates within an area you are passionately engaged in, but the average person on the street has NO clue about?

Could be something in sports, politics, science, culture, etc. - please summarize the topic and the various positions. To the extent that you have a POV, please share!

Mine: Solidbody electric guitars and Old Wood. Solidbody guitars - you know, Fender Stratocasters and Gibson Les Pauls and the like - were first made in the 1950’s. At the time, they were made with “old growth” mahogany and maple, etc. - more likely to have grown naturally (not farmed) air dried over a decade (not kiln dried over a few years) and have other characteristics. A key issue is weight - Old Wood is more inclined to be lighter vs. the exact same type of wood that is newer - lots of botanistic (is that a word?) reasons why apparently, but git players say lighter wood is more resonant and leads to better tone.

As prices for vintage guitars get into several hundred thousands of dollars, folks are going nuts over the Old Wood debate - does Old Wood appreciably affect the tone? On one side are guys who have guitars worth 10’s or 100’s of thousands of dollars who say yes; on the other are guys who have replica guitars - e.g., modern Gibson Les Paul reissues (that still cost $4,000 - $10,000) that say it isn’t that big of a deal - the basic design of the guitar is what matters.

It gets ugly FAST - there are huge, flamey debates about this on guitar boards. Old Wood types claim that the naysayers just can’t hear the difference, can’t afford the vintage guitars and are in denial. The naysayers claim that Old Wood guys are rich-guy mid-life crisis lawyers who only claim there is a difference to justify the stupid money they spent. Folks with science backgrounds or woodworking/luthier experience chime in with detailed analysis of lignum, cell structure, aging and farming and drying processes, moisture analysis - we are talking massive geekery here.

My POV? A good guitar sounds good - period. You can find great-sounding guitars that are old and ones that are newer. The old wood definitely increases the likelihood that a guitar might sound better - there is something to be said for it - but it only increases the odds. You can get a vintage guitar that is a dog.

How about you - what is the raging debate in an area you care about?

2

Is Pluto a planet?

3

What Anne Neville said.

4

What would happen if you put a genie in a vacuum (spatial, not cleaning). Okay, there are only 3 of us who debate this, but still :smiley:

5

Should there be a hyphen in “postmodernism”?

6

New sculpt versus Old Sculpt.
And proper usage of the catchphrase “OMG deth of teh line!!1!!!1!!”

7

The identity, or lack thereof, of Robin Hood.

8

Should Traction Control be allowed in AMA Superbike races?

9

How, in 2006, can a place like this exist.

10

When will 4th edition be published?

11

Natural cork vs. alternative closures/packaging for wine. Most specifically natural cork vs. the Stelvin screw cap.

Natural cork can contain TCA and ‘taint’ a wine. Consumers think screw caps look ‘cheap.’

My POV - Screw caps (Stelvin) are superior. No tool required, easy opening anywhere. No TCA. They haven’t yet been proven to preserve wines beyond 10 years, but studies continue and continue to look good. And most wines aren’t meant to be held beyond 10 years anyway.

12

Rollkur - Wikipedia - Is rollkur (rounding a horse’s head down and around to its chest) ruining the sport of dressage? Is it bad for horses?

13

Wow - do they really do that? For most applications, a few weeks would be considered long.
My area of excessive interest is sailplane racing. There are debates there about how much electronic help should be allowed (and how to effectively control this), what should be the maximum allowable weight of a glider, what kinds of tasks are appropriate, and a number of other arcane topics.

14

“Italian” vs. “English” style for standard ballroom dancing. Which is preferable, the muscular, athletic, but arguably unbalanced Italian style, or the subtle, exquisitely balanced, but less visually exciting English style?

15

I’m trying to start a raging debate in the marketing/media industry about whether bottom-up marketing can replace top-down marketing. I’m in the minority that thinks it can.

16

Accurate, consistent classification and naming of malware.

I can’t present my point of view, as I don’t have a coherent one, unlike some of the people who debate this issue.

All I know is I never, ever, in my wildest dreams imagined this could be a topic of serious interest to me. In fact, until relatively recently I never knew that such an issue existed.

17

I was trying to think of the appropriate one, the one that causes me to close the most threads. Do changes in constitution change the hitpoints of a polymorphed creature? Can you cleave off an attack of opportunity? But you hit the nail on the head.

Daniel

18

Interesting stuff - but I need more background!!

**LHoD and Ethilrist ** - sorry, but I have not idea what you are talking about!

**Surok ** - what are the major positions in malware naming points of view?

**samm ** - what are the arguments for an against rollkur - why is it even done in dressage?

**THespos ** - well, since I am the head of marketing for my company, I would like to hear more of what you are describing.

etc…

**psycat90 ** - now that’s what I’m talking about! A little context!

Thanks!!

19

Combatives v. sport oriented martial arts. Sport oriented martial artists say that techniques found in the “deadly” martial arts or in combative martial arts are useless in actual combat, because you can’t practice the real life application of them against an unwilling opponent without maiming or killing them, whereas they practice executing their techniques full force on an unwilling opponents all of the time. Combative martial artists say that they’re not trying to win contests, they’re trying to defend their lives, and that the sport oriented martial arts have rules to prevent maiming and injury that an assailant isn’t going to follow and which can be exploited.

Striking v. grappling. Grapplers claim you should primarily study grappling, because 95% of all fights end up on the ground. Strikers point out that even if that’s true, 100% of fights start standing up!

20

Was Anne Boleyn as bad as she was cracked up to be?