# 'Witnessing' should be in IMHO, not GD **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 22, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823 "2012-11-22T12:37:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/21 "2012-11-22T20:34:54Z")
Leave witnessing in GD. GD is already terrible to the point of being unreadable, no sense in moving a bunch of its junk to one of the good forums. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/22 "2012-11-22T21:15:30Z")
Maybe we need another Pit, with a twist. A “Let’s heap mockery and abuse on these crazy religious posts and the people who posted them” forum. We put the witnessing there, and pretty soon, no more witnessing. Maybe it’s just me, but I think religion is so, er, special it deserves its own forum for the attention it deserves. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/23 "2012-11-22T22:44:09Z")
Witnesses would resist putting their threads in IMHO because they fail to recognize their statements as being opinion. (Although to be sure, the also tend not to recognize that there’s any debate to be had either.) Furthermore, their opinions often aren’t so humble. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/24 "2012-11-24T04:33:18Z")
The idea is that Great Debates is for discussion of issues that have no real resolution (such as politics and religion and so forth.) The person doing the witnessing possibly doesn’t want debate, but others might. Hence, it was thought to be a reasonable place to restrict such threads. Frankly, the bottom line idea was to keep them all in one location, so they don’t infest other forums. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/25 "2012-11-24T05:54:31Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Maybe we should have one forum for those two subjects that aren’t supposed to be talked about in mixed company- Religion and Politics. This would encompass elections and witnessing. Don’t forget money. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/26 "2012-11-24T10:17:34Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > The last thing ‘witnesses’ want to do is actually debate what they’ve witnessed. They want to TELL you, and explain why you too should be awestruck and fall in line with their revelation. Perhaps true, but what does the audience want to do? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/27 "2012-11-24T15:35:12Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > There’d need to be a debate about that first. And then a Pit thread. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/28 "2012-11-24T15:36:17Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > The idea is that Great Debates is for discussion of issues that have no real resolution (such as politics and religion and so forth.) The person doing the witnessing possibly doesn’t want debate, but others might. Hence, it was thought to be a reasonable place to restrict such threads. Frankly, the bottom line idea was to keep them all in one location, so they don’t infest other forums. Hallelujah. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/29 "2012-11-24T16:25:37Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > The idea is that Great Debates is for discussion of issues that have no real resolution (such as politics and religion and so forth.) The person doing the witnessing possibly doesn’t want debate, but others might. Hence, it was thought to be a reasonable place to restrict such threads. Frankly, the bottom line idea was to keep them all in one location, so they don’t infest other forums. In that case you should go all in – a “witnessing” forum. Let people witness to each other, and the rest of us never even need to see the threads. And you can make moderating it a punishment for mods who piss you off. OR, you can make moderating it a short-term “prize” for us regulars, like “mod for a month”. So we can go fuck with them under the guise of authority. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/30 "2012-11-25T01:05:18Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > In that case you should go all in – a “witnessing” forum. Let people witness to each other, and the rest of us never even need to see the threads. And you can make moderating it a punishment for mods who piss you off. OR, you can make moderating it a short-term “prize” for us regulars, like “mod for a month”. So we can go fuck with them under the guise of authority. Or just don"t open it. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/31 "2012-11-25T11:58:03Z")
The problem with putting them in IMHO is that then they can’t really be challenged: their is debating in IMHO, but stuff that would be called “questioning the underlying premise” in GD is “threadshitting” in IMHO. If people want to argue with religious threads, they need to stay in GD. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/32 "2012-11-26T00:07:54Z")
NIMBY. 😛 (ETA: That’s just a joke, by the way. I do think witnessing, if it must be posted at all, belongs in GD.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/33 "2012-11-26T00:31:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Dallas Jones** : > > True dat. It just seems like a waste of space in the Debates forum to debate things that cannot be proven with any number of cites or facts. The forum for things that can be proven with cites and facts is GQ. GD, by its nature, deals with things that cannot be conclusively proven, else they wouldn’t (or at least, shouldn’t) be debates. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/34 "2012-11-27T02:45:41Z")
I think this all depends on WHAT the debate is. The Natsarim thread was entirely witnessing and didn’t ask us to hypothesize or to debate anything specific, so I think that should be in IMHO. If it’s a specific debate, like, was Jesus born in Nazareth or Bethlehem, sure. But a “Hi, everyone. I’m a believer in [insert faith],” with no real debate posed, maybe IMHO for those. ---
**Author:** ![Bertal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Bertal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bertal)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/35 "2012-11-28T09:08:36Z")
It’s not that I don’t understand the OP, but changing rules will create new problems. Like this: > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Would it include all forms of spiritualism? In the example from the OP, the poster insisted that what he was advocating wasn’t even a religion. Agree that others will debate on you witness, or don’t post in a message board. When posting in GD, use a descriptive title, so that your thread can be skipped. Isn’t that enough? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823/36 "2012-11-29T15:01:34Z")
The “I Must Share” clause of MPSIMS is certainly the closest fit for “witnessing,” though I suppose that witnessing believers would take exception to the “Mundane Pointless” clause, making that idea a nonstarter. Edit: I know! Make a forum titled “Transcendent Important Stuff I Must Share” (TISIMS). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witnessing-should-be-in-imho-not-gd/641823.md?page=1)