[Nuke]

If you moved debates to their own board, GD would be EMPTY. See that's another thing mods, could you let the silly threads live just a little longer? Please? They're a rare ray of sunshine amidst the constant ****storms and rage in this board.

i have already posted my reasoning for why debate deserves its own board. people who want to debate need somewhere to debate that is quiet and doesnt have a bunch of loose opinions and senseless banter flying around. and likewise people who do not wish to debate need to be allowed to express their opinions in a more casual manor. throwing it all together means more cluttered debates, and a greater chances that the thread will derail.

as for silly threads, i dont mind them, at least until i see 50 of them pop up on the same day. people need to realize just because someone does something childish that everyone has to. i usually file such lockings under "cleaning up". really i cant remember the last time i locked a thread that really needed to be locked, and the lock wasnt reversed within hours. i remember when i complained that people were abusing the report to moderator feature, and what happened? at least 4 people who should have known better decided to abuse the feature. i would have really liked to give those people a 1 hour ban, just as a way to say "im watching you". i would rather target individuals for moderation than the entire swath of individuals by locking a thread that has had maybe one or two posters post something stupid. if you let us moderate the troll we wont have to lock the thread.

[redsniper]

Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing a trial run of a debate board, I was just saying that to complain about how it seems all we have here now are debate threads.

[Unknown Target]

I would stand vehemently against further attempts to split up GD. I don't see why a "General Discussion" board can't have debate, or "discussion" in it. If you remove debate from the board, then what's left in it? "What are you listening to?" threads?

[Jeff Vader]

I would stand vehemently against further attempts to split up GD. I don't see why a "General Discussion" board can't have debate, or "discussion" in it. If you remove debate from the board, then what's left in it? "What are you listening to?" threads?

W-H-I-Y-L?

[Unknown Target]

So GD will become essentially encapsulated in two threads?

I know that's an exaggeration. But I disagree with the total compartmentalization of all discussion. The point of General Discussion is that it's general, it's a nice central point to go to whenever you want to post something.

[TopAce]

What about a Politics Discussion board? Many of the hotly debated issues are politics-related. Other topics, like computers, women, science, nonpolitical news could remain on GenDisc.

That means just one new board.

[Unknown Target]

I don't see how allowing politics threads on the same forum as computers and women threads disrupts either discussion.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

I realize that my 2 cents worth is actually worth about half that if someone feels generous...but I gotta go with UT on this one.  I don't post here much, but I do read here.  People also post science news here, especially technical and astronomical.  Will they each get a forum for only those topics?  What about a separate forum for posts asking about a video card, monitor, complete system?  I realize that this is a fairly extreme train of thought, but, once you open a door in a hurricane, it's tough to close again.

Realistically we could be looking at a board for Politics, a board for debates, a board for religeon, a board for general silliness, and General discussion as the catchall for everything else.  I just think that it Hard Light is a forum for the building of games, and everything off that topic belongs in GD.  This is first and foremost a Freespace site, we have just branched out to begin including other moddable games.  Still a forum for the building of games we love.

[Goober5000]

For a brief period there was, indeed, a specific debate forum.  It was the Meeting Hall.  It got re-merged back into General Discussion during the controversy about board shuffling.

[karajorma]

Having a discussion forum wouldn't necessarily leave GD empty, there are plenty of "Hey look at this funny/cool link" type posts. The big problem is the increased moderation involved. When does a funny post become a debate? The Turkish Porn thread for instance was posted cause it was funny, not to start a debate.

[Solatar]

If somebody DID want to start a real debate over a topic that was posted for lulz, wouldn't they be able to start a thread on the debate forum about it?  That'd keep the "turkey for dinner" and "debate" separate.

[karajorma]

Yeah but debates rarely start that way on here. They tend to grow organically. Someone says something they feel is fairly mild and someone disagrees with it and tells them that they are wrong.

[Solatar]

You're right, I DID sound overly optimistic. 

[Unknown Target]

Yeah but debates rarely start that way on here. They tend to grow organically. Someone says something they feel is fairly mild and someone disagrees with it and tells them that they are wrong.

It sounds to me like what's needed is better moderation (not more, better) of those discussions.

Not everything can be solved by compartmentalizing it and letting it do it's own thing. Having a general discussion forum that actually allows general discussion of difficult topics as well as all the usual "haha look at this cat" is one of the best parts about this community.

[Nuke]

if debate is going to remain on gd, then it might be useful to be able to temp ban, or have timed locks that expire after a set time. thread gets to hot, then i just temp lock it and give time for people's heads to cool. likewise if somone is being disruptive to the debate, a short temp ban is a good way to knock some sense into people. im not sure what the forum software is capable of, so its just ideas. just being able to flag somone as a trouble maker for all to see would be enough to get them to listen to their moderators.

[Flipside]

My own personal feeling is that, rather than having a board where people can lose self control, instead, people could learn self-control, but that's just me.

[karajorma]

I like the idea of temp locks actually. That might work but you'd need to lock for more than a day to make sure you'd caught everyone. After all some people only check once a day and still manage to get into arguments. They might not even notice that the thread had been locked.

[Unknown Target]

My own personal feeling is that, rather than having a board where people can lose self control, instead, people could learn self-control, but that's just me.

I'd second this.