Yes, and yes. That should show how little we care for distinctions between 'off topic' posts on here.
Debate isnt topics, bob, its a kind of discourse. All things are open for debate, including on topic posts, which have (rightly) involved long and sometimes technical discussions and have had sober, civil argumentative disgreement (and more rarely, havent, but we tend to iron ourselves out like adults, and I dont see that that should change). A 'politics and religion' board wouldnt remove debating from anything else (the cyclist thread for example would have still been rightly started in an OT board rather than a serious matters board), and nor should it. And besides, such topics are very rare here, its not like the front page of time out is dominated by it; theres one thread, and its the first I remember on it in months. I think the last one was for Popefest. I think its pointless, and is just trying to tailor discussion to certain tastes.
I dont want to see this forum end up like SS.org, UG or TGP where civility is maintained by authority because enough of the occupants are uptight or immature (or both). Its not needed, which is something we should be proud of.
Lezard: :lol:
yep, definitely, good point- as you said, the cycling thread (which is the one i'm guessing most people are talking about) isn't actually political or religious at all, and even if you had separate politics/religion subforums it would still have been in one of the OT forums.
Also i seem to remember getting into a pretty big argument, ages ago, in the guitars/amps/effects part of this site, so as you also rightly said, staying on topic is no guarantee of civility either :lol:
fwiw UG is actually alright once you get to know the rules and how to stay just the right side of them. I get off with saying a fair bit over there :lol:
but yeah certainly somewhere like tgp where certain things are totally off-limits is no fun at all (at least on UG, while there's strong moderation, politics and religion aren't off-limits).
Which isn't to say that turning into a free-for-all like HC (or at least certain sections of HC) would be any more fun- I don't want the place like that, either :lol:
good post too, jonathan/feline, agreed.
I mean I enjoy getting into (civil) arguments/debates about current affairs and things like that, but i wouldn't call it a hobby, and I'm certainly not taking part *so* I can get to argue, just more to sometimes provide a bit of balance with the other (my) viewpoint. I don't, as far as i can remember, think i've ever actually started one of the contentious threads either, just sometimes taken part when someone else started them.
:)
