Suggestion: ban all cable debates

[mourip]

I have to disagree. If we remove debates then we are removing opinions and then there is really no reason to have a forum. We would be left with Chris' Blog. While I like Chris and am very thankful for what he has done, I've learned just as much from forum members.

 

I agree. The whole point here is that there be a cordial exchange of ideas and opinion regarding the particular subject at hand. There are some real experts here that have excellent and realistic information to contribute. Unfortunately they are usually not the ones that seem to have something to prove.

 

...however I believe that what OP really wants is not to ban conversation on potentially contentious topics but that these discussions be carried out in a civil and respectful way. That seems to have changed over the past couple of years here. Increasingly there are personal attacks with not too thinly veiled name calling. All too often a new member posts an innocent question and then has to watch in horror as the usual suspects bring the thread to it's knees.

[mourip]

Well, maybe the snowflakes need a safe space.

 

I thought this was a safe space...or was.

 

It is possible to debate or express a contrary opinion without being rude.

[mourip]

Both of you guys make lots of valuable and interesting contributions, but IMHO these particular comments illustrate the problem of taking an audio discussion and making it about personalities.

 

Thanks.

 

Aside from just plain alienating reasonable members it has become increasingly hard to pick out useful material as so many threads degrade into personal attacks and trying to get in the last word. It is also less likely someone will ask a basic question or introduce a new idea for fear of attracting those who just seem to want to argue. The loss will be that CA will become marginalized from lack of open minds and experimentation.

[mourip]

Most people who debate stuff aren't being rude (or at least are not intending to be rude).

 

It is funny that the OP cited a thread I started as an example of such thought-crimes he would like to see banned. In this particular instance, I found a funny photo of some grotesque-looking cables. From what I could see, people on both "sides" of the debate (the "sides" are really more like a continuum, but that kind of nuance just doesn't play as well on right-wing talk radio in Peoria) thought it was funny, because it was so extreme (both in diameter and appearance). There wasn't anything being debated in that thread, as far as I could tell.

 

Some people just like to get all butt-hurt over next to nothing, and then cry for more administrative or governing intervention. (Strangely, these often tend to be the same folks ridiculing the delicate liberal snowflakes and their alleged need for trigger warnings and safe spaces. This is what passes for discourse in 2017 in the US I guess -- although the OP originates from elsewhere.)

 

FYI. I loved the post about the giant cables...

 

We all originate from elsewhere...