What DO you say? I've seen some excellent debating skills here, and i'd like to see them in full bloom. Without the restrictions that ''Off Topic, Introduce Yourself'' places upon you.

The thing is, i've asked our glorious board administrator, Chopin, about this. HIS reply was ''I want the boards to focus strictly on composition''. Yadda, yadda, yadda! If the public wants a debate forum, he ought to change his mind!

VOTE!

Edit: Of course! We have two board administrators: Sorry Mike.

I must say im against... as much as i love to discuss, i have to debate. Debate has a goal to win, and a discussion has the goal of learning and sharing knowlage. A debate forum can start "figths", and all over peoples beliefs.

Tollay against.

May I ask what restrictions you feel the Off Topic, Introduce Yourself forum has?

This can be dangerous. We have enough debates as it is, without the intention. People aren't all that nice when they debate online, so I must say I am against this idea too. I don't want this site to turn into a hater site.

Do most schools in US have debate clubs? if they do they should cansel them imediatly

Originally posted by The glorious webmaster

This can be dangerous. We have enough debates as it is, without the intention. People aren't all that nice when they debate online, so I must say I am against this idea too. I don't want this site to turn into a hater site.

I disagree wholed-heartedly with that statement. Every debate here has been 100% hate free.

The reason as to why i want a debate forum is simple; a lot of people don't like the debates, if you'd just make a forum for the purpose of discussing controversial topics (a highly moderated one, of course) we could seperate the ''fierce arguments'' from the everyday chatter. Debates are inevitable, after all, and you can't disallow them.

I wouldn't disallow them. i just wouldn't encourage them.

If you want to conduct debates, just start them off in the Off Topic or FFA forum. There's nothing stopping you as far as I can see.

I've been at a few forums that have debate sub-forums, and so far, nothing bad has come out of them. I guess it's just becuase for almost every heated moment, someone always points out that it's not from aggression or even a personal thing that they're saying stuff, it's just their opinion. If anything, I've come to respect those who debate a lot without making enemies.

I've been at a few forums that have debate sub-forums, and so far, nothing bad has come out of them. I guess it's just becuase for almost every heated moment, someone always points out that it's not from aggression or even a personal thing that they're saying stuff, it's just their opinion. If anything, I've come to respect those who debate a lot without making enemies.

Some people are smart enough to realise this, but some cirtan others don't. Too dangerous, I say. Unless of course we made a list of who is and who isn't debating, as to avoid fights.

Hey, neat idea! It could be off-limits, like the FFA.

I could live with that.

@Wolf: I see what you're saying. We tend to only allow certain people into certain debates, simply because there's a lot of jerks out there who just want to stir up trouble.

@Wolf:

I think Mike said it earlier: there is nothing to stop someone from opening a no-holds-barred debate in the Free-For-All. Why would a dedicated forum be necessary?

This idea is just for a sub-forum, I think. It would only be for organization, so we could find all the debates easily. But it's really not that big of a deal.

Yeah, maybe a subforum.

We need more votes than this, people! 6 to 4 doesen't say a thing. I provided a perfectly valid explaination for why we need a debate forum earlier in this topic, but appearently it was ignored. Or not understood? :)

I thought we were generally against having subforums as part of the design specs for the forums? I don't think a seperate space needs to be allocated simply because it's most debate topics come across spontaneously through normal chatting. But to allocated a seperate space to it would be to artificially encourage it, and ultimately distract it from the main aspect of the site (music and it's processes). A general off-topic forum I wouldn't mind, but any more than that may be distracting. If I want to seriously and prolificly debate, I'll do so in another forum - for this one, I'd just like to talk about music for the most part.

yes for me, i need other things to interest me, not just the free-for-all which might as well change its name to "gay/sex chat"

nothing against anyone, jus feel we need more variety.

If you don't like the fact that the Free-For-All seems only to be about gay issues and sex, change it. Why don't you start something new yourself, instead of pointedly complaining about the content already there. Nobody's stopping you.

I just love people who complain that there is no variety (citing specific examples about what they don't like), yet do nothing to add any.

Since the topics in the main site are limited to music, we created a "free for all" that has 30 topics so far. Feel free to start any issue you want. That forum is there to provide reasonable freedom of speech about anything. This is not to say the main site doesn't permit freedom of speech, it certainly does, just regarding music.

If you think about it, most topics in the free for all are debatable anyway. It seems like that forum kills 2 birds with one stone (freedom of speech about anything, and major debates)

Regarding the main site that guests can see, I'd rather focus efforts on music and new ideas. I always have new ideas, but can't do alot of them yet until we increase members and activity.

Amen.

*Gives in*