Debate forum?

I was just reading a couple of threads which degenerated into philosophical arguments (this seems to happen a lot), and then it occured to me: I bet a lot of LQ users would appreciate a dedicated debate forum - where this kind of thing would be expected.

Any comments?

My 2 cents - LQ is intended to allow Linux users to ask questions and receive help with their questions, and while there is some room for non-Linux discussions (eg, the General forum) I would say that adding a forum for debates doesn't really fit in with LQ's purpose. Philosophical questions, religion, politics, etc, etc can all be discussed within General, (and frequently have been) but the most difficult and complicating factor is that often these issues can generate very heated responses from people, and the discussion very quickly changes from being a calm, civil discussion into an ugly flame-fest. Personally, I'm not sure that creating a separate forum for debates would change this behavior, and don't see that it would differ significantly from General. Just my opinion. I would say that if there's a topic that you'd like to discuss that falls into this category, feel free to post it in General. -- J.W.

Couldn't have put it better myself J.W.

--jeremy

Ouch. I agree such a forum is not LQ, but, then again, neither are these heated political flame sessions - sometimes even moderators are involved.

It's not that I personally want/need such a forum, I just thought that maybe threads wouldn't so often degenerate as we have all seen if there was an organized place for such things. Maybe then the quantity of flames would be reduced?

Personally, it's not something I'm into.

Never mind.

... then we can complain about the lame "five posts before you can post a URL" restriction.

The 5 post rule is designed to prevent people from spamming the forums. If clickable URL's were permitted right off the bat, many spammers would sign up specifically to post comments about discount meds, XXX-rated stuff, etc, which of course would negatively affect the usability and effectiveness of the LQ boards. Spammers often are lazy though, and the idea behind having the 5 post limit is to create a modest barrier to block spam, without putting an unreasonable burden on legitimate LQ'ers -- J.W.