This is an offspring of the "education" thread, which--like other threads not about track--inspired questions about suitability for this board and adherence to guidelines. While admitting that the education question was of interest to everyone, he countered:
>Yes, it's a valid and important issue. So are world hunger, desertification,
>global warming, genetic engineering, war in Iraq, abortion, terrorism and a few
>others... Should we start discussing all of them here?>>
To which I respond:
That's actually a superb question. In general I certainly find the level of discourse on this board to be a cut above what I find in so many other places and I oft-times wonder if not making the board so restrictive might not make for a more vibrant forum overall. There's certainly more of a "sense of community" I think, on boards where ideas other than just the core theme are tackled. It's not as if we have so much traffic here that nobody can keep up with it.
As noted above, I've from time to time seeded the board with off-track topics; usually out of sheer boredom but also as a bit of an experiement to see how the membership would react. Typically, it's the off-track ones that generate the most debate. Still, I don't know if that's good or bad. Really don't want to get into endless pissing matches over the verboten topics of religion and politics but the interesting items Powell cited certainly have similar potential to head down the road to nastiness.
Thoughts?
>Yes, it's a valid and important issue. So are world hunger, desertification,
>global warming, genetic engineering, war in Iraq, abortion, terrorism and a few
>others... Should we start discussing all of them here?>>
To which I respond:
That's actually a superb question. In general I certainly find the level of discourse on this board to be a cut above what I find in so many other places and I oft-times wonder if not making the board so restrictive might not make for a more vibrant forum overall. There's certainly more of a "sense of community" I think, on boards where ideas other than just the core theme are tackled. It's not as if we have so much traffic here that nobody can keep up with it.
As noted above, I've from time to time seeded the board with off-track topics; usually out of sheer boredom but also as a bit of an experiement to see how the membership would react. Typically, it's the off-track ones that generate the most debate. Still, I don't know if that's good or bad. Really don't want to get into endless pissing matches over the verboten topics of religion and politics but the interesting items Powell cited certainly have similar potential to head down the road to nastiness.
Thoughts?
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