Right, the sucking-up over with, here is my criticism (followed hurriedly by my proposal): a popular thread can quickly become a melee. In many ways this is a good thing. Reading a thread from front to back gives a fair idea of the spread of differing positions likely to be held on the topic. However, it is difficult to maintain a close and strict focus on the initial question, and to make incremental progress, with so many tangential discussions going on. A slow (and considered) response will become outdated during composition, so posters scramble to be the first to make a counterpoint without taking time to hone it. Eagerness to be read or responded to - desire to be at the heart of the discussion - drives many to an aggressive tone and a sophistic platitude before a tailored argument, because, after all, the effort of a sculpted response might go completely unacknowledged in the frenzy.
As I said, this approach is mainly fine. It is an energetic forum and a lot of good comes from this frantic interchange of ideas. However, I believe a useful addition to the site would be an area where two people could arrange to begin a one-on-one debate. This is the format I envisage:
- A person creates a topic (a philosophical question or position), and nominates an antagonist.
- Their opponent accepts (or declines, but it was probably arranged in one of the other forums first).
- There could be, say, three/five/whatever rounds of debate constrained by a word limit.
- Debate goes back and forth between the debaters without anybody else being able to comment.
- After the closing argument, the thread would become available for all to comment on.
I am a PHP developer. I've never worked with BB before, but I assume something like that could be developed as a plugin? If there is enough interest, and nobody with the time to produce it themselves, I'd be willing to have a pop.
What do people think?
