[Section Discussion] Quality of Life Suggestions and Improvements

[Phantom Roxas]

Thinking of removing the bumping rule for debates temporarily. I'd like to keep the section active without our going dead because of the constant need for new threads. That will only clutter it up. No decision made yet but I'd like your feedback.

 

I think the best way to bump is if someone offers something new the discussion, preferably by elaborating on a previous point. The risk, however, is that sometimes when this is done, it can often by unpleasant, usually because it twists the discussion towards a certain perspective rather than advocating for free debate.

 

For example, something good could be "We were recently discussing this subject, and it turns out that there is an update to this story. In light of this new information, what more can we discuss."

 

A more frustrating alternative is when someone goes "So, hey, you know the point I was making on my side of the debate? Well, this new information totally vindicates what I said!" That's not helping the discussion. It's immediately twisting new information in such a way to boast "GOTCHA!", which I feel is rather harmful to the purpose of Debates. The goal of the section is to be willing to discuss subjects freely. So first and foremost, I think bumping a discussion would be best served to reignite interest in the discussion. If someone bumps a thread just to brag, that's either going to kill any remaining interest in the thread, because people see that there's not a worthy discussion to be had, or it would generate discussion for all the wrong reasons.

 

So I think bumps should be allowed, but you should also encourage people to consider how their bump could influence how the thread could progress.

 

Another thing I'd like to look into for Debates is what I'd like to call Hot Topics.  I'll take a major headline from the last two weeks and sticky it to generate a discussion.  Your thoughts are appreciated.

 

This sounds like a solid plan. Stickying a thread would improve visibility, and something I think Debates could be good for is how one thread could inspire a sort of "spinoff" thread. For example, the thread about the allegations against Kevin Spacey led to a Debates thread regarding sexual misconduct, and since I was discussing various people who were all variously associated with DC and Warner Bros., I wanted to talk about something else related to Warner.

 

The connections don't have to be immediately obvious, but I think generating a discussion would be even better if it allowed for discussions to potentially spin off into other threads, boosting across the section as a whole.