Legion World Forums LEGION WORLD Science Police Headquarters Suggestion for new forum

(There is no reason for me to use the Emerald Empress's eye, I just like using it.)

Is its possible to have a serious topics forum? Currently there is nowhere to debate current events, politics, scientific advances etc.

I drift between quite a few of these types of serious topic boards at various locales, and they're usually both engaging and enlightening.

If the prevailing thought is that a serious board has no place here given the "fun" ethos of the boards as a whole, that's understandable: I thought I'd ask anyway.

(Perhaps it could be called, I don't know, United Planets Strategy Room, or something.)

Dave

Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. Yeah, most of the stuff on these baords is pretty frivelous (sp? I'm so sure that's wrong) but occasionally you'll get a thread on a serious topic. It might be worth trying a forum like that and if it doesn't work then no harm done, and if it does... well yay!. I tend to post a lot over at the Sequential Tart's board where there is a similar board and even thoguh it doesn't have a huge amount of traffic you do get some really interesting discussions going on.

The only thing to be wary of is that some people can get a little heated on some subjects. Basically though it's a case f keeping in mind nettiquette. it's ok to have different viewpoints, it's ok to argue your points but trolling or flaming (as anywhere else) aren't ok. Like I say it's basic nettiquette really but the more serious the debates are the more touchy people can become.

That being said I'd certainly be interested in such a board.

I've tried Sequential Tarts, too, Bevis, but you're right - not much traffic.

I'd definitely be interested in participating in a serious topics forum.

I suffer from a surfeit of seriousness in real life and sometimes I think I get too serious here as well, although you wouldn't know it from the past 24 hours.

It's the same here as at Seq.Tart - there are serious/weighty threads here but they don't get too many responses. Do we need another forum or just a more organized League of Serious Thread Posters?

I nominate "Webber's World" for the name of a serious-weighty-current events-political stuff forum.

The only problem that I see with this is that, historically, the LMBP and DC Boarders have never done well with keeping heated topics on civil levels. Some of the biggest wars at DC and the YahooGroup have revolved around such topics as religion, politics and gun control.

If everyone can maintain a level of respect and level-headedness, then fine. However, I have seen far too many of these discussions quickly explode out of control, and end up having people storm off or cry foul.

We kinda went through this when Legion World opened for business. It's back on page 15 or 16 the main legion forum. Direct link if you want to peruse it:

Serious Forum discussion

I have to agree with Ms-can't-go-five-seconds-without-changing-her-name

If you look @ comicboards' Community MB, which is primarily a "serious" topics forum, they had to crack down hard after several flame wars (which involved the co-site-owner) during the Iraq Undeclaredwar. I'm not so sure it would be a good idea...

Boy, a girl changes her name 7 or 8 times within 48 hours, and suddenly she's indecisive

While I wouldn't in principle be opposed to an "issues" forum, I'm just not sure there'd be enough demand for it. As things stand, the "Anywhere Machine" seems like it would be the appopriate forum for such posts, but there doesn't seem to be much interest in them there. I think the first step in the establishment of such a forum would be to try and generate interest in "serious" topics in the AM, and if there are enough responses to them there, maybe a separate forum could be established.

Perhaps the distinction is one simply of topic, not of intensity. "Serious" has applied already to many Legion-oriented discussions. Even *ahem* to Legion-World-oriented discussions. And to occasional political or arts threads in the Anywhere forum.

Some forum kept consciously "serious" would call for moderating messages by rhetoric or tone, rather than by topic of interest, and that calls for more from the moderators than those here seem to want.

If a serious forum serves as a debating forum, then it could follow rules of logic.

Now, I know the idea of rules sounds funny coming from me, but rules of logic necessarily keep things civil.

Examples of logical fallacies to avoid in discussion.

Some of these logical fallacies, you'll note, are consistent with personal attacks - ad hominem ("You're argument sucks because you suck"), straw man ("You're actually saying X, not y, you misleading bastard"), argument from authority ("I'm right because I'm an expert and you're an ignorant git"), and others.

If people avoid these logical fallacies, friction would also be avoided. It would confine people to respectfully disagree with each other.

(Incidentally, in the jurisdictions I practice law, we refer to our opponents in court as "my friend" or "my learned friend". Its a tradition to remind ourselves that nothing is personal in our debate.)

Another option is to have a proactive mediator, somehow who promotes and guides discussion in positive ways.

If something controversial comes up - gun control, abortion, Iraq, or whatever - then the mediator can explore what one person means through positive questioning, rather than rebuke.

Your link to "fallacious arguments" is quite interesting and I bookmarked it for future reference. I have observed, in past board disputes, that the feuding parties seldom listen to the logic of rhetoric but become entrenched in defending their own positions. An appeal to reason falls on deaf ears.

Nevertheless, hope springs eternal....I don't think we (people, not just Legion World) should avoid certain topics for fear that they degenerate into argument as opposed to debate. This is different from baiting somebody with a controversial (or logically fallacious) topic.

I would agree with EDE that it would be better to stay with the Anywhere forum and add serious topics, rather than start up another forum at this point - there haven't been that many people responding to many of the "serious" topics so far. This doesn't necessarily indicate a lack of interest, just a lack of debate. Sometimes a topic can start out as, well, neutral between silly and serious (I'm thinking of the Pro-Fem thread) and become fairly serious, or alternate between the two moods and levels of discussion.

I would love to participate in a serious forum. I'm afraid my political and social views are quite a bit to the right of most of the posters here, but I promise I would keep it civil. I occasionally check th Anywhere Machine for discussion of Current Events, but I usually don't find much of interest there.

Now this may be the funniest single line on the entire boards.

They also have a nice connection to an important little thing called "truth". Valid arguments (ones which obey all the "rules") are "truth-preserving", meaning that if their premises are true, their conclusions will be true as well.

Actually the discussion of fallacies at that site is a bit muddled. I'd recommend The Fallacy Files , Stephen\'s Guide to Logical Fallacies , or, if you really want to go in-depth, The Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies