by MeanMrMustard 5 Replies latest forum suggestions
Simon,
I heard you are working on a new forum. Based on your recent discussion with @recovering, what do you think about debate threads? You would just need a mechanism for limiting the posters to two (or a few) users.
People could comment in a “peanut gallery” thread (normal thread). Initially you wouldn’t even have to build in response time limits, just limit the valid posters to a thread.
Thoughts?
I dunno, I think there's more value in discussions with whoever wants to be involved being able to contribute. As long as things are kept on-topic, it usually provides for the most interesting read and mix of opinions. In fact, when 2 people get into a prolonged disagreement on a point, it's rarely that interesting. It also gives rise to other issues - people creating fake accounts to like their own (to 'win') and recruiting people to vote for them.
One thing I have been thinking of is sub-comments, where you have the normal topic discussion but then people can make a comment directly under a main post. Not as complex of confusing as true threaded topics, but allows for a little sub-discussion on a point where only those that want to read the whole thing need to. Kind of like stackoverflow if you've seen that.
I'll think about it some more though and see what debate sites are about.
I wouldn’t try to completely imitate full fledged debate sites. They have mechanisms to propose a debate resolution, some argue in the affirmative, negative, user 1 gets an opening statement, then user 2, then three rebuttals etc. Some even have word limits and response timers. That’s too complicated IMHO.
A simple flow would be user 1 invites user 2. User 1 can accept or deny. If deny, then the thread goes away. If accept, the it stays for only the two users. People can vote. Maybe that’s all.
But I completely get what you are saying about general discussion.
I like the idea of a thread “tree” though. vBulletin has something like that. Any thread can have sub-threads, so it’s like little individual conversations. If two people go off on something, it doesn’t disrupt the entire thread. If your “posts” table has a thread ID, you could probably get away with just adding a parent post ID. Tough part would be managing the tree styles and lazy loading ...
Ahh well, just thought I would throw it out there.
Could we somehow get notifications when someone comments on our post, or responds to our comment using our name? I find it quite unwieldy having to go back through many posts to see what comments may or may not have been made in my absence. Or do I just have no clue how to use this site? That's a good possibility. Because I also cannot figure out how to cut and paste from someone else's comment and put it in yellow like everyone else does.
Interesting thought to throw out in the OP, MMM.
But TBH I think this forum is a pretty good place to have debates.
There have been some fantastic discussions and debates on this forum over the years and I'm glad to have been in a few.
I find it strange that Recovering in the Tommy Robinson thread wants to debate with Simon on another forum ... I mean, what's wrong with this one?
The issues Simon mentioned earlier are less likely to happen
They have tools to combat vote fixing . Some use AI to rank arguments.and to aid in moderating.A
they also have metric tools so that the debate is not just an agree disagree ranking.
A moderated debate forum has rules and the moderators are unbiased so that debates tend to be more civil
