The day the ID died

**Pete** · 11-20-2010, 12:37 AM

I think there are a few problems with ID, and it really is everyone's fault at different stages.

On one hand, topics have been done to death. There have been topics on just about everything, and some topics have been deemed too risque or inappropriate for the TFF community.

This isn't really anyone's fault, except that people don't want to talk about the same things over again. The same topics usually lead to the same few people reviving the same old arguments, with the same standpoints. A lot of it also lies in the fact that some of us stand very firmly in our beliefs, and nothing will change that. This goes especially in hand with religion, and anything to do with life or death matters. Once two people with such opposing viewpoints jump into the thread and find each other, it just becomes a barrage of whatever supporting evidence they can find, which is good, since evidence always helps to prove a point, but it's also horrible when it's something based on belief, such as religion.

"Well, this is a fact because it's in the Bible, and the Bible is the word of God, and God can't be wrong, so I'm right."

I also think that a lot of the problems lie in the fact that ID can become hostile very quickly, and it's quite frankly annoying when you write up what you feel is a well-thought response, and it gets picked apart letter by letter in quote blocks. You do that a few times, having to defend why you chose a semicolon instead of a comma, and it becomes disheartening.

Laziness is also a factor. When you jump into a debate when it's already a few pages deep, full of lengthy posts, you really have to read through them all to fully grasp the concepts at hand, the standpoints, and what's already been said. It takes time, and I think a lot of people can't be bothered by it.

I think that maybe, we should try to wean ID threads into general chat, at least for a starter, and then use that to ease people into ID. Yknow, maybe throw a few topics into GC that could provoke some thought, and if it gets heated, or actually intellectually stimulating, maybe suggest moving it to ID, or suggest people check out the ID board for more.

If anything, we should have a new ID rule, where the quoting game is out. People start quoting sentences before they fully grasp the entire point a person's trying to make. Plus, it annoys me and is a endless loop of nonsense.

**GypsyElder** · 11-21-2010, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by Pete

[...]A lot of it also lies in the fact that some of us stand very firmly in our beliefs, and nothing will change that. This goes especially in hand with religion, and anything to do with life or death matters. Once two people with such opposing viewpoints jump into the thread and find each other, it just becomes a barrage of whatever supporting evidence they can find, which is good, since evidence always helps to prove a point, but it's also horrible when it's something based on belief, such as religion.

that's what makes it a debate forum

I don't think there's a problem with standing your ground on a subject since the point of ID isn't really to make you change your mind ( since of course, most people won't and that's not their intention going into ID) so it's going to be just a plethora of evidence on "why I think I'm right and you're wrong" (of course not everything has to be debatable)

Laziness is also a factor. When you jump into a debate when it's already a few pages deep, full of lengthy posts, you really have to read through them all to fully grasp the concepts at hand, the standpoints, and what's already been said. It takes time, and I think a lot of people can't be bothered by it.

I think that maybe, we should try to wean ID threads into general chat, at least for a starter, and then use that to ease people into ID. Yknow, maybe throw a few topics into GC that could provoke some thought, and if it gets heated, or actually intellectually stimulating, maybe suggest moving it to ID, or suggest people check out the ID board for more.

If anything, we should have a new ID rule, where the quoting game is out. People start quoting sentences before they fully grasp the entire point a person's trying to make. Plus, it annoys me and is a endless loop of nonsense.

I think if a person really doesn't want to read through everything then they're probably the kind of person I was talking about when I said "ID probably isn't their thing"

It's supposed to be well thought out which is what makes post so lengthy. It's harder to type out your thoughts and have the readers fully understand what you're trying to say through text.

Imo, people shouldn't have to be eased into ID because if they were interested enough in the topic or knew enough about it they would just post. If they're not interested then they don't post. I still think it's an activity issue across the board.

Just my thoughts :3