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Debate Symposium Closure


Jeric

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I agree with this completely. I never personally went into the Debate area but from what I’m aware of, it has held the responsibility of being the section that forces the most people to leave. I know a few users who either temporarily or completely left because of a debate that they had, presumably in that section.

I think of this place as a way to spread Friendship to one another and to talk about the show or whatever else is on our minds that is safe to talk about. Debating about the messed-up things that go on in this world is more suited to some other forum that is not this one. I also think of this forum as being an escape. An escape from what goes on in the world, especially in this day and age, which is why I’d rather not delve into political debates because that’s exactly what I want to avoid. Me being the die-hard brony I am, all I want to see here is friends being made, not enemies. If you’re going to commit to arguing with people, then you have no right to be here. All I want is for every user on here to be happy and I think that will be a lot easier now that debates will be removed. 

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I predicted this would happen, a bit of a bummer for me since I actually liked it, I have had many peaceful debates with users on this site, but if I'm going to be honest, some users were also very aggressive towards me :blush:

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27 minutes ago, ~C. Discord~ said:

But where will half our moderation reports come from now? Think of the busywork!

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Maybe you will be able to make an actual forum event with all that free manpower and tailor some avatar-related resources for the RP section as was promised a thousand years ago 3Y6uKBJ.png

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1 hour ago, Goat-kun said:

Maybe you will be able to make an actual forum event with all that free manpower

* The World Cup, which spands months and has dozens of topics, custom banners and artworks, and this past year, even a few animations.

* Trivia and polls every week, run by one staff member diligently.

* Appreciation topics and impromptu game events.

Keeping in mind, of course, that no one here is paid to do anything. This is a volunteer job that comes after the other tasks of life. 

If you can look at how much effort Jeric and the other staff have poured into events of all kinds over the past two years, and still dismiss them so readily, I don't think you're the sort of person who will ever be satisfied. :oh_golly:

Personally, the overhaul in community focus and events is why I returned after a several years hiatus.

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6 minutes ago, ~C. Discord~ said:

Trivia and polls every week

These exist?? Not that i'm a trivia type person I never heard of it (or the other stuff) but i've only been here a few months lol

I enjoy the art contests though and the events where you give and get stuff. So there seems to be good stuff goin on

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Just now, flurry said:

These exist?? Not that i'm a trivia type person I never heard of it (or the other stuff) but i've only been here a few months lol

I enjoy the art contests though and the events where you give and get stuff. So there seems to be good stuff goin on

@Ganondorf8 has been making polls and such on the regular for as long as I've been back. They sometimes fall under the radar, so perhaps more promotion is in order, but they are definitely there. Check out the Forum Events subforum. :twi:

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14 minutes ago, ~C. Discord~ said:

* The World Cup, which spanded months and had dozens of topics, custom banners and artworks, even a few animations.

* Trivia and polls every week, run by one staff member diligently

* Appreciation topics and impromptu game events

Keeping in mind, of course, that no one here is paid to do anything. This is a volunteer job that comes after the other tasks of life. 

If you can look at how much effort Jeric and the other staff have poured into events of all kinds over the past two years, and still dismiss them so readily, I don't think you're the sort of person who will ever be satisfied. :oh_golly:

Personally, the overhaul in community focus and events is why I returned after a several years hiatus.

I’m looking forward to the World Cup.

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As stated, we are fully aware that this decision will not be popular. It is alright to express disapproval but it should be done in a respectful manner. To pick on staff about this is unnecessary.

Posts that derail the thread or exhibit abusive behavior will be removed.

Please keep things civil. 

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5 hours ago, ~C. Discord~ said:

@Ganondorf8 has been making polls and such on the regular for as long as I've been back. They sometimes fall under the radar, so perhaps more promotion is in order, but they are definitely there. Check out the Forum Events subforum. :twi:

I make trivia threads when the event in question comes along (Assuming that I remember to actually make one :P.) but polls? That's usually not me but then I have created some on rare occasions. Promotions... I could do with that.

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WOW.

really people? this is actually sickening. The one place people can have important conversations about actually important things and you get rid of it? why? because you don't like people disagreeing? or getting mad at each other? there's literally not one good reason to do this. People need to have access to other's opinions, so we can revise our own, and grow as people. I'm not the only one who benefitted from it. 

For real, rethink this. You're doing everyone a disservice. 

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1 minute ago, Olly said:

WOW.

really people? this is actually sickening. The one place people can have important conversations about actually important things and you get rid of it? why? because you don't like people disagreeing? or getting mad at each other? there's literally not one good reason to do this. People need to have access to other's opinions, so we can revise our own, and grow as people. I'm not the only one who benefitted from it. 

For real, rethink this. You're doing everyone a disservice. 

This isn't the forum for that. If you want that, go look elsewhere. There are a multitude of other forums out there. Why do we need this on a pony forum? It makes zero sense to me whatsoever. 

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Just now, Scar said:

This isn't the forum for that. If you want that, go look elsewhere. There are a multitude of other forums out there. Why do we need this on a pony forum? It makes zero sense to me whatsoever. 

If you want to go down that road you could easily just say you don't need most of the other forums on here either. That's a bad argument. But yes, people will go elsewhere, although I can't see why you'd want to push people away from your own place and say they can just go to better places. You know what really makes "zero sense"? tossing a good thing you had for nothing at all, just having something beneficial, and making your place worse by arbitrarily getting rid of it. 

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1 minute ago, Olly said:

If you want to go down that road you could easily just say you don't need most of the other forums on here either. That's a bad argument. But yes, people will go elsewhere, although I can't see why you'd want to push people away from your own place and say they can just go to better places. You know what really makes "zero sense"? tossing a good thing you had for nothing at all, just having something beneficial, and making your place worse by arbitrarily getting rid of it. 

You don't see in between the lines of what I was saying.

The debate symposium was a constant hassle for the staff to handle, it devolved into a spewing mass of an emotional mess. It was done horribly. Why would someone remove the off topic forums and the others? That is not my point. The point is the debate symposium proved way too unruly for this forum. And do those other forums devolve into senseless bickering with little no lee way, no mutual agreement on each other? No, they don't. 

Is a place full of constant drama, a cesspool of hate and disagreement a good one? No, it isn't.

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Just now, Scar said:


The debate symposium was a constant hassle for the staff to handle
 

And you know this how? isn't it the job of moderators to moderate? what, it's too much work to bother with? 

1 minute ago, Scar said:

The point is the debate symposium proved way too unruly for this forum. And do those other forums devolve into senseless bickering with little no lee way, no mutual agreement on each other? No, they don't. 
 

That sounds more like an opinion than a fact to me. How often did you actually use the debate forum? "senseless bickering" isn't a good summary of it to me. Yes, sometimes people disagree, and in that disagreement become emotional. People get emotional when it involves something important to them. You can just say why even bother defending it, it's just a forum, it doesn't matter. I benefitted from discussions I had with other people, and other people did as well, even if there was some emotion involved at times. Us talking about this right now is fully in the spirit of having a disagreement and being able to have a back and forth. People don't need to come to mutual agreement to have productive conversations, that's not the point of debate. Rather, you can sharpen your own opinions, or have them changed. You can learn.

Plenty of times I thought about just finding a different forum, plenty. But I was comfortable here, because at least we had the debate section, where at the very least if we didn't want to spend time online having vapid conversations about nothing I knew I'd possibly learn something or show someone my point of view. That's a valuable thing to have. If the staff here just say to themselves, "this is a pony forum. We only want friendly discussions about ponies, or safe, family friendly conversations" that's their prerogative. 

I probably wouldn't even bother with this if it hadn't have had a personal impact on me. I'm making an argument for this forum, not against it. It's like, if you want your place to be worse, if you want people to go away, whatever, it's just a forum right? but something of real value would have been lost, that's all. 

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1 minute ago, Olly said:

And you know this how? isn't it the job of moderators to moderate? what, it's too much work to bother with? 

That sounds more like an opinion than a fact to me. How often did you actually use the debate forum? "senseless bickering" isn't a good summary of it to me. Yes, sometimes people disagree, and in that disagreement become emotional. People get emotional when it involves something important to them. You can just say why even bother defending it, it's just a forum, it doesn't matter. I benefitted from discussions I had with other people, and other people did as well, even if there was some emotion involved at times. Us talking about this right now is fully in the spirit of having a disagreement and being able to have a back and forth. People don't need to come to mutual agreement to have productive conversations, that's not the point of debate. Rather, you can sharpen your own opinions, or have them changed. You can learn.

Plenty of times I thought about just finding a different forum, plenty. But I was comfortable here, because at least we had the debate section, where at the very least if we didn't want to spend time online having vapid conversations about nothing I knew I'd possibly learn something or show someone my point of view. That's a valuable thing to have. If the staff here just say to themselves, "this is a pony forum. We only want friendly discussions about ponies, or safe, family friendly conversations" that's their prerogative. 

I probably wouldn't even bother with this if it hadn't have had a personal impact on me. I'm making an argument for this forum, not against it. It's like, if you want your place to be worse, if you want people to go away, whatever, it's just a forum right? but something of real value would have been lost, that's all. 

I know it because I have seen it happen countless times, threads locked, posts deleted, users banned over saying stupid opinionated stuff, the list goes on and on.  

Well if your making a personal argument for this forum, then most of us are against it as it was the right call to make. They'd have to be against the forum then, no? I did indeed partake in debate but I stopped a few weeks before it was closed because there is no common ground, no respect, and it just became a constant deadlock. No point in wasting my personal time in a place like that. 

Feel the way you wish about it, I can't and I won't stop you from feeling the way you do. If you want debate so bad, then go to the other various forums out there where it's actually the main topic and nature of the entire forum.

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29 minutes ago, Olly said:

For real, rethink this. You're doing everyone a disservice. 

No. In its previous form Debate Symposium is done. This is not up for a vote or a debate or a discussion. This is the Administrative body of this forum stating that the current system of real world political debate is broken and this is where we stand. I’ve left this thread open to general commentary from the community out of tradition for them to make a comment or two. This topic will not turn into a back and forth. 
 

Debate Pit sucked for too many people here. It was a time vampire. Enough users of that place could not have civilized conversations, and if they could it would still be open. 
 

We expected and were ready for far more negativity that we received. I was expected a mass exodus and in a way, I would tipped my hat as we parted way as friends. The fact that the huge majority are understanding, ambivalent, or supportive means that we kinda nailed it. It is how it is. 
 

That is all. 

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3 minutes ago, Scar said:

Well if your making a personal argument for this forum, then most of us are against it as it was the right call to make. They'd have to be against the forum then, no? I did indeed partake in debate but I stopped a few weeks before it was closed because there is no common ground, no respect, and it just became a constant deadlock. No point in wasting my personal time in a place like that. 

Sounds to me like you have a chip on your shoulder. Like maybe you went there once, had a disagreement, and didn't like that. People don't like being challenged, some people feel bad about it. Maybe that's where you are. I don't know what you expected, were you hoping that people would just come to common agreements, and no one would ever be upset at each other? 

 

3 minutes ago, Jeric said:

No. In its previous form Debate Symposium is done. This is not up for a vote or a debate or a discussion. This is the Administrative body of this forum stating that the current system of real world political debate is broken and this is where we stand. I’ve left this thread open to general commentary from the community out of tradition for them to make a comment or two. This topic will not turn into a back and forth. 

God forbit people disagree, right? let's shut down discussion and debate. Let's give up because we don't agree. 

 

Shame on you. You did not "nail it" this is not something to be proud of, or to pat yourself on the back for. 

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Just now, Olly said:

God forbit people disagree, right? let's shut down discussion and debate. Let's give up because we don't agree. 

 

Shame on you. You did not "nail it" this is not something to be proud of, or to pat yourself on the back for. 

Honestly; if people just disagreed then the Debate section would still be open. Fact is that it devolved into more than simple disagreements. For literal “years” we’ve tried various methods to keep it open, but nothing worked.

Period.

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2 minutes ago, Pathfinder said:

Honestly; if people just disagreed then the Debate section would still be open. Fact is that it devolved into more than simple disagreements. For literal “years” we’ve tried various methods to keep it open, but nothing worked.

Period.

I think what you're really saying is that you've given up. Which you're free to do, but at least own up to it. You can't control human nature. There really wasn't anything worse or more unusual about your debate section than anywhere else online. In fact, more often, it was better. Give up on something, you'll lose a few users, whatever. It's a shame, it's not a good thing. You guys can celebrate, I guess? I wouldn't celebrate losing something.

20 minutes ago, Jeric said:

 The fact that the huge majority are understanding, ambivalent, or supportive means that we kinda nailed it. It is how it is. 

Another thing, if those people are the type of people to generally agree with anything you do, or are totally ambivalent, those aren't the opinions you should pay attention to. If people have a strong response, about a forum of all things, those are the opinions you should look at closer. 

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no need for it to be so uncivil with people basically going and bringing the pit here, 
Really not the place

There are some solutions been put in this thread that would have been more popular, but the moderators need to decide what is the best option, 
And with this being a privately owned forum, there's not any right to it being forced to keep any part of it.

Do I disagree with the closure, in short yes, but I can understand why
Am I going to whine about it? no

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