Table Talk
Civilized Discussion at Catalyst Gaming
"Polite conversation is rarely either." - Fran Lebowitz
What is Table Talk? How dare a new board appear while I was masturbating furiously in bed! It has come to the attention of myself and others that there are some of you who are intellectual and then there are the pseudo-intellectuals. This is where we sift out the rotten from the rest. Table Talk is intended to be a board for casual discussion and debate about literally anything imaginable. Hopefully, this board will inspire people to think, and create an intellectual sect of Catalyst Gaming. Despite being an administrator, I don't particularly believe in rules, but rather guidelines. I have laid out some guidelines for you below:
- Stay civilized. You are permitted to write as crassly, sarcastically,
and devoid of refinement as you please, but if you choose to draw
targets in your arguments, target one's ideas, not the person himself.
- Use the fullest extent of BBCode to stylize your arguments in order
to make posts as easy to read as possible. No one wants to read a
block of text.
- You are not required to cite your sources, but if asked to provide
one, you should be prepared. It's also helpful and adds to your
argument to use quotations, graphics, and videos, though you
shouldn't make them the base of your argument.
- Avoid fulfilling Godwin's Law; unless you are directly discussing
Hitler and Nazi Germany, your argument is immediately invalid if you
draw any parallels between the actions of leaders or individuals and
the actions of Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Eichmann, the
Schutzstaffel, the Wehrmacht, the Nazi Party, or any other thing
related to Nazism.
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." - Mike Godwin
While I would like to allow for discussion of anything, there are some topics that must be avoided. I will provide reasons for their exclusion from Table Talk discussion.
- Abortion Any debate on abortion is simply a feud between
those who support or condone abortion and those who do not.
Neither side will ever change their views, as their views are deeply
routed in religious conviction; that is, religious conservatives over-
-whelmingly do not support abortion and those who condone abortion
religiously believe that religion has no place in political decisions.
- Circumcision and Other Topics With an Even Divide Debates about
circumcision come down to the circumcised people saying it is alright and
the uncircumcised people saying it isn't. Inherently, you will prefer whatever
you are. Feel free to bring up circumcision as a point in religious debate, but
not as a topic itself. Likewise, other topics where there is an even division among
people, and one will choose what they are should be avoided.
- Political Ideologies in Their Entirety It is rather useless to debate and attack
a political ideology because the ideologues and counter-ideologues will all simply
stand their ground; minds won't be changed. Rather, debate specific practices
or policies of a political ideology, or debate qualities of certain ideologues and
leaders and how such qualities can be attributed with their political ideology.
- Any Topic in its Entirety Discussing any topic in its entirety will usually
lead to it being focused down to one point of the topic, but which point?
Be specific in what you make a topic for debate.
- Anything Unimportant! If it doesn't matter, it isn't worth debating.
When starting a topic for debate, give a little bit of a brief summary of the topic in an unbiased manner, and then provide your first argument below. Other than that, I believe the standards for discussion will set themselves. I wish for this to remain casual, and this thread is probably as serious as you'll ever see it.
Gott nicht mit uns,
Ricky
General => General Discussion => Table Talk => Topic started by: tics on December 31, 2012, 12:02:43 AM