As a bit of a vent: Yeah, I hate to see these threads fill up with angry posts of people shouting at each other. When I have to scroll through a page and a half of irrelevancy it makes me want a way to mute certain people who don't treat their intellectual opponents with respect.

So... I'd go for an individual "mute" (on a per-thread basis) option. If I want to mute someone, it shouldn't mute them for anybody else, but I don't want to read it. But if people find themselves shouting and not being responded to, they are likely to learn from it. So a universal mute is probably too big.

Only a loser who has been excomunnicated from all real-life circles debates politics on a game forum anyways. Just saying...

What forum 'integrity' are you referencing?

This notion of enforcing mutes on individuals who say unpopular things or hijack threads is ridiculous. Even the notion that this apparent lack of civility is something to wring our hands about is, quite frankly, incredibly condescending and unecessary.

Seriously. There's nothing wrong with heated arguments. If a lack of intellectual respect on a particular thread makes you groan... pick up and move on. Meanwhile, make clear-headed, respectful, useful and relevant contributions to threads about subjects you like, whether they be able diplomacy rules or tactics, about politics, about sports, or even (gulp) about forum etiquette.

Be the forum poster you want others to be..... you stupidsillyfartface.

Could someone please give Nigee his money back? Ever since he joined the donors club he's become an insufferable snob.

To be honest I rather enjoy the comments of our extremists. Most of the time I've already considered the arguments that come from the moderates and dismissed them, but every now and then the likes of Putin come up with something totally new to me...

...The likes of Krellin, less so...

@obi - why don't you set up a debating thread with named proposers seconders etc to form a team. Others can contribute but can also be ignored by the team members. It means the debate is limited to some degree but not by much and a sensible discussion can take place hopefully with people who can present valid arise nets and also understand the other sides point of view.

You could start the thread by seeking people willing to be team members.

It is worrying when the complaint is against "radical, dogmatic, absolutist fanatics", because that isn't the issue.

People who believe any sort of crazy theory should be perfectly welcome. The problem is when:

1. The quality of the argument is poor, particularly when it is an abusive ad hominem
2. There is no circumstance that a person will change their position.
3. People view things in terms of a conflict between "them who disagree" and "us who agree". If your argument is a war, and arguments are soldiers, and then any argument for your side is defended, and any argument against is attacked, regardless of whether or not they relate to the truth.
4. People stray from the issue at hand and disappear down an rabbit hole of only tangential relevance.

It isn't about the view so much as how it is argued for.

P.S. the requirements for having generally good posts and having a +/- 1 voting system work are similar. You need people to be more interested in the quality of the argument than if they agree, etc.

Haa ha ah ah! the moron that writes 10,000 word answers to a Yes or No question is cmplaining about threads being hijacked! Oh...this is too much!

See, he hasn't changed. Still fixes up the insults before even making his point. That's weird logic. You can't insult someone without cause. Give it a cause first.

I take that back, he insults without cause all the time.

Insult without cause? Apparently your are deficient in reading skills, bo. I insult Obi *very specifically* because he is the KING of thread hi-jackers when he writes, for example, a 10,000 word diatribe for a yes/no answer. I call him a moron because he is complaining about HIMSELF...thus it is not so much an insult as it is an accurate description....

I agree that obi is a king of thread hijacking. I found his argument ironic for that reason. I don't think he is a moron, just self indulgent and blind to his own short comings and, of course, constantly trying to be clever. However, in my opinion, he falls below the Mendoza line.

That being said, I haven't muted anyone, and unless someone starts sending me hateful personal messages, I doubt I ever will. I think excluding people from a thread is pretty ridiculous. The -10 could possibly work but I would never say it is good for a whole thread. Maybe -10 hides the comment, and others can view the comment if they please.

I would ask how I hijack a thread.

Burden a thread with long answers I won't at all deny--

But I DO stay on topic, and I DO refrain from petty name-calling, and I DON'T start a flame war, and I DON'T hold everyone who disagrees with me as someone who must be crushed underfoot in the course of a discussion-turned-war.

So, whether I'm intelligent or not or whether my posts are good or not, I don't think I do that, which is how I understand hijacking threads.

There's this tranny in Edmonton. A "guy" who breastfeeds "his" baby by walking around with a bag of breast milk attached to a tube which he sits next to his little titty both of which "he" jams into his baby's confused mouth.

"He's" in the news because he wanted to join a breastfeeding support group as a coach but the yentas all voted NO! He feels that his human rights are being violated. The yentas say that because he self identifies as the father in his relationship, this disqualifies him from being a breastfeeding coach, which is strictly speaking, a mother's domain.

I say that this idiot is a whack-job, and that child ought to be taken away and put up for adoption again.

What say all of you?

maple +1. That's one fucked in the head dude or chick with a dick. Is he a transvestite tranny or a transexual tranny? In other words, has he had a boob job done?

Notice the same coterie of holier than thous embarck on an anti adhominem thread while doing little more than engaging in personal attacks. I guess Obi-bot & friends lack an irony switch.

Obi has always had an authoritarian attitude towards his own threads. Hijacking other threads by redbaiting shamelessly is not beneath him though. How many threads has he made personally naming me by name. But were to believe this guy is above the fray.

Why are they all yentas?

I think it's FTM.