(May 4, 2018 at 9:13 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I've been able to participate in discussions, no problem. It's just tedious having to comb through the shit posting and wasting my time responding to people who end up not actually being interested in discussion lol.
This is kind of what I thought you might say. You've not found yourself limited or otherwise driven away from the discussions you've wanted to participate in. You've found it tedious to wade through the muck and have been frustrated by wasting time trying to converse with those who turned out to not be all that interested in actual dialog.
All of that is understandable. And like I said, I also believe I understand what your intentions are with your proposal. Like you, an increased amount of actual productive discussion and dialog with those who hold views counter to my own is something I'd be interested in.
But here's my devil's advocate thoughts on the subject which are in addition to or outside of the apprehensions I've already discussed.
Though you've found some of (or perhaps all of) the discussions tedious, you've not been driven off and haven't found yourself unable to say what you wanted to say. And if I've read your comments correctly, on some level your interest is not so much in changing things for your own benefit, but rather for creating an area that would be less likely to drive off those who would otherwise disappear from the discussion due to the name calling/insults/etc. The obvious interest being that it would be good for all involved to hear the perspective of those particular folks who are as of now largely silent in these discussions.
If I have that right, here's my thoughts on it. A large part of the reason that you've not been driven off is not due to your own thick skin (though I'm sure that helps) but rather because you've come to this place more with an interest in learning rather than an interest in preaching/converting. And that, possibly along with your own particular personality, has to some extent tempered your comments. And that tempering has made the population here less inclined to want to write your off/not care if you're insulted etc than they otherwise normally would have. Put another way, you spoke and/or addressed those here differently than our average theist normally would and as a result, you've been able to participate more.
So what this tells me is that many of those whom you're intending to create a discussion space for, would not need such a space if they better understood the audience they were addressing and knew how to temper their comments appropriately so as to avoid much of the insults and name calling that inevitably results. IOW you yourself have shown that its entirely possible for a theist to remain a theist and yet be accepted and respected here. That others are unable to do this should be something they are burdened with solving themselves rather than us trying to create a solution for them.
That's perspective #1. Here is perspective #2. You find it tedious to waste your time getting wrapped up in responding to people who turn to out be not really interested in the actual discussion. Its entirely possible to troll a discussion and yet remain completely civil at all times. Therefore your proposed solution won't necessarily solve that issue.
