Bring back SFA (Intellectual Debate Forum)

What can I post here? Guide to General Discussion

There is no place to have them anymore. If you look to the bottom of the thread I linked, it links you to an archived forum.

I do not believe intellectual debates should be posted in General discussion (there is literally a sticky advising against it).

If the argument is that there isn’t enough activity, then most of the forums on here outside of the market have grounds for being archived as well. Bring it back for a 3 month trial and see how it favors in comparison to other forums in “off topic”. I’m 100% certain it will lead in activity.

 

Requesting for an "intellectual" section on this forum when a majority of folks suffer from brain rot here is like asking an Islam forum to make an LGBTQ forum section. Yeah, no.

 

No support. you aren't an intellectual and no one on this forum is an intellectual. If you want to talk about how smart you are or your political opinions just got to the spam forum

 

READ THIS FIRST! Suggestion Section Rules

Please follow the rules of this forum before posting. No need to post if you’re going to just spam on this thread and not give a constructive opinion on the matter.

The forum was once well established, totaling 2,000+ threads and 80+ pages since its inception. This forum is for people interested in having these debates, not those who would never participate to begin with.

 

Are you seriously trying to convince everyone that a black market forum that is a shell of its former self is actually a guise for its real target demographic, intellectual debaters?

Go read the section rules you posted.

 

I refer you to rule 2 & 6

I’m not sure why you bring up the market when this would be under “off topic”. That’s like saying, why would anyone on a blackmarket be interested in sports, music, anime or technology. None of these topics have anything to do with the blackmarket, nor do they have any significant activity. Some going for weeks without a new post. A debate forum would invite back and forth conversation (activity!).

 

I'm glad you brought up those sections

Sports - A total of 6 threads have posts on them from this year.
https://i.imgur.com/0x9hWdd.png

Media/Music - 3 threads have posts on them from this year
https://i.imgur.com/iflrsge.png

Technology - 7 threads have had posts in them from this year. 2 of them were abandoned/locked.
https://i.imgur.com/cOJIbTr.png

Anime - 17 threads have had posts in them from this year. That's the highest out of all of the sections listed. Gratz, >1 thread a month!
https://i.imgur.com/b7pFNOj.png

As I said, forum that is a shell of its former self, and these are sections that have way less of a barrier to entry (and we've also determined that the forum is infested with weebs).

As demonstrated from this thread, you aren't actually ready for an intellectual debate.

 

The only thing you have demonstrated is inactivity amongst those forums. We are 10 months into the year, with 2 remaining. Those numbers are abysmal. Anime is a relatively new section in comparison to the others and is a trending topic amongst our age group so it makes sense to have the most. But if we quantify these creations based on how far along down the road we are into the year, I don’t see how this supports your argument. It actually supports my own because I’m 100% sure that SFA would be the most active forum in ‘Off Topic’.

 

Forums are an antiquated concept on the internet. They peaked in the early-mid 2000s.

New generation youth don't typically sign up on forums for discussion, they typically prefer real time chat like Discord - not to mention Discord has rolled out "forum" features of their own which only make an actual web forum more redundant than it already is.

Why would you want to stretch the forum sections even thinner if the sections you're referencing barely have any engagement and generally have less barriers to entry than an intellectual debate section? Your argument makes no sense.

Needless to say, my original reply has nothing to do with the fact that this website doesn't have the activity required for such a section to exist. This community is incapable of having meaningful intellectual discussion altogether.

 

This isn’t to specifically attract new users. This is to have these specific type of discussions with existing users. I never mentioned that to be the premise of my suggestion. If you read the original post, the stickied thread in general discussion links to an archived forum where these discussions typically would be placed. I’m suggesting to bring back the forum so there is an appropriate place to have these discussions.

 

It hasn't perhaps crossed your mind that this section was purposefully archived? And assuming you're able to make that deduction, I'm sure you could probably begin to imagine why, even?

Either way, my stance and opinion on this is not changing. Just to re-iterate my stance so it isn't misconstrued:

I do not think this is the place for this kind of section because I do not believe this community is capable of engaging in such things. You're free to believe what you believe, as am I. No support.

Next time accept the feedback instead of trying to discredit it because you didn't get blind support for a dumb suggestion.

 

I understand why it was removed. I’m suggesting to bring it back. If the reason for not bringing it back is concerns of activity, then the rest of ‘off topic’ should be archived as well. To my knowledge, it was removed to make the forum appear less dead than it is. This was at a time when activity was more frugal than current. There aren’t many threads that incites back and forth discussion because there aren’t many made with an argumentative format behind them. Just because there isn’t a place for these threads to be created, doesn’t mean these threads shouldn’t exist. That is my point.

 

That sounds like a better suggestion than adding more useless sections.

 

I'll support SFA coming back. Back in the hayday, I really enjoyed not only posting, but reading in the forum. I understand it may have been spammed in the past with low-iq folks but I would try and participate in helping create activity in there.

 

It appears as moderation enforcement for the forum was decreased. This could be because less posts were reported, causing the problem to culminate. There are some users (mostly ones that do not participate) who would gladly do without the forum because clashing of opinions often ignite anger. To combat this, a more diplomatic approach can be taken to overall enhance the experience of the forum. “Something for All” is a dated term used on forums decades ago that doesn’t properly illustrate the intent of the forum.

A simple fix would be to create a brand new forum - Let’s call it “Intellectual Discussion” - or have it as a subforum to General Discussion (where topics with thought expansion can be placed).

 

Well, I think either that or open up the possibility of having intellectual debates allowed in the General Discussion. I think this would be the easiest route, to see if we have any interactions or activity. Moving forward, if the activity spikes up but it's low quality we could readdress this situation? I would like to increase my presence as a member in the off-topic section, but it's hard because you can't really only talk to yourself...

 

While SFA was an interesting section years ago I don't think there is enough activity now on here for it (forums are not exactly as popular as they were 10 - 15 years ago on the internet), there certainly would not be as much activity as years ago.

So no support for the reason of there would be not enough activity now compared to years ago, though it was an interesting place to visit whether or not you wanted to participate in a debate.

 

It was a mistake to remove it the first time. We shouldn’t be removing non-market forums because activity has dwindled. That should be left to markets, as that is the main focus of this website. Whether there is limited activity or not outside of the market, should not be something we measure because that was never the focus. The forums outside of the market was supposed to be a hub for users to participate in if they want to. If we decide what should go or stay based on activity, then most of the forums in off topic would see the same fate. The continuous removal of forums just further limits the possibility of additional community interest. The message behind the removal was “addition by subtraction”, but that only makes sense if it boosts activity, not take away from it.

 

This sums it up for me