Admin, I ask you to pause for a moment and ask yourself what kind of forum you wish
Talk States to be. That is entirely your decision. Once you have defined that for yourself, it will be apparent whether you wish to host a
"Flame Fest" forum, or not.
There are thousands of forums on the web devoted to White Power, Zionist Conspiracy, advocacy of violence of all kinds, etc. etc. Our member dingo71 brought some of these right in here, because they fit right in, well within the scope of ongoing discussions in the
Community Lounge. So, they quickly became a relevant part of the discussion, whether they remained up or not. The first thing you'll have to do is move many of the
Community Lounge threads into this
Debate Area, and keep moving more as many threads deteriorate into chaos. More likely,
Community Lounge will become derelicit.
I must admit, it has been fascinating to watch one personality utterly impervious to introspection, another impervious to rationality, and a third whose thin veneer of civility instantly goes up in a puff of smoke. But if you choose to proceed and encourage such behavior, I despair of learning or benefitting much more from future participation here. The "imaginary boundary" between
Community Lounge, Introductions, and even
States has been repeatedly breached, and if you choose to further encourage this sort of behavior, it is unlikely to be contained within the confines of a
Debate Area. That is entirely wishful thinking, based on experience here. I suggest you start a completely separate forum,
TalkDebate.com or something, if you wish to foot the bill for that.
I am of the opinion that, in the polls posted on
violence,
racism and
pleasantness, there is only one vote that really counts, and you've failed to cast it.
Is this the kind of forum you wish to pay the bandwidth charges to host? If so, as Edward R. Murrow said,
good night and good luck. My advise: either cut your losses now and shut
TalkStates down, or decide on your goals, set some basic standards of conduct and content required to meet those goals, and, regrettably, be willing to enforce them.