Well, it makes me more informed. It makes me think about my opinions, and in some cases it makes me change them. Hearing all sides from all kinds is a great benefit. When I get into RL political arguments, I almost already know what people are going to say.

I know lots of people are down on the H8 that we spew here, but for me it is one of my favorite parts of the Oracle.

I agree too, it gives me perspective on what other people could think. Without exposure to all kinds of opinions and only listening to my immediate social circle I can grow complacent and mistakenly believe most people are informed, reasonable and fact-based thinkers.

Fixed that for ya =)

In the same way a monkey probably believes that the monkeys it hangs out with are informed, reasonable, and fact-based thinkers.

I'm getting to the point where I'm going to cease reading anything
in here. IMO it just serves as a battleground for folks to piss
each other off.

If you think, for one minute, that anger or issues born in here doesn't spill over
into any game the guild is playing, then you haven't put enough
thought into it.

I respectfully disagree Daye. For instance, in here I really can't stand Sini. I think he's a pretentious douche who's sole purpose in life is to reap enjoyment from trolling these forums (a past time that is all to prevalent these days and one that I simply do not understand) by intentionally misinterpreting/misrepresenting and mocking what others write, rather than actually debate/discuss issues. However, we get along just fine when we play GW2. The point is, I don't have to agree with someone to hang out with them and have a good time in a game. And, while I don't agree with his tactics, I understand that for him this is another game so I understand that raging against him would be just like breaking my mouse because some guy killed me in Counter Strike, ultimately pointless.

As for what I get out of this forum, I have made at least two posts very similar to Jet's OP so there's not much point repeating it here.

While most of the board is snippy one-liners, I think it's good to be able to vent political frustrations in a forum that's not a circle-jerk. Also, people here don't seem to get offended and neither are they unaccountably anonymous.

It's good for the mind and soul to construct a well thought out argument and defend it. I should try it sometime.

I consider sitting around and arguing politics to be one of the better cultural traits passed down from the Brits. It used to be common for this type of discourse to occur in pubs and other public and semi public venues, though over time there has been a cultural shift away from discussing matters of substance as a pastime and towards debating things that are truly and completely meaningless like sports.

I think its human nature to want to debate, argue and dicker over various things. Its cool that the internet has created a venue to do so with topics that are at least interesting and pertinent.

I completely separate the two. I don't even think twice about this place when we are playing games, but Day, you are right!

Some folks can't do that, and we ask that they don't dive in, if they are going to end up shooting people (Only with a gun that they have purchased after having a universal background check).

:-)

What Kaotic said, except the part where he called me names.

"My tactics" is realization that ultimately it is pointless trying to convince someone on any topic concerning politics or religion. You can present all the fact in the world, cite all the studies and debunk any myth but people will simple hear what they want to hear and ignore what you said. As such, there is no way to "win" political argument if you debate cleanly. Best you could hope is agree to disagree, but that is when everyone behaves, and that rarely happens even if you act like a saint.

I use this forum as a test platform to see what are typical positions and opinions for various people (and we have great sample from all kinds of demographics) and more importantly at what point each sees red and start acting truly deranged. It is also important to realize your own limitations, but surprisingly nobody here have pushed me into red territory.

Immediate benefit for me - I have out-there conservative relatives that I don't want to cut all social ties with. At the same time I don't really want to nod and agree with the drivel they pass for informed opinions. As such, I used experience acquired on these forums to push back, but not enough so it created social rift.

Only in here brother, and only cause I know you do it on purpose :)

There is another reason for this though. We have no idea who/how many other people are reading the back and forth while trying to make up their minds.

I don't subscribe to this 'silent majority' theory. Aside from Red, I don't think anyone who isn't positing would be reading any of this. Gun thread alone would make sure they run away screaming.

This is a good example of you deliberately misconstruing what someone says so that you can respond to an issue that was not raised.

I clearly didn't say anything about a "silent majority." In fact I specifically said we don't know who or how many might be reading. In this day and age you are on camera the second you walk out your front door (never mind what Kurzweil and Google are doing with your phone and Samsung with your TVs). Someone is watching everything you do. No reason to believe that the same isn't true here.

We do. Registered KGB Oracle members can read this forum when they are logged in. Otherwise, this forum is private (to keep Internet crazy out, we have plenty of our own).

Thank you for the informative post. Having participated in the deliberations that lead to the decision to make this forum private, like everyone else who participates here, I had no idea that was the case.

Troll la la loll la la la loll

Actually we only limit write access to those that ask. This is read only to all registered Oracle members.