Quote: "I think anyone who sits back and looks at them logically would agree that they are ultimately frustrating, uncivilised and useless."
On the contrary. Lets say, hypothetically, that Eric and Mouse were going to work on a project together. Wouldn't it be good to know a bit about the person you're working with? Also, there's nothing frustrating about a healthy debate... it's often times a great way to get to know how people think, and also, a great way to help *you* think as well. In such debates you might learn something new, or in the very least be impelled to research a topic that has been brought up in such a debate. Hence, such debates can broaden your scope of knowledge and resourcefulness. That's at least how I look at it.
Quote: "No one is forcing us to read the threads but they still take up space on the forums."
Are those few pixels worth that much to you?
Quote: "I only want them banned because I want to make the forum a better, more friendly place so we can make better games. "
I think this is the job of moderators like Mouse, Jekku, and Van B., not you.
There's a difference between a debate and an arguement. Although the political thread did indeed transform in certain posts into an arguement, it was a debate by some of us. Mouse and I disagree on some topics and our political views seem to be quite varied, but that in no way, shape, or form means that I would be less inclined to honestly review something he created, nor does it mean I would shun away from creative criticism. We disagree about politics; that's why we talked about it in a political thread rather than continuing our debating in the previous thread. We can't be blamed that certain people used said thread to vent out their pent up social anxieties... that's human beings for you.
If I needed help and Raven was the individual who could help me, I would most certainly ask him for help, and I'm almost positively certain he would respond positively to such a request. Likewise, if Raven needed help and I were the person that could offer it to him, I'd gladly do the same.
I don't mean to come across as rude Chris, but these are my opinions, and in every sense of the phrase a forum is primarily designed so that people can emit such opinions and preferences. But, in all fairness, I'll invite everyone to use the forum on my website for such debates. It's not being used for much else, hehe. The forum on my website might not be nearly as nice as the one here, and my website was sort of assembly-line produced in about 10 minutes via geocities with no real thought process shy of writing the articles, and even those are drafts. But I'm opening my site to all of you to come vent your political steam.
- Matt Rock
"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Patrick's Day all of the time." ~ Christopher, *The Soprano's*
