Quote:
Originally Posted by Madison
CD opinion is the collective wisdom of nearly fifteen years of uninterrupted discussion on many topics. Think about that for a bit -- fifteen years. There's something to be said for the conclusions that have been drawn by this community and the topics that come up over and over again have been hashed out pretty thoroughly. It's rare for someone to offer a new wrinkle in these debates and our reluctance to entertain them again and again shows this.
How would the scientific community react to someone that wanted to argue against the existence of gravity, but provided no new, compelling evidence to support their theory?
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I'm not trying to pick apart your post or your opinion, just providing a counterpoint.
Many of the issues that the controversial threads are about are unlike gravity because they are very much grey areas, like mentor/student built, team organization, etc. People who are new to the program, of which there are THOUSANDS each year, are not familiar with the nuances of these issues, much like a freshman physics major is not familiar with the nuances of quantum physics. Both of these things are very complicated matters. If a student had a new or different angle on the topic, should the entire physics department run into the room and each repeat the same explanation of why the student is wrong? By the same token, if someone has an unpopular(but thoughtful and respectful) view on this forum, does it need to spawn a 200 reply, mostly redundant thread? If you ask me, the student and the poster have one thing in common: they both get discouraged and find something else to do.