[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I really don't like the idea of this kind of thread. While I do agree that there is, and seems to increasingly be, a favored opinion on a variety of topics on chief delphi. I don't think it is necessarily healthy. Maybe this is just me, but I feel like having a diversity of opinions is a GOOD thing. Hearing different perspectives and debating them as reasonable individuals is one of the most valuable ways of learning. If we just shut off this debate when regarding to "topics A through N" I feel like we will have stepped down a bad road, a road of "quasi-censorship."

Furthermore, I feel like this would only further alienate many new-comers, especially students, who are the primary (although certainly not only) ones that are here to learn. I would hate to learn from a system that just says, "No you're opinion isn't valid when you're here because a bunch of people have already decided that this is the right and only way when you're here." What if schools were run this way. What if your teachers refused to even hear your opinions because they always assumed they were right? What if, even though they were right, they never took the time to listen to you? Learning and mental development is a process, where hard questions must be tackled. I would hate for chief delphi to be a place where people were uncomfortable asking questions because "those questions have already been answered, and we don't want to hear your opinion if it differs from ours."

I understand what you are trying to accomplish, but many of the topics broached on these forums, technical and non-technical, are very much grey areas, and therefore warrant reasoned discussion. Please let's not do anything to endanger that discussion.

EDIT: Also, I want to make sure you know that I don't think you are trying to create this kind of culture, nor will this kind of culture necessarily arise from a thread like this. I just foresee this as an unintentional step toward that kind of culture, and that scares me. I hope that clarifies my post a bit.

Yeah, a post like this will only further the development of a Chief Delphi Hivemind opinion, that new people to the site will feel like they must abide by or fear being lynched by mobs when an intelligent discussion is being had.