A new type of Discussion room.

[FinalEnigma]

something that I would really like to see on this site is a friendly subforum where we could go to have a discussion(NOT a debate) with a person about their beliefs, where a given person and their beliefs would be the subject of the thread and they would make an opening post stating their position, and others could ask questions to flesh out the rest of their beliefs.

I have many times been curious about a couple members, for example, Bernee, or GIA, or many others whose positions aren't quite as clear as they could be when you are reading a single post or a single thread of theirs, and I think it would be very helpful for members, especially new members who don't know everyone yet, to help them to understand others, and it would also be useful for those who grow somewhat tired of explaining their beliefs over and over. It also would be a great place to be able to go just if you are curious about a particular person.

I believe that everybody is different and that something as simple as user groups is not enough to truly understand a person's position. It would of course be a voluntary thing to place a thread there about yourself, and you wouldn't be able to start threads on others beliefs.

I'm sure some of us have a thread somewhere where our beliefs are explained in detail, but this would allow all these threads to be in one place and easily accessible for reference without having to go dig them up, and it sometimes can be very helpful to know where a person is coming from with regards to a debate.

[otseng]

I think the Questions for... would be your best bet.

The purpose of the subforum:

Have you wanted to ask another member a question, but think other people would like to know also? Well, here is your place to do it.

This subforum is hidden from anonymous users so there is a bit of privacy to what is posted here. But, all members of course can read whatever is posted.

So, here's how it works...

Create a topic subject as "Questions for (insert member name here)". So, to ask a question for user Eve, the subject would be "Questions for Eve". If someone has already started one for a user, you can just post in that instead of creating a new one. If you do start a new one, send a PM to that user to notify her/him that it's been created.

In the body, ask your question(s) for that user. Avoid questions that are too personal in nature.

The user at her/his own discretion then decides to answer the question(s) or not. There is no obligation to answer anything.

The intent of this subforum is to allow for opportunities to make relationships here more personal and not just for everyone to communicate in a debate setting.

[FinalEnigma]

yes, I'm aware that that subforum was basically created for that purpose, but it seems to have been largely used for other things. It has turned into mainly a general discussion type, and it is still a bit different besides. It seems like a much more general version of the same type of thing, whereas what I'm describing would be a very specific 'The beliefs of X' type, where a given person would, if they wanted to make a thread there, have one thread that was specifically about their beliefs, and anyone could chime in on the person's thread to ask questions.

I can see where it might seem a silly distinction, but I do believe it would be very helpful as a subforum.

[otseng]

Yes, that subforum had strayed away from the original intent. I've been thinking about cleaning up that room, so I just might go ahead and do that.

And to clarify your request, instead of asking questions about a particular person, you'd like to ask questions about a particular belief in which anyone that has that belief can answer?

[otseng]

I've created the subforum Questions about a belief.

[FinalEnigma]

Yes, that subforum had strayed away from the original intent. I've been thinking about cleaning up that room, so I just might go ahead and do that.

And to clarify your request, instead of asking questions about a particular person, you'd like to ask questions about a particular belief in which anyone that has that belief can answer?

Well I did want to ask a specific person. but what I wanted was for them to open a thread stating their beliefs(if they decided to or if someone asked them to and they agreed) in a complete and concise way to help others understand their beliefs as a whole, and for others to be able to go into the thread and then ask questions to understand anything they didn't from the initial post.

something along the lines of someone posting

"I'm a christian and I believe in these things

1 Whatever

2 Whatever

3 Whatever"

and then someone could for example ask

"how do you answer the problem of pain?"

Admittedly I could just as easily go into the 'questions for' subforum and ask "hey, X. what tenets of christianity do you hold to and why?" I just wanted to avoid:

1)Prompts that might narrow the person's response.
2)Ad Hoc responses that are not as concise and complete as they could be in the person prepared a thorough initial post.
3)These important threads getting lost in the menagerie of relatively random threads, preventing an ease of referral and location.

And I wanted a very friendly and open tone to the threads, that we are not finding even in the 'questions for' subforum at times. You wouldn't, in these threads, be able to contradict what the person says, because they are explaining their beliefs-to tell them 'that belief is wrong' wouldn't be productive.

although a 'questions about a belief' subforum is also a great idea. That would have been an awesome place for my holy spirit thread, or other similar ones. I'm glad I was initial unclear enough to propose two subforums at once! You can expect a thread form me in there when I get time at work.

[McCulloch]

I've created the subforum Questions about a belief.

In addition to "Debating is not allowed here." Perhaps some mention that if the conversation leads to something that you want to debate, then open a new debate topic in the appropriate debate forum.

[otseng]

Well I did want to ask a specific person. but what I wanted was for them to open a thread stating their beliefs(if they decided to or if someone asked them to and they agreed) in a complete and concise way to help others understand their beliefs as a whole, and for others to be able to go into the thread and then ask questions to understand anything they didn't from the initial post.

Since it's directed at a specific person, I'm hesitant to create another subforum since it could create more ambiguity.

Another option is that if you want to limit your discussion between you and another, there is the Open Dialogue subforum. Since others won't be able to jump in, the discussions will be more controlled.

3)These important threads getting lost in the menagerie of relatively random threads, preventing an ease of referral and location.

I'm going to be working on trying to clean some of that up.

And I wanted a very friendly and open tone to the threads, that we are not finding even in the 'questions for' subforum at times.

In general, this is hard to control. But what I find is that the more restrictive subforums (Open Dialogue, Book Debates, One-on-one) tend to be more civil. When a subforum is wide open, you'll get input from across the spectrum and more introduction of noise.

[otseng]

I've created the subforum Questions about a belief.

In addition to "Debating is not allowed here." Perhaps some mention that if the conversation leads to something that you want to debate, then open a new debate topic in the appropriate debate forum.

Done.

[FinalEnigma]

Well I did want to ask a specific person. but what I wanted was for them to open a thread stating their beliefs(if they decided to or if someone asked them to and they agreed) in a complete and concise way to help others understand their beliefs as a whole, and for others to be able to go into the thread and then ask questions to understand anything they didn't from the initial post.

Since it's directed at a specific person, I'm hesitant to create another subforum since it could create more ambiguity.

Another option is that if you want to limit your discussion between you and another, there is the Open Dialogue subforum. Since others won't be able to jump in, the discussions will be more controlled.

3)These important threads getting lost in the menagerie of relatively random threads, preventing an ease of referral and location.

I'm going to be working on trying to clean some of that up.

And I wanted a very friendly and open tone to the threads, that we are not finding even in the 'questions for' subforum at times.

In general, this is hard to control. But what I find is that the more restrictive subforums (Open Dialogue, Book Debates, One-on-one) tend to be more civil. When a subforum is wide open, you'll get input from across the spectrum and more introduction of noise.

Thanks, I appreciate all the work you put into this. I'm in a really horrible mood right now but later I will probably take advantage of the new forum and the changes to the other.