[user104658]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

In my opinion, most of the SDs section is incapable of debating a topic without insulting other posters, ganging up on people with their buddies before they even do anything wrong yet they refuse to recognise the fact that they themselves and their friends do exactly the same sort of things. I think all sides are guilty (not all posters but certainly people from eachside because all of a sudden there does seem to be an Us against them sort of a scenario playing out) And I think that nobody is willing to take a look at themselves and say, I may be contributing to this, they will just happily blame "the otherside" so until people can try to make some changes themselves then i can't see how things are ever going to change because at the end of the day we can only change our own behaviour not anyone elses.

It's a shame but SDs is not a nice place to be right now and it's a complete nightmare to try to moderate

IMO the major problem (and the one that leads to all of what you're saying here) is that there are very few people here who actually want any sort of academic discussion; i.e. a back and forth of "maybes" to lead to some sort of conclusion. Everybody starts with their conclusions already set in concrete, a whole bundle of suppositions, prejudices, and confirmation biases (confirmation bias makes up something like 75% of new thread topics in the first place; this one being a stellar example.)

These things are posted repeatedly simply for the "fun" of bashing the bricks together until one breaks or they both crumble.

In short: There are no debates nor discussions. And yes it is quite depressing, and boring.