Very few truly contentious threads are still in activity, and you’ll find it very difficult to start one in the Modern Day Coffee Room; the Mods won’t allow anything controversial, and for good reason too. Besides for the escalation into personal bickering, as it did in the olden days, controversial posters must remember that the reader base on this website has a wide wide range of people in all shapes, colours, sizes and even religions. Many controversial topics are likely to offend others, whether it is intended or not. People take their views and opinions very seriously, and if somebody were to disagree a touch too strongly, they get upset. And besides for people getting offended, there is the danger of misunderstanding delicate issues when taken out of context, or not properly explained in their context.
Another point is that there are very few controversial areas with two well built sides to the argument. Almost every question has a true answer, and if the posters are eloquent enough to express the answer, the “controversy” will be over before you know it. Somebody will argue because he doesn’t want to accept the tone of logic which is either too fanatically religious for him or perhaps not religious enough – perhaps he will insult the poster as well. The poster then proves his point in a way that his opponent cannot answer, and the opponent then disappears from the thread, which is tantamount to admitting defeat. End of thread.
To successfully have a truly controversial thread, you need to find a topic which is both:
(a) grey enough for there to be no clear cut correct position
(b) interesting enough for posters to enter the discussion
(c) ‘pareve’ enough that there can be an argument/discussion with out either side getting terribly offended and closing the thread through attempting a wave of posts that are blocked, or complaining enough that the Mods will close it.
not sure option ‘c’ causes closings. There is a difference between people getting offended and people being offended, and that would more likely cause a deleted post than a closed thread. IMO.
There are not that many areas of discussion available. Interestingly, many Torah discussions fit ‘a’ and ‘c’, but ????????? ????? not ‘a’.
#KTCRIM