Can we work harder at having mature and respectful discussions? Do we need to do so? [more inside]
posted by dios on Feb 12, 2008 - 317 comments

This (Medical Marijuana ask.mefi thread) is a good example of an ask metafilter thread where people don't answer the specific question of the poster, but still remain civil and helpful. Yay. So there's an existence proof that people can be helpful while not answering the question asked (and not fall all over themselves to be jerks).
posted by zpousman on Feb 22, 2007 - 120 comments

In the interest of avoiding further derail of the Aryan Justice thread, I am going to accept amberglow's invitation to bugbread and state that deliberately cryptic commenting is annoying as hell and is counterproductive to the idea of communication.
posted by John Smallberries on Mar 29, 2005 - 74 comments

I have some ideas about getting rid of religious fundamentalism, winning the War on Terrorism, and inoculating our nation against ever electing anyone like George Bush to the White House again -- all at the same time and using nothing more lethal than words and a few diagrams.

I'm new here, and I would appreciate suggestions on what I should particularly avoid doing in discussing such matters in this group.

I am also from an older generation, and I am extremely upset about the current atmosphere in Washington, if any of this helps to explain the kind of answers I need.
posted by jhilton on Feb 17, 2005 - 55 comments

Can we - even if only briefly - discuss stuff on AskMe or not? This Sopranos thread started off as a question but the discussion of last night's episode was inevitable and almost irresistible. My own opinion, fwiw, is that it would be nice if a little discussion was indeed allowed or, as has happened already, generously overlooked.
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 17, 2004 - 10 comments

Posted by nofundy at 2:48 PM EST on March 14:

This so didn't need to be posted. Do we really need to hear yet another pundit's fascinating views on Iraq?

"So you think discussing Eminem would be a better use of time than considering alternate viewpoints on serious issues?"
posted by Stan Chin on Mar 14, 2003 - 176 comments

Us declares itself above the law.

Other than one or two people here and there talking about the topic at hand, this thread was basically a shouting match and trolling session. Is this the level of debate that now passes for inteligent from the MetaFilter community?
posted by Zool on May 6, 2002 - 20 comments

Here's a thread who's discussion seems to have almost nothing to do with the link it was supposedly based on. I know we've asked this before, but do people actually visit the links they're commenting on? 13018 could be a worthwhile, unique discussion. Instead, to my eye at least, it's mostly people discussing something that's fairly obvious.
posted by mrbula on Dec 10, 2001 - 10 comments

MetaFilterians don't need to be instructed to converse. Discuss...
posted by NortonDC on Oct 11, 2001 - 18 comments