Quote Originally Posted by Cronos Impera View Post
Ok, but I just wanted to cut a distinction between personal opinions and facts, since most thread-killer replies are just about that.
When someone mixes a historical fact with a personal opinion and posts that word-pudding (on controversial issues mostly) some people (who feel offended becase they think their interpretation is better) copy that style of posting, get personal and start a flame war.Than its Joycamptour en mass and a bad atmosphere. I'm not saying we should qoute in every post, but please for the Backroom's sake not turn the whole fora into a "My Opinion is the truth, your opinion is the lie."

People sometimes (especially if they aren't as informed on the matter) confuse a personal contribution with a real "something" and either get defensive on the matter (flame war) or......lacks ideaa. Than the writepol close the thread, joycamptour all the Orgahs who got into the fight and....all start suspecting the other party of dishonesty.

And that is the root of all Backroomish joycamptours.
Yes, I'm aware of the problem. However, it's not quite true that making scientific posts reduces the amount of arguments. It's rare that all scientists agree on something. And sure, it often yields a healthy debate, and maybe in 10 years they see they were all wrong, but have adapted a new set of conflicting ideas about the same topic.

It does also happen that scientist go for each others throat in a debate (not literally).

Whether it's an opinion or a 'fact', it's more about giving each other some space. No, doesn't mean you have to abandon your own position. But it's not really required to totally ridicule the other either.

When I say: 'vikings had cowhorns on their helmets', you could simply reply that no evidence has been found for that yet. I don't have to give up my position then, but there's no harm. Now, if someone replied: 'dream on about your fantasy units or get a library card', yes then the topic will get hairy very quickly.

But sure, it's ok to start a topic requiring backup by sources.