How do you comment on Israel killing so many Palestine babies? We should change the logo now to Palestine flag, isn’t it?
That propopal has been made a couple of times already, and those threads ended up closed and unlisted.
Quoting the reason why one was closed and unlisted 1 month ago:
This thread is being closed because everything that could have been said has, resulting in only tangential discussions and a need for repeated moderator involvement.
Then again, I suppose you already knew that, as the account used for this post seems to be just a throwaway account created specifically to make this drive-by post.
5 Likes
I was quite disappointed when the long one was closed. Sure, there were some users that were a bit frustrating posting there, but there was also a lot of genuine discussion.
Wasn’t there a pretty long thread about the Ukraine-Russia war when it broke? I’d like there to be a space for discussing the Israel-Hamas war
1 Like
Well, it seems that the OGS mods agreed that no new arguments were being made in those other threads, and it just ended up being an exchange of “it is” versus “it isn’t” posts.
I’m not a moderator, but I agree with those moderator decisions, and I think there is a high likelihood that a new thread on the topic will just be a repitition of those other threads.
1 Like
I’d just reopen the relevant threads. Talking about things is very important for people to work out our own opinions, and if people feel they have already said their piece, and if people aren’t going to listen, they won’t waste their time anymore, that’s completely reasonable, they can mute the thread
People stated their opinions in those other threads, but I highly doubt that those discussions changed the opinion of anyone. Everyone involved seemed quite steadfast in keeping the opinion they aready had, and the “discussion” just created more division.
1 Like
In the interest of proving that we can have an intelligent and rational discussion about this topic, where are you getting this information? I tried googling “Israel killing babies”, but didn’t find anything promising.
EDIT: I’ll be pretty busy with work today, so to give this the intentionality and thought it deserves, I will likely either respond to your response tomorrow, or be disappointed by a locked thread
Often the benefit of such a discussion when it comes to mind-changing is the bystanders. The people who care enough to argue one way or another are less likely to be swayed (though it does happen), but the people seeing the argument may be persuaded one way or the other
Also, I was more getting at that the very process of getting your thoughts out there can clarify them and show you parts that don’t make sense
Thanks, I’ll probably do that.
I expect that @FREEpalestine1007 won’t respond. I think they only created that account to create that single post to rock the boat a bit (but I could be wrong).
2 Likes
Well, in the interest of proving that we’re capable of productive discourse on this subject here on OGS, I will wait and see
This is not necessarily a benefit. Also I would like to add a caveat to your description of those other threads as “genuine discussion”.
A public forum with anonymous participation such as this is a prime avenue for dissemination of viewpoints not only of random individuals, but also organizations with the funds and technical capacity to further their interests by assuming the appearance of a single individual person. You can call this “viral marketing”, “information warfare” or just “public communications”. The effort required to do this is very low and there are many interest groups that do this. For example, the Internet Research Agency operates from Russia.
If you see some pseudonym on the internet who is feverishly invested in and very argumentative about some narrative that is broadly in the interests of a well-funded viral communications initiative, such as the story of hypocrisy in supporting one country under attack and not another group, and they are just dazzlingly effective at it – bumping the discussion at just the right times to keep it active, never get pinned down about any particular point, always ready with 1000 sources of questionable integrity – it does not definitely mean that they are being paid to represent these points.
But if you are not being paid yourself to argue against them, please remember that your own time and life are precious and should not be spent impulsively on long interactions with, possibly, some variant of ChatGPT. 
As for the bystanders, you cannot talk the world into becoming critical thinkers. It’s a shame but you have to pick your battles. Take care. 
8 Likes
I mean, I can’t honestly say you’re wrong, here, but I do try to extend people the benefit of the doubt
2 Likes
I took the liberty to move this discussion to a new topic, as it seems to be more a new topic than a continuation of the topic it was posted in originally.
4 Likes
That’s usually the case on most discussions. An argument is not really expected to “change someone’s opinion”, but provide a relevant discussion via which the participants can gain access to different views and unknown - to them - facts and ideas.
Whether all these will result to someone being open to re-thinking/re-evaluating their position on an issue is hardly the goal or in the hands of any other people in the discussion.
Be that as it may, I think that locking the relevant threads is fair, but unlisting them is counter-productive for two reasons:
a) You can point them out to people that come along and make new similar topics and say “hey, we’ve had this discussion, please refer to this topic, thank you”
b) It forces the people that want to participate in such discussions right the same things over and over again.
Lock a thread that is no longer going anywhere? Sure
Unlisting it while it still contains dozens of relevant and useful posts? I don’t see the use of that. 
A discussion is always useful for anyone trying to make a point, since in order to hold a position you need to re-think and research it (again or more). Hardly a waste of time.
2 Likes
I support this.