Ah, the Memories...

@sh76, I was intrigued to find this post in Thread 134753 in your profile:

RHP Supreme Court
11 Oct '10 21:15

In all honesty, Mel would probably be a better fit than I due to his lack of partisanship; but of course, that very factor means he'd never win the primary! 😉 

My tripartisan Court, putting aside myself for the moment: 

Lean right: 

Spruce112358 
Sleepyguy 
Generalissimo 

Middle: 

Melanerpes 
Teinosuke 
Palynka (yes, even though we got into a bit of a scuffle last week) 

Left: 

KazetNagorra 
No1marauder (he should be good for a few entertaining scathing dissents, anyway) 
Rwingett 

If Telerion or FMF ever come back, they deserve seats too. There are also plenty more that I didn't mention (and I apologize to those I left out) who also deserve seats, but hey, there's only nine available.
===
Those were the days, eh?

I see from @no1marauder's profile that he's pulled back a bit.

Whatever happened to whodey? He would be happy as a pig in ... this incarnation of the Debates Forum.

@shavixmir
@kmax87

You guys are still around. Please, feel free to comment. What was it like in the 'Golden Age of RHP Debates'?

Do you remember Brother Edwin? What about Red Mike - an authentic communist!

@AThousandYoung
I remember when you were just a whipper-snapper. You've grown some.

What say you? What was the 'Golden Age' like?

@spruce112358 said
@sh76, I was intrigued to find this post in Thread 134753 in your profile:

RHP Supreme Court
11 Oct '10 21:15

In all honesty, Mel would probably be a better fit than I due to his lack of partisanship; but of course, that very factor means he'd never win the primary! 😉 

My tripartisan Court, putting aside myself for the moment: 

Lean right: 

Spruce112358  ...[text shortened]... hatever happened to whodey? He would be happy as a pig in ... this incarnation of the Debates Forum.

No.1 is saying exactly the same things he was saying 20 years back. When he said he was pulling out but just waiting for his subscription to play out, I offered to pay it off for him, called his bluff big time.

Again.

Hi @Wajoma! You are definitely a familiar old face.

no1m says in his profile: "Things change, people change. I used to enjoy my time here immensely but that is no longer true."

Question for you: Are you still enjoying yourself immensely? If yes, how so?

@spruce112358 said
@sh76, I was intrigued to find this post in Thread 134753 in your profile:

RHP Supreme Court
11 Oct '10 21:15

In all honesty, Mel would probably be a better fit than I due to his lack of partisanship; but of course, that very factor means he'd never win the primary! 😉 

My tripartisan Court, putting aside myself for the moment: 

Lean right: 

Spruce112358  ...[text shortened]... hatever happened to whodey? He would be happy as a pig in ... this incarnation of the Debates Forum.

damn! what kind of freak are you?

@spruce112358 said
Hi @Wajoma! You are definitely a familiar old face.

no1m says in his profile: "Things change, people change. I used to enjoy my time here immensely but that is no longer true."

Question for you: Are you still enjoying yourself immensely? If yes, how so?

I appreciate the psychology of the place, it's fascination rather than enjoyment, like poking around in a petrie dish full of mould, (hold on to your faux offense cry babies, there's good mould too) don't think for a second you're going to change anyone's mind, everyone's just yelling past the other fellow. Forget the endless (how to lie with) percentages, history, polls and votes it's about getting a jab in, and the most effective way to do that is expose a contradiction or hypocrisy.

Throw out a bit of bait, then you can almost hear it, their favorite sound, the tick,tacking of their own keyboard, sooner or later an opportunity will present itself, swish, in goes the knife and there's lovely red kroovy all over the place.

@wajoma said
I appreciate the psychology of the place, it's fascination rather than enjoyment, like poking around in a petrie dish full of mould, (hold on to your faux offense cry babies, there's good mould too) don't think for a second you're going to change anyone's mind, everyone's just yelling past the other fellow. Forget the endless (how to lie with) percentages, history, polls and ...[text shortened]... nity will present itself, swish, in goes the knife and there's lovely red kroovy all over the place.

Interesting perspective.

I learned a lot here in the Debates Forums back in the day. Definitely a place to sharpen one's wits. Later, debating on FB and other places was a real let-down - just not the intellectual rigor. But, they had pictures.

@wajoma said
I appreciate the psychology of the place, it's fascination rather than enjoyment, like poking around in a petrie dish full of mould, (hold on to your faux offense cry babies, there's good mould too) don't think for a second you're going to change anyone's mind, everyone's just yelling past the other fellow. Forget the endless (how to lie with) percentages, history, polls and ...[text shortened]... nity will present itself, swish, in goes the knife and there's lovely red kroovy all over the place.

As I said it's the psychology of the place. Myself and shag doody have been trading barbs for 20 years, one get's to build a picture, certain reactions have patterns, and the pattern was always the same until one day I stumbled on a truth a bit too close to the bone (if you'll excuse the anatomical pun), this time the response was different.

It all changed when I made a comment about his fascination with sitting on 1.5 Kgs of XXXL latex donkey dick dildo. Uh huh, bulls eye, or should I say 'brown eye' heh heh.

Then later the comment about how shag doody dragged his anal prolapse (a side effect of stretching his 'ring' beyond any hope of recovery of it's usual elastic abilities) along the carpet like a dog with an itchy butt, similar response again, uh huh, another bulls eye/brown eye. We don't have a signed confession but observing the response patterns nothing could be more certain.

I fear it's too late to save shag doodys butt, it's beyond repair, he'll live out his final years wearing adult diapers, trajic.

@spruce112358 said
@sh76, I was intrigued to find this post in Thread 134753 in your profile:

RHP Supreme Court
11 Oct '10 21:15

In all honesty, Mel would probably be a better fit than I due to his lack of partisanship; but of course, that very factor means he'd never win the primary! 😉 

My tripartisan Court, putting aside myself for the moment: 

Lean right: 

Spruce112358  ...[text shortened]... hatever happened to whodey? He would be happy as a pig in ... this incarnation of the Debates Forum.

Yes those were the days, though I'm sure I do not agree with my younger self on many things. These days in the forum are definitely not the days. I scroll through as a bad habit but rarely participate now.

@spruce112358 said
Interesting perspective.

I learned a lot here in the Debates Forums back in the day. Definitely a place to sharpen one's wits. Later, debating on FB and other places was a real let-down - just not the intellectual rigor. But, they had pictures.

For real. Anyone who claims they do not learn anything from here is a liar. Sometimes is the raw info, sometimes people make you think differently, sometimes people force you to research stuff. Whatever it is you learn and grow.

@spruce112358 said
@sh76, I was intrigued to find this post in Thread 134753 in your profile:

RHP Supreme Court
11 Oct '10 21:15

In all honesty, Mel would probably be a better fit than I due to his lack of partisanship; but of course, that very factor means he'd never win the primary! 😉 

My tripartisan Court, putting aside myself for the moment: 

Lean right: 

Spruce112358  ...[text shortened]... hatever happened to whodey? He would be happy as a pig in ... this incarnation of the Debates Forum.

Interesting list of posters. Brings back lots of memories.

What about XanthosNZ ? interesting profile :

Each week, millions and millions of upper middle class American citizens put on expensive dress clothes, and load themselves into SUV's and drive past homeless shelters, orphanages, prisons, missions, and halfway houses on their way to a very expensive and nice church, where somebody tells them how to be more like Jesus.
I don't like any of you.

Nostalgia is a phenomenon that convinces people it was better before but it's simply not true.
Nostalgia is brought on by having a current and boring situation or life.

Will the original poster elaborate on why it was better with examples?

@sleepyguy said
Yes those were the days, though I'm sure I do not agree with my younger self on many things. These days in the forum are definitely not the days. I scroll through as a bad habit but rarely participate now.

Hi @sleepyguy! Good to hear from you.

We all change, I guess. I've always been labeled both liberal and conservative in debates, depending on my opponent. But I do notice a change in my viewpoint.

I've said in other circles that I used to be a liberal conservative, but now I'm a conservative liberal. Have I changed, or has the environment shifted around me?

Lots of people get more conservative as they age. I guess that's not going to be me!

@rajk999 said
For real. Anyone who claims they do not learn anything from here is a liar. Sometimes is the raw info, sometimes people make you think differently, sometimes people force you to research stuff. Whatever it is you learn and grow.

EXACTLY! We probably didn't appreciate it at the time, but the raw intellectual power back in the day that forced you to question your own assumptions and sharpen your arguments - to this day, I've never found that anywhere else on social media.

We were knives that sharpened each other.

And there were insults, yes, but it was considered bad form to go ad hominem the WHOLE time. It distracts from the dance.