Numbers may be off a little, since I got an "Offline by Operator" message when I hit Submit an hour or so ago. As written earlier:

For an assessment of the relative significance of posts above and below the line it may be noted that at the present time there are 44 threads above, with a total of appproximately 727 total posts.

Below the lne there are only 16 threads, but containing approximately 53,108 individual posts. Ignoring the two threads specifically dedicated to stupidity (51,506 posts) that leaves 1,602 potentially meaningful (intentional?) comments in BS.

For the most part, the individual posts above the line either ask a question or contribute to answering one. This seems useful.

Below the line I've read sufficient posts to be quite able to tell which threads were started by those who simply want to argue, and can easily predict who will participate, so I seldom bother with most of them. It is obvious, however, that we have several people who believe it's important to express their opinions about who's the biggest idiot, bigot, pervert, or otherwise deficient person. This is not a subject of much interest to me, so I've found little below the line that's of interest in recent months.

Formal DEBATE never solves anything, since the basic principle is that you must choose a side and defend it - right or worng - against all opposing arguments. NEGOTIATION (or conversation) might permit finding what's the better or worse way to approach a difficulty - but it ain't gonna happen here with our recently most active (BS) participants.

John