But bottom line is: why wouldn't debate topics (ar any loose topic that spawned a debate, for instance) fit in the Council of Cobra? This IS a main issue, the way I see it. WHY having a Forum specific for that?
My thoughts exactly. I really don't see the need. If someone's misbehaving in any new forum we created enough to be banned from that specific forum, I would think a short-term ban from ALL forums would be warranted anyway. Thus I don't see any need to create a forum that people could know in the back of their minds would result in, at worst, banning only from that one forum if they misbehaved. Just seems to be inviting trouble to me.
The Council is open to ANYTHING, debates very much included, and has plenty of applicable mods to keep an eye on things. There's a reason I gave it more moderators than any other forum here, because I know there's already more potential for trouble than we likely have elsewhere. Why create ANOTHER location to monitor with its own built-in "get out of jail free" card? No thanks.
That all being said, it IS, as others have mentioned, an issue that's already been discussed by the mods and admins and I'm sure will continue to be re-addressed several times in the future. Neither I nor any other one person have the absolute say in this, but those are my thoughts, for what they're worth.