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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8944445" data-attributes="member: 8461">And this is where your hypothetical goes off the rails. No one person gets to decide which opinions have value and which do not; that right goes to each individual for themselves. Insofar as (+) threads go, that they'd be put forward as "opinions that disagree with my own have no value" is probably the biggest argument against them, as it holds forth the idea that the person starting the thread gets to declare who can say what.Whether or not Alex's opinion is new doesn't really matter, but wanted? That's not up to Pam to decide. Other people who read/participate in the thread might not have heard those opinions before, and might find value in them. Ideas are always being (re)discovered by people every day, which is why no debate is ever truly settled. And of course, a thread doesn't belong to the person who started it; if they don't want to hear an opinion that disagrees with them, they're not taking into account that other posters/lurkers might.Now obviously, this is a scenario that's being put forward in the abstract. EN World has a policy regarding (+) threads, and going against that will likely result in moderator action. But insofar as the idea of them goes, people who see them as a negative because they stifle debate are not saying that they're entitled to a debate. They're just saying that it shouldn't be necessarily ruled out because someone else decided that dissenting opinions have no value.</blockquote>

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