I am finding it hard to jump in to some of the conversations without too much extensive reading. I read the first page or so of a zillion page argument and respond from the heading but no one already in the end of the conversation is interested in engaging because they’ve moved on and are talking about something else. May I suggest having some kind of outline summaries to help us catch up on major arguments that you may have gone over and over too much? It might also help new readers get involved because they won’t feel intimidated to step in if they can figure some things out quickly on there own at first. If it is about doing the work to summarize, perhaps some of us may like to volunteer to do it here and there too.

thanx,

Scott

First, many threads switch topics away from the original so fast and/or so frequently that any outline would be a mess.  Second, who has the time, the skill, and the objectivity to do that?  Third, if everyone followed my suggestion of succinctness, most of the problem would be eliminated.

Occam

There are so many solutions:

1. Just jump in, and say what you have to say. If somebody is interested, (s)he will pick it up. Don’t be afraid to repeat an argument that was given 100 pages ago. If the thread is still alive maybe somebody points you at the postings that you might be interested in.
2. Look into the forum everyday, and use the link ‘View New Posts’. After reading what you are interested in, use ’ Mark All Posts as Read’
3. Volunteer with CFI to write such summaries. You can start with the free will threads and the two envelope problem…

There’s a problem in that some of the posters wouldn’t agree with the summary.  For example, the Free Will thread, the longest in the forum.  I’d summarize it as:  Some think free will exists while others think our behavior is determined.  I’d imagine that both sides would be strongly annoyed because their arguments were not presented.

Please, please, please, don’t start that discussion here. 

Occam