Like it says in the title, Michael, any chance of removing (banishing?) this endless and pointless debate to its own little space then all the people who find it worthwhile can go there and fight themselves to a standstill while the rest of us can get on with exchanging useful info about MF BACKS? I know we don't have to read them but they crop up often and really don't belong here. Goodness knows how much bandwidth they must waste.
Perhaps some of you kind folks need a history lesson. Anybody here remember when the Medium Format sub-forum got invaded by the former Rob Gailbraith shut down? The main reason Rob shut the forums down was his heavy handed attempts at trying to moderate out "misbehavior" repeatedly failed. People will, as they are inclined to do, get into "dustups" (my version of a shouting match online).
If this sort of spirited debate tends to ruffle your feathers, you really only have a couple of choices as a forum manager...let things go as far and as long as possible with as little heavy handed attempts at moderation and only shut down threads when they spin completely out of control or try to moderate out misbehavior and try to enforce a civil, polite environment...
Rob tried to do the latter up to the point that he gave up in disgust and decided to shut the whole forum down. He "transfered" the forums to a 3rd party that was going to run a clean ship and charge people to be members...yeah, like that would fly. It didn't...
A substantial percent of the old "Gailbraith Forums" came here and started posting here...as I recall, the then "forum regulars" were a tiny bit put out...but Micheal welcomed them with open arms (and little if any moderation–in stark contrast to what his fellow Canadian Rob Gailbraith was determined to do).
Michael is pretty hands off...you know why? He's got other things to do...and this isn't a paid gig so nobody is paying him to put up with any crap from anybody...if a thread get's too heated, it's closed...if a person gets way out of hand, he's banned. Other than extreme edge cases, the forum is live and let live...
If you don't like participating with yet another DSLR VS 60PM medium format back debate, you know what your options are...don't read the thread, don't post to the thread, don't "care" about the thread...engage in the threads that interest you and shut the heck up in thread that don't (yet you feel compelled to put your 2¢ in to).
If you find a person who personally rankles you (as I'm sure I do to some), there's this wonderful "Ignore" feature that allows you to not see ANYTHING they write (unless you actively decide to–and if you do glance, it's your own darn fault if it pisses you off).
DSLR/Medium Format, Canon/Nikon, Mac/Windows, Catholic/Jew all share the same basic tenets...they exist based on a belief system that becomes increasingly difficult to defend or argue. As the emotions increase, the logic and intelligence takes a back seat...
The way to deal with it is don't deal with it...move along and find something else that interests you. If a few combatants want to duel to the death, let them (at least till Mike decides to shut it down).
But unless you want to make your forum management and organization official and YOU want to volunteer (cause Michael ain't gonna pay you) and be in total control of this forum's management (a job I wouldn't want), maybe you all should settle back, enjoy the holidaze and decide for yourselves what YOU want to do...
Happy holidays...