a while ago (years actually), and some of the debate was quite interesting. When anyone could be bothered to discuss things on a serious level.

I think that point only goes to prove the fact that a project like this has to be approached on quite a large scale and in a dedicated way. There has to be some sort of moderation to keep it from de-generating into the usual old "net rubbish"(which admittedly can be funny at times but there's a time and a place!....)Perhaps the site could be themed for certain periods of time, with a few main dissusions going on which after a set time are archived. There could then be an area to submit ideas for future debates and/or past ones that people want revived for further disscusion. What about voting panels for people who want a say but don't want to engage in long winded debates etc...

I think the possibilities for this sort of thing are endless!If people post any ideas they have here and I'll have a bash at summarising them into some form of report/study/brainstorm sheet to give to the clever IMC site making people!?

yep i agree it would be a good idea to revive something like the debate page (not linked anymore, but still on  http://uk.indymedia.org/index.php3?resist=front&stance=debate ). that was an experiment but was kind of forgotten after we started launching other middle columns... great that people start debating about this. in the collective in london we had thoughts of maybe using the dysfunctional videoloop on top of the right column for that. we thought as well that maybe a weekly irc could make sense ( http://irc.indymedia.org ) but we haven't formally proposed it on the process list (that's the list where the bigger questions are proposed, discussed and decided - subscribe to it on  http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-uk-process and view the archives on  http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-uk-process/ ). indykid, i've seen you subscribing to the tech and the howtohelp list - if you're interested in bringing this up please mail something to the process list :) if people want to get involved and meet people in real then come to the intro's the collective in london does every first wednesday eve of the month, details in the calendar on  http://www.Protest.Net/imcuk/index.cgi?span=event&ID=260484&state_values=
cheers!