A good committee chairperson will ensure that questions raised for discussion are meaningful and relevant in themselves, and that the speakers stick to the question and do not repeat themselves.

Would the conversations in a forum like this benefit from the enforcing of such rules? In asking this question, I'm thinking particularly of discussions like "The Shout Box"; I read a few random excerpts from it, at which point my stock of masochism ran out. The phrase "total bollocks" comes to mind. The post resembles a factory tea-room conversation, but without the same sense of intellectual depth.

I fully understand that there is a 'freedom of speech' issue, but should we really enthrone ignorance just because there is much of it?