The problem is not the discussion itself. The problem is people are getting extremely emotional and it seems there are two groups of people on here: Those who are really scared, have no rational approach and just start insulting...and those who are having a rational approach and actually question wtf is going on.
By myself, I don't understand why people feel personally offended (its crazy actually) when someone is telling them they are not going to take the vaccine.
Why anyone would want to reduce the capacity to discuss important topics here is beyond me. What's the point of a community if it's not to discuss things like this?
Sure, if people want BHW to be strictly IM and work - go in that direction and see what the results to interactions on the forum and user retention are. The best thing about BHW is that you can swear, talk about controversial things, and get something you can't get in other communities. It's a unique and fun community because of this. As long as you're not too much of a prick you won't have mods policing what you say every 5 minutes - that's a good thing.
Religion and politics - ok, fair enough. The reason that they are bad topics to try to have a reasonable convo about is because of "faith" and "allegiance".. they both go beyond reason, and reason can never win. But the ever-evolving covid situation isn't and shouldn't be about faith or allegiance - instead discussing things in an honest way.
That includes not getting a hard-on from parroting the terms "anti-vaxxers" and "tin foil hat wearers" and then wondering why people get agitated by that, and also from not throwing random unrelated conspiracy theories into the thread and derailing them. If people just stuck to the facts, there wouldn't be anywhere near as much friction.
I don't see why people have their noses so out of joint by a topic of discussion that is absolutely not cut and dry. It's not as simple as saying that one perspective is right and one is wrong, therefore we should prevent anyone from saying the wrong perspective. Literally no one here knows anything concrete about the vaccine, and we're all trying to figure it out by bouncing information off each other. Some information might be blatant trolly bullshit (from both sides) but then ignore that instead of transfixing on it and saying that it's a huge problem when it's obviously not.
Discussions regarding covid and the vaccine in no way impede anyone else from discussing IM or focusing on work.. literally not at all.. In fact if all it takes to prevent you from working effectively is seeing some argumentative threads on BHW, you probably want to reflect on the way you work and your frame of mind instead of what those threads are about.
If you're trying to lose weight and you walk past McDonalds on the way to work every day, don't blame McDonalds being there for why you're not able to focus on your work for the rest of the day.. just walk a different route to work and let the fat people enjoy their Big Macs in peace.
Also, the hypothetical teens that may or may not be reading the discussions relating to vaccines and covid and then being harmed by them.. please.. what you think outside of BHW everyone is unilaterally agreeing that we should all be taking the Pfizer vaccine? They probably hear the same and more outside of BHW anyway.. it's an excuse to control speech by using some random hypothetical.. not a genuine care for whoever it is you think is being harmed.
And lastly, the problem with a mega thread is that then it
will become a cesspit. Instead of being able to have specific topics about relevant facets of the pandemic, everything will be lumped into one long stream of consciousness that's going to be absolutely useless for anyone that does want to have a good discussion about what's going on.
Yeah, for people that can't stand reading the word "vaccine" it'll be fine because they'll only have to endure reading it once per day, but then the chaotic mess of a thread will last about a week before it becomes clearly pointless and
actually toxic, and then it'll get removed too.