I think YCombinator provides a near optimal interface for discussion if you use it right. Let's try to use it for something constructive.

I was reading about the current Oil Spill crisis, and noticed that Google's special discussion page was shut down even though the problem isn't solved! (http://www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=68c8&t=68c8.41) In fact, recent news states that all plans so far have failed, and we're reverting to an older solution (that didn't work). Any developer knows what that means -- we're really in the gutter now.

Call me naive and hopeful, but I think YCombinator forum's superior simple interface w/ the creative minds here can help solve this crisis. To help with the Oil Spill crisis with constructive discourse, just follow the special rules below when posting. The reason for all these rules is to collaboratively hack the hacker-news system to work like a collaboration system.

  1. Keep posts here Short and Factual

  2. Questions should be bulleted with numbers

  3. Please Answer questions if you can, prepended with the
     bullet number

  4. Note Citations on the bottom of your post

  5. Upvote posts that appear Correct, but not so high that
     a new and better post can't climb up later

  6. Downvote posts that appear incorrect, but not below 0
     (and state your reason if none is already provided)

  7. Also downvote posts that are not constructive (like
     rants), below 0 is OK. (maybe YC can prune these later)

  8. Bookmark this URL and share it