If it really would eat too much server space, or take too much time for trav to implement, then ignore the rest of this post. (dreamer and others have volunteered to move all the threads to it, if created...so that part isn't an issue)
It seems like the main arguments against it are:
1) It will attract too many "unwanted" people.
I don't yet see any logical reasoning behind this idea, even if it might sound like common sense. There is a thousand other places people interested in cannabis would choose first before the *DMT*-Nexus (not to mention taking the time to register, and become a full member). We have a mushroom section, and an RC section, a cacti section, a salvia section, etc, but we don't see people flooding the forum because they are interested in posting in the RC section for example, do we? This is not really any different. If it makes people feel better, we could simply make the cannabis subforum invisible to non-members, just like some of the other subforums. This will completely remove that "problem", regardless of whether or not you agree with me that it's not a problem to begin with.
2) It will detract attention from other topics
If people think this will be such a big problem, then why not make it so posts don't show up in the active topics list...just like the 'through the looking glass' subforum? Wouldn't this solve it completely?
I don't think that would be even necessary...Dreamer just found that we have over 500 topics about cannabis...and the forum is still fine in that regard. So, why not simply organize them? It's common sense. I see no reason why a cannabis sub-forum would really do anything more than just that. People are letting their personal views of the plant and it's users cloud their reasoning here IMO, and are then using these 2 arguments as quick excuses not to have it -- even though, upon investigating them, the arguments don't seem to hold up.
This number of topics is only going to grow, especially as cannabis continues towards legalization and further study. This discussion should involve more practical consideration of how it would effect the forum, good or bad, and less projection of our own personal views of the plant and the kinds of users we might associate with its use. We have an RC subforum and yet many here don't do RCs at all, or even have unfavorable views of RCs and perhaps even their users...But that doesn't mean we should delete it. I also think that many just don't understand cannabis' potential as a psychedelic (it effects us all so differently, after all), and therefore don't think it fits the forum...But countless people do in fact find it very psychedelic, so personal views like this are kind of irrelevant in this discussion.
In the end, it doesn't matter much to me really. I don't want this post to sound heated, I just thought that these things needed to be said. What it seems to come down to is that in the future are we really going to want literally thousands of cannabis topics unorganized throughout the forum, or in the appropriate section?
