There will be no flaming in response to honest questions, as long as I have anything to say about it.
The Debate Board "feels" more distant from Disney than this board: that's a board where non-Disney topics are the norm. Also, there's a different breed of debater over there. Some of us have spent some time over there as a diversion (or as target practice), but the debates here are pretty focused on Disney, with the Rumors and News items serving as data to support our positions.
The debates on this board, to a large extent, grew directly out of the rumors. For instance, when the Mission:SPACE rumors started, the R&N Board debated whether it would end up being a big budget pavilion affair or a cost-effective bought-from-a-third-party ride.
Sara and Luis have tried different things with this group... moving those kinds of debates to the Debate Board ended up killing them. It seemed that separating this particular flavor of debate from the News and Rumors items was a death sentence. So, we now mark the threads that might go "that way" as debates, just as an FYI for everybody, and they have nestled their way into what passes for the norm over here.
-WFH