A Communications Experiment

So, there was a little something that got mentioned in that thread about the staff in the Site Discussion board about communication in public threads having limitations. Following up are my description of two methods of communication when a topic is to be examined

In Public
This includes the open forums where there are any people looking around and seeing various topics. When we visit a thread about a certain subject, you would expect input to be mostly just people's opinions, each coming from their own perspectives on the subject. There are pros and cons to this.
The Pro: Different views are brought up and different points get made, showing many possible facts,possibilities and perspectives on a subject. All put together, one should have a comprehensive overview of the nature of the subject or a problem.
The Con: All of the different opinions tug the discussion in different directions at once and the discussion therefor stays mostly in place throughout its life.

In Private
Private Messages, private chats like Skype, MSN... One-on-one in an environment where you only you and your partner speak about something.
The Pro: Being able to focus on each other and the opportunity to understand each other's points better because one is specifically laying it out for the other to understand. There is also more control in which the direction of the discussion can be taken and what specific things gets discussed and therefor fleshed out which should lead to a deeper understanding about the specific topic(s) at hand.
The Con: Because something specific gets discussed, discussions tend to stay within much narrower boundaries.

The Proposal
Alternate between the two. Start with a public discussion on the matter and many others will give their input. Some points you find interesting may get brought up and you'll want to explore them if you are to have a better understanding of the subject matter. Discuss it privately with the other person, exchange ideas and learn a thing or two, then just to another point that got brought up and do the same if you choose to. Anything you picked up in private discussions about specific points can be brought up for discussion in public and people with their diverse views will give you a broad take on what was just discussed privately where new points get brought up that could be explored privately. Repeat the process until a satisfactory conclusion has been reached.

The Experiment
Is already under way in the Serious Discussions board. My activity there will be about this and I hope that I'll learn a couple of things from this.

This will surely have its place where problems that aren't obvious need effective solutions. After all, how is one to solve a problem if one doesn't have a clear picture of it? This might be something that'll allow our community to communicate effectively even as it continues to grow; you've seen how impractical and paralyzing it gets with large numbers.