Well, currently it seems to me like this:
A new topic.
Person X says something smart.
Person Y says something smart.
Person Z says something smart.
Everyone moves to the next topic.
That's okay if your goal is signalling smartness. It's okay-ish if your goal is to have more information about the topic. I haven't read much, but the debating style still feels adversarial -- people are intelligent and polite, but they still give arguments for one side or for the other, so at the end of the day you still get Team Pro and Team Con.
The missing part is someone saying "these are arguments for, these are arguments against, after weighing them carefully, this seems like an optimal solution. (And in the Aumann's ideal world, all participants of the debate would agree.)
Why? Because sometimes we ask questions when we need answers. If you ask "Is it better to do X, or to do Y?", and you receive three smart answers supporting X, and three smart answers supporting Y, at the end of the day you still don't know whether you should do X or Y. (Though if you make your decision, using whatever means, now you have three great arguments to support it. There is even a button on the website that will filter them for you.)
If you ask "Is it better to do X, or to do Y?", and you receive three smart answers supporting X, and three smart answers supporting Y, at the end of the day you still don't know whether you should do X or Y.
The goal of reading a site exploring a political question shouldn't be that the reader comes away with: "I don't need to think myself, the community decided that X is right, so I support X because I want to support what my tribe has chosen to support."
Ideally the person leaves with a mind that's more open than when they came.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.