This wasn't intelligent, intellectual debate, which does happen there on a fairly regular basis, maybe just not ones that you Seri, want to talk about.
I envy you, in all my eve life I have maybe barely seen 2 or 3 of these intellectual debates on this channel. :/
Coming from someone on the new end of things (less than a year)
I barely spend a minute in The Summit, just to see if it's changed.
It hasn't.
I keep looking for active RP channels, and though we have a very nice list going...they're all silent.
if anyone actually wants to start up a place to discuss RP in EVE in a neutral IC environment that isn't about lurking, please contact Techie Kanenald....I'd be interested.
This world is seriously too beautiful to give up on RP....but I'm very, very close.
I consider the Summit channel far worse than the IGS personally. The quality of the RP done here is barely even RP for me (thats not a "your doing it wrong", its just my opinion, im not telling people acting here daily to do it otherwise, especially if they are happy with it). We even see characters that are apparently Linux based AIs of some kind, and all the other things that have been listed above (the facepalming meme, etc).
Now then, all the RP channels are silent because most of us - here - that are interested in something else and more PF oriented than this "IC coated" OOC blabble are silent and do absolutely NOTHING to create storylines and bring stuff on the table, and as I said above, I am the first one not doing it too. Because as I told it countless times everyone keeps RPing in his/her own little corner with his/her factional friends, except on... the Summit. -_-
Now, I have been told that I am doing it wrong if I am looking for this on public channels, and that I should instead look for a network of relationships to RP with, and blablabla. Well, thats now what I have been doing since then and thats even worse, especially as it actually tends to drive people even more in their little corners, isolated from everyone. My only and last resort would be to directly contact people OOC to ask them if they would be interested in something to happen between characters and that kind of OOC driven stuff. I hate that, there is no taste in already planned RP where everything is written.
It annoys me a lot because I have been on Eve for 5 years, and at least 2 of them (the last ones) have been only due to RP, or I would have left since looooong.
On another note, I have create the channel you are looking for several months ago (New Eden Infosphere). It is mostly silent too. Other attempts have been tried before, like the NEA. Same result, even if it worked rather well at the beginning (because we still had an active community and also PF regular news).
a neutral IC environment
I'm not sure such a thing is possible. ;-)
It is, it is. ^^