Theravada and Mahayana

Question

I just need you to make your attention regarding these two concepts in Buddhism.

I think there maybe risk to have a conflict when someone asking a question regarding Thervada and what if someone gives an answer based on Mahayana?

How you think? What we need to do to avoid such a conflict regarding very sensitive subject like Buddhism? Maybe create separate sub sites for each one?

If you don't know what are the main differences between Thervada and Mahayana please read this article Differences Between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism

Answer 1

Maybe create separate sub sites for each one?

Good heavens, no! The Catholics and the Baptists and even the Mormons get along fine at Christianity.SE, and the Sunnis and the Shias coexist peacefully on Islam.SE (well, sort of), and heck, if we want to talk about real religious conflict, Haskellers and PHP users even manage to tolerate each other on Stack Overflow!

It is eminently possible to have a site that represents the views of multiple different schools of thought. We just need to follow a few simple rules.

• If you have a question about a specific school, mention it in your question, and use the appropriate tag, e.g. theravada or mahayana.
• If you post an answer based on the doctrine or viewpoint of a specific school, mention it in your answer, citing relevant sources if possible.
• Be nice. This means (among other things) not getting into argumentative wars. Don't let sectarianism ruin this site.

That's all it takes!

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Also, from a practical point of view, getting separate sites for different schools of Buddhism is simply not going to happen. If Stack Exchange was open to that possibility, I'm sure they would've split Islam.SE long ago, because internecine conflict is a serious problem over there. The idea of splitting Islam.SE has been discussed on their meta; it was generally agreed that that would not be a good idea.

Answer 2

The first thing we have to consider is how uncertain it still is whether we have enough interest in a single Buddhist site to allow the beta to succeed - we need to reach quotas on visits, questions, answers, votes, etc. in order to be considered for full SE status. So, even if we wanted to separate the site up, we would most certainly fail to create a lasting resource if we did.

Personally, I think it's nice to see a comparison of schools on the site; if someone replies incorrectly to a question about a specific school, just call them out on it.

Answer 3

It seems to me that if a questioner who wants an answer specific to either Theravada or Mahayana, then they should frame and tag the question that way. If an answer is given for the other tradition, then comments and downvotes can be used to alert the person who provided that answer to the question's intent.