"How do universities prevent the "echo chamber" effect where a few mods or a few users can take the whole conversation in one direction?"
They turbocharge group think. Probably not the best example of an open minded community.
A distant cousin of my wife went to a Seminary; within a relatively narrow range of beliefs, he claimed there was a lot more intellectual freedom than universities along the lines of teaching how to talk to devil's advocates and heresies and converting non-believers. More of a carrot and stick than university which is solely stick-style, who can most emphatically say "I can't even" and so on.
They turbocharge group think. Probably not the best example of an open minded community.
A distant cousin of my wife went to a Seminary; within a relatively narrow range of beliefs, he claimed there was a lot more intellectual freedom than universities along the lines of teaching how to talk to devil's advocates and heresies and converting non-believers. More of a carrot and stick than university which is solely stick-style, who can most emphatically say "I can't even" and so on.