I've long been considering making a debate forum, and I think I might finally take the first step. However, before I do that, I'd like to know: What do you look for when it comes to debate forums? Personally, I'm rather fed-up with debate forums that only seem to care about one viewpoint. The easy way to fix that is to diversify the staff's political views, which shouldn't be too hard to do. Anyway - what about you? Is there anything that you specifically look for; anything that annoys you about a debate forum that you're active on? Any input will significantly help me. 🙂
What would you like to see on a debate forum?
- Thread starter John
- Start date
Wow! I 
debate forums.
That kept apart, the big issue in a debate forum is that everytime someone starts one, the administrator is too keen to propagate his own views about a particular topic than to really 'engage' and 'encourage' members to think in all directions. And also, I would like to see, apart from regualr discussion, a section of formal debates
debate forums.That kept apart, the big issue in a debate forum is that everytime someone starts one, the administrator is too keen to propagate his own views about a particular topic than to really 'engage' and 'encourage' members to think in all directions. And also, I would like to see, apart from regualr discussion, a section of formal debates
What do you mean by that? Some sort of "fake news" filter?
I didn't know that about you. 😵Wow! I
That kept apart, the big issue in a debate forum is that everytime someone starts one, the administrator is too keen to propagate his own views about a particular topic than to really 'engage' and 'encourage' members to think in all directions. And also, I would like to see, apart from regualr discussion, a section of formal debates
Anyway - I 100% agree with you. I used to be a member on a debate forum, but when the election came along, the admins swung far right. If you said you supported Hillary, members could say whatever they wanted to you. Hell, the admins encouraged it. After a while, all the leftwing members left, and the forum became a total echo chamber. After that, most rightwing members left because there was no debate.
My solution to fix that is just to have staff with differing political views. If there were some leftwing moderators on that forum, they wouldn't have had the issue. If you mix political views, it's pretty hard to allow the forum to get completely out of hand.
In terms of formal debates: That's a good idea! I like it. Thanks for your input, Saru. 🙂
Bluezone777
Dinner Team Leader
That debate forum you mentioned didn't tank because its admins were all of one political persuasion. It tanked because the admins interpreted the rules to essentially say " Beat on a Republican and get a ban, beat on a liberal and get a laugh." That didn't come from their political beliefs but rather their piss poor character. It ensured that those who committed injustice faced no punishment and the wronged would not have an advocate to defend them and uphold justice when rules were violated. This likely drove away all the people with differing beliefs and silenced anyone who would otherwise express a different opinion in fear of ending up as abused as the ones who came before that expressed different beliefs. The rest simply acted as an echo of one another so the debate forum no longer could serve its purpose as a place to debate the issues of the day which ensured its death.
A debate forum can only function if all members can freely express their beliefs without fear of punishment or abuse. As long as you aren't deciding how you moderate based on the beliefs of the members who go to your board then that won't be a problem regardless of the political persuasion of your staff team. The most important job of an admin is to interpret the rules he or she writes for the forum. The way you interpret the rules you write will influence how your staff moderate and what kind of people make a home out of your board. Fail to do that task correctly then your board will tank regardless of everything else as that unnamed debate forum demonstrated for you.
A debate forum can only function if all members can freely express their beliefs without fear of punishment or abuse. As long as you aren't deciding how you moderate based on the beliefs of the members who go to your board then that won't be a problem regardless of the political persuasion of your staff team. The most important job of an admin is to interpret the rules he or she writes for the forum. The way you interpret the rules you write will influence how your staff moderate and what kind of people make a home out of your board. Fail to do that task correctly then your board will tank regardless of everything else as that unnamed debate forum demonstrated for you.
Relaxed rules. Debates get heated and people say controversial things that cause explosive reactions. I'd hope the staff would let people fight it out amongst themselves without trying to micro-manage every conversation.
What I would like to see in a debate forum is threads that are based on articles (with a great diversity of sources, the more the better from the more controversial to the very mainstream) and let people react to it, comment and exchange point of view.
I feel like debating without reference/source/information is most of the time pointless and debaters would hardly change their minds.
I feel like debating without reference/source/information is most of the time pointless and debaters would hardly change their minds.
Debate forums would probably have debates that neglect debating science (I mean the study of debating, not science.). For instance, people might do errors like Ad hominem etc.. Anyway, though, it would be impossible to make the whole forum professional in that sense, but there should be at least one section for it.
For instance, in a real debate, using debating methods, you might find you cannot defend something as easy as you think you can
For instance, in a real debate, using debating methods, you might find you cannot defend something as easy as you think you can
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