Agreed. It's actually easier now with Cogito as a mod. On the times that I was on the forum and it was really late at night slash early morning (between nine/ten at night to early hours of the next day) and there were no mods on, Hulls Raven had to called in to sort it out, dragging himself away from his family and relaxation after being away to sort it out. It was unfair on him as well. But now that Cogito is a mod, there doesn't seem to be many times that a mod isn't on board. From my end at least. But I think maybe the mods give us topics to debate over instead of anyone of us throwing in a topic. I mean, suggest the ideas to teh mods and the mods maybe can pick a topic. Don't know if it makes sense though!
I think that is a great idea Raven and I know that mods can't be around 24/7 but you also have a lot of respectable members here now like Banzai and myself , maia, DOmoviye and many many more who are more than happy to help keep an eye on the debates and if any flamming arises we will be sure to be able to let you all know about it. We can't always rely on the mods to do everything for us, we as members here need to help the mods out and let them know of these things instead of trying to battle it out ourselves. This goes in every area of the forum though, not just debates. If we want our writing community to work and function properly we have to work together as a community and help out the mods and Lpspider to keep the forum functioning and make it a place that EVERYONE wants to be a part of and not feel unwanted or unwelcomed around. Flame wars will not be tolerated any longer as has been stated many times. So lets all work together to make sure they don't eventuate when and if the debates arise. Torana
If mods want to keep more control then usual over these debates, they could post a debate idea up on the weekly writing group. The rules would be very clearly stated at the start of each thread. The mod or whoever runs it chooses the topic to avoid really hot button issues (like abortion which even I wouldn't debate with a 10 foot pole when I liked debating). Then after one week, give or take a few days depending on how popular or dead that particular subject is take it down and post up another one. This keeps the debates fresh, somewhat controlled without stifling anything, and with the rules posted directly on the thread no one can claim ignorance.
So if there were to be debates in the forum, where would they be located is the next question. Would they remain in the lounge as they have done in the past or would they be relocated elsewhere?
I'd like to second this (for Dom, I mean). He's online on a semi-permanent basis, so giving him mod powers within a new debating forum might be one way to stem the flaming. Other than that, I have no real objections to it, particularly if the pair of you (Lpspider and Raven) feel okay with it. Torana, I would have to say I think it would be best creating a specific forum for debating, just to keep it clearly seperated from the rest of the lounge stuff. And Doz, we're already pretty much debating the debate thread
Heh wow, this has really taken off. My thoughts were to have each teams' first speaker make one post, then the second speakers, and so on - other readers then read the debate and vote for the winners. Or something like that anyway lol, that's how it works at real-life debate competitions. ~MedicMan~
To be honest I think it would be more of a controlled free for all, nothing so ordered as numbering team members.
Yep, free for all. Much more fun and spontaneous. Plus I don't think any of us really has time to put aside for an actual debate. Unless you know the subject, its pretty hard, especially with school, work, home work, families, etc.
Not to mention the fact that if it has to be done in some sort of order, we could end up having to wait a while, with people being in different time zones and all.
That's what I was thinking - each team gets a day to produce their opening statements, then a day to produce second statements, etc. The rebuttals normally become more of a general discussion anyway
Tell you what, how about this, pick a subject which you think might be interesting to debate about and then teams of around 5 or more can pick a side. We'll see how that works and if it goes ok we could then experiment with open debates etc. etc.
