Debate Section: Kill it or Save It

Hey peeps,

Getting a consensus here on what people think of canning the debate section. It causes more problems than anything with people not really understanding the criteria that it was meant for and people just generally not being able to discuss things without getting heated and resorting to personal attacks on people, some of which spill into other sections of the forum.

My suggestion was to move some of the more active threads to general discussion and then the dead topics would go to our deleted section, where only the staff can see them, so that post count does not go down.

The vision of the section was to keep all the more serious issues in there because it would be easier for the staff to keep an eye on the threads, as we know serious debates can get heated, instead of having people make serious threads in different sections, where it would be more of a headache to find the threads in order to keep an eye on them.


Please vote =)

I said keep it. People will always get heated, no matter what section the thread is in.

Get rid of it. Too much conflict and drama that mods and users shouldn't need to deal with.

Although I think it's being mishandled by posters in there. That's the posters fault and not the actual debate or threads in there. Only reason I'm voting save it is for the sole reason of people who want to debate fairly as I think it's unfair to take good debates from people who are doing it the proper way.

However... if people can just make debate threads in general section ect ect. Then I don't care if it's gone lol.

Drama is something that's more provoked in Debate threads because people let it hit their emotions.

Nevermind Jade I say get rid of it if you could change my vote for me lol.

I just convinced myself of a change. As I stated earlier alot of the debates are pointless in themselves as nothing we say in there will actually do anything, We can talk about how we'll stop overpopulation but our debates won't move anything.

And then you got highly controversial debates that will never have a winner.

That with a large number of people letting their emotions




Jade@:

Smashboards have a "Proving Grounds" where people who want to join the debate section have to debate a topic on hand to prove they are good at debating. And you can gain access if you show you are a competent debater.

Perhaps something like this could save it?
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=283951

Keep it, it was a great idea and still is.

don't save it, get rid of it.. to many problems if it can be handled good then ok then let it stay

I don't care either way so since that's not a choice... I just won't vote.

Critical-Limit said:

Although I think it's being mishandled by posters in there. That's the posters fault and not the actual debate or threads in there. Only reason I'm voting save it is for the sole reason of people who want to debate fairly as I think it's unfair to take good debates from people who are doing it the proper way.

However... if people can just make debate threads in general section ect ect. Then I don't care if it's gone lol.

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I love debates, which is why I thought of the section in the first place, and I think it is very unfair to those who debate in a mature manner, but those people seem to be slightly outnumbered by people who go on the attack, and then you get posts outside the section in which people have ill manners with each other because of debate disagreements.

This will, of course, happen with any thread, but people tend to take debates to the next level because their personal beliefs are being attacked. It's one thing for someone to say your favourite character sucks but it's a whole new world when you tell someone who strongly believes in God that they are 'wrong' or their belief is 'ridiculous'. Stuff like that tends to hit people harder.

That and people are not fully understanding what sort of subject matter fits in the section so there is confusion and accusations flying everywhere.

No surprise I voted keep. If the posters in it truly are causing so much trouble that it has become impossible for you and the other staff to properly moderate it with the time that you have, then get rid of it, but that should be the only reason. Otherwise, it was a great idea and I'd love to see it remain. The fact that our debates won't actually solve anything is a silly reason to get rid of it IMO. It's not like our other threads are meaningful either. The whole point of this forum is to enjoy the discussions themselves.

I say keep it, but I think that there should be some better-outlined (or maybe better enforced, not sure yet) rules regarding it.

I think the big problem with the debate forum is people aren't cognizant of what should go there vs. in General Discussion. Maybe there should be a system of thread approval before it goes live, in order to assure that the breadth and depth of debate is high, and that we don't have fiascos like the MLP debate. For example, if someone wanted to post a thread about say, 'Whether or not America's educational system is broken', they would start the thread as per usual, but before anyone else can see it or reply to it, a moderator would have to approve/deny it, in order to assure whether or not the thread is germane to the forum's criteria.

I know this might be unpopular because people may want to say the mods will have control over what's discussed, but if their thread topic isn't approved for the more serious debate section, they could just post it to General Discussion or the Nether Realm. I think that would be an equitable setup, as it would encourage more serious, hearty and educated debate, while keeping away the more random, unwarranted stuff and leaving that where it belongs.

Of course, this does nothing about the lack of maturity people display in the debate section--well, any section really--so, who knows. I guess this is a way of saying how we could improve the section so it doesn't get axed, rather than appeal to keep it.

Honestly, I'd think it'd just be best to get rid of it (even though I have no problem with it at all)

It's a great idea, though, I have absolutely no problem with it if it stays, but it's not like there aren't other places where you can debate all of those topics...

The saying goes "A few bad apples ruin the bunch." and I think that is the case here. Users are supposed to know that the Debate Section is not the place to get heated and be silly. The rules there are clear and those who don't read them get whats coming to them.

TL;DR - Save It

I like the debate thread, since some posters have interesting things to say on the matter. I don't see it as matter of winning or losing an argument, but a chance for to share ideas and learn from people from all different perspectives.

However, if such topics can be discussed elsewhere, it's not the end of the world.

Love Cowboy said:

No surprise I voted keep. If the posters in it truly are causing so much trouble that it has become impossible for you and the other staff to properly moderate it with the time that you have, then get rid of it, but that should be the only reason. Otherwise, it was a great idea and I'd love to see it remain. The fact that our debates won't actually solve anything is a silly reason to get rid of it IMO. It's not like our other threads are meaningful either. The whole point of this forum is to enjoy the discussions themselves.

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Debates bring out the worst in people. It's natural. That section (for some people, certainly not all) is showing a side to some people we don't normally see from them. It's almost like the section is saying 'come to me and act out'.

You guys want stricter rules but then when we hand out infractions/warnings to you, you get upset, lol. When the section first went up, we really meant it when it was a 0 tolerance zone. It says not to post GIFs or picture responses, not to flame or troll, not to make useless answers like 'yes' or 'no' so we gave infractions and warnings, just like we told you guys we would, and people got upset and accused us of being 'nazis'.

If the section does stay, I will clarify in my post there what is meant to go there and what is meant to go elsewhere and the 0 tolerance will have to return. We let you guys slide after a while but it didn't help much :/

I don't know where you got the idea that it would be gone because we don't solve debates. That idea hasn't come up at all.

is it possible to make the debates private for serious debaters only?

n9195v said:

is it possible to make the debates private for serious debaters only?

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I know of another forum that does this, so maybe so?

Maybe you could make the whole forum a moderated section where only people who've proven themselves as mature debaters could be allowed in the forum or something, I dunno, just an idea

Jade said:

I love debates, which is why I thought of the section in the first place, and I think it is very unfair to those who debate in a mature manner, but those people seem to be slightly outnumbered by people who go on the attack, and then you get posts outside the section in which people have ill manners with each other because of debate disagreements.

This will, of course, happen with any thread, but people tend to take debates to the next level because their personal beliefs are being attacked. It's one thing for someone to say your favourite character sucks but it's a whole new world when you tell someone who strongly believes in God that they are 'wrong' or their belief is 'ridiculous'. Stuff like that tends to hit people harder.

That and people are not fully understanding what sort of subject matter fits in the section so there is confusion and accusations flying everywhere.

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I edited my post and wanted to change my vote.

But if we could come up with some sort of system like that link i posted I would be down for keeping it.

Or a original system. To help keep the good debaters debating and keep the ones who can't handle it out.

Then we would have to debate on what a serious debater is, and that would be a total waster of everyone's time.

n9195v said:

is it possible to make the debates private for serious debaters only?

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That wouldn't be fair, really. Not a terrible idea but we can't distinguish who is a serious debater or not. Someone may not be a strong debater on one topic but be a debate god in another. Some people may not fully understand the section and the requirements, which isn't totally their fault, so it wouldn't be fair to deny access.

Perhaps I just need to really get into better detail in the section outline and the stricter rules will have to come back.

Jade said:

That wouldn't be fair, really. Not a terrible idea but we can't distinguish who is a serious debater or not. Someone may not be a strong debater on one topic but be a debate god in another. Some people may not fully understand the section and the requirements, which isn't totally their fault, so it wouldn't be fair to deny access.

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Yeah this is true. Restricting access won't work