Debate Contest (COMPLETED) - Page 3

I sign up to be in Ajnu's team 😛

Originally posted by: karandel_2008

I sign up to be in Ajnu's team 😛

Kaanta, if you want to be on my team, then I'm all for teams. 😉

I am thinking, in the subject line of the contest if you include the words "Debate Contest", then whoever replies in that thread would have officially entered themselves into the contest. It doesn't seem like there's a separate need for sign-ups and pre-nups.

Originally posted by: *Woh Ajnabee*

Kaanta, if you want to be on my team, then I'm all for teams.

Deal 😛

I hope I don't let my team down because I don't like forced debates.
I am diversion personified. I can take a topic from one theme to a very different theme 😆

By the way, after there are enough participants, will there be transparent guidelines on how posts will be scored? Marks will be deducted for what kind of things? Bad grammer, going off topic, bad logic, bad clarity, bad organization of points?

I like Mister K's ideas for topics here ...

Originally posted by: Mister.K.

Thanks Sarina.

Off the top of my head, I got a few themes. I could expand on these if you would like me to.

• Should terrorists have human rights? Should they be tried in civil courts?
• Should we stop experimenting on animals including rats?
• Should we always tell the truth? When is it OK to lie?
• Is it good or bad for the society if people are spending too much time on the internet
• Do you think there is a thin line between protecting the kids as opposed to spoiling them?
• Are celebrities deserving of all that money when most people have to work really hard to barely make ends meet?
• What measures would you take to improve the living conditions for humans on this planet, if you have reasonable powers and resources to do so?
  

Originally posted by: *Woh Ajnabee*

Okay, this is crazy. I officially sign myself up for the contest. DM needs some spark ... I'm willing to take initiative. :) I'd like an interesting topic, por favor and a good opponent. Karan's going on vacation, Cloddy probably won't be back for a long time, Sarina's not participating, Mister K's a judge ....so we need to find someone else.

If someone doesn't show up soon, I will volunteer someone myself. 😛

Editing to say I'd prefer no teams, and a short contest. Its not fun when its dragged for a long time. If we get one started soon, I'm sure people will take more interest and sign up as well. We can have a short one to kick things off. I like Mister K's idea of judging --- as far as friends supporting friends goes, its bound to happen. So we'll just deal with it, no worries.

I'm trying to get POH enter too. I think he will enjoy some nice structured intense debate, especially with Karan and Ajnu. Maybe Cloddy can join too if he is around.

Originally posted by: karandel_2008

By the way, after there are enough participants, will there be transparent guidelines on how posts will be scored? Marks will be deducted for what kind of things? Bad grammer, going off topic, bad logic, bad clarity, bad organization of points?

I'm sure Mister. K already has some thoughts in mind. We will make the scoring very clear.

I'm tempted to start a topic on the forum - Why are DM members chicken to debate in a contest?😆

It has been a long, long time since I last participated in a debate - and when I say 'debate', I mean a real debate, not just some mindless topic here at DM. Apparently, when I joined DM, there used to be a lot more debates going on in this forum.

Anyhow, without quoting anyone in particular, let me jot down my thoughts:

1) The 'team vs. individual' issue: Personally, I'd prefer individual debates, mostly because I'm not comfortable with team debates. Speaking objectively, both have their pros and cons.
If you're going for a team debate, how will you arrange the team? Will you let individual(s) choose which team they wish to belong to and speak up for, or would you just randomly select team for members? If you let members decide on which side they wish to belong to, then there could be 20+ members on one team, and 2 members on another - which is not going to end up as a balanced and fair debate.
If you decide the teams for the members, then many may not be willing to participate, as members may not at all want to speak in favor for a particular point they do not agree with in the least bit. Also, as Mr. K pointed out, not everything can be put down into black or white. I agree with Mr. K's points in favor of individual debates, however, I will admit that team debates turn out to be messy, lopsided, heavily biased, repetitious and monotonous. Moreover, we have individual debates all the time in DM, so what's the point, really?
Seems like there's going to have to be a debate on this issue before we make any decision.

2) Editing: This is a very valid and important point (and incidentally, one that would have never crossed my head, so thanks for bringing it K!). I agree with K that there should be a limited amount time that will be given to members for editing their post (the time when the post has last been edited is noted at the end of ones post). However, the problem with this is, who is going to keep a track of the time period the post has been posted, and it was last edited? Also, what do we do with members who ends up editing their post after the time period is over - disqualify his post altogether, even if it was a harmless attempt at his part? I will have to disagree with Sarina that post should not be allowed to be edited at all. At times, we may miss a very valid point that we wanted to add, or cut down a part that should not be there, or [mostly] because of bad formatting.

3) The "Likes" issue: I will have to strongly disagree with this one. Not to pick on any particular member here, but there are members who request their buddies to 'like' their posts, so that they can end up being at the top of the Hall of Fame. As such, I don't think it would be fair to give so much weight to these pretentious 'likes'. However, if we can hide the member's identity, I don't see a problem with it - though, judging a member based on his writing styles and the content isn't really a difficult job to do, and we need to keep that in mind as well.

4) Encouraging people to join this: Over half of the active members in DM don't even know about this contest that is about to take place (if it does, that is). People usually do not check 'stickys' (SP?). Sarina, can you put the link of this topic on your sigg? That will let people know about this. And seriously - what's up with the "PLEASE sign up now", Sarina? It should be "Sign up, or else you will get BANNED". 😆 I don't see any other alternative. Like seriously, what's up with this super inactive state of DM? (Not inactive in the sense of having no discussions, but inactive because of absolutely no concrete and solid debate going on here for quite a long time).

5) Mark deduction: Mark can be deducted for logical fallacies, going off-topic, even bad organizations to some extent, but not for grammatical errors, or that's what I think. As long as people writes coherently, presents their points logically, I don't think it makes much of a difference if one writes "has" instead of "have" or "is" instead of "was".

That's all I can think for now...and yeah, did I mention it? I am participating. 😛

@POH - The editing part was in the writing contest (not the debates).

I did not think of edits in debates - for we usually have freedom to edit posts in debates. Sometimes edits are inevitable. Edits have to take place within 10-15 minutes of a post I say. Edits cannot be made after your post has been addressed by opponent.

The no editing for the writing contest should stay. Participants will be given plenty of time before hand to finish their essay/story offline and post it within a certain time period. Once they have finished their essays/stories they post it and then no more edits. They have been given time to polish it - if they had mistakes - too bad.

Btw - if you think of people who would want to take part in the Debate and/or writing contest - let them know and ask them to sign up. Even if they don't frequent DM that often. I think it will be good for people who a nice debate.