Making the Debate Forum Exclusive, What do you think? Options

[NoSex]

As I have spent a significant amount of time participating within these debate forums, I have come to a conviction that these boards would benifit greatly if this page were to become exclusive. Exclusive in the sense that direct permission would have to be given to allow one to participate, as in post, in these forums. Once permission has been granted that individual would have the right to normal posting within this forum.

I suggest this because I believe the quality of these debate forums is suffering and that such an action would greatly increase said quality. Memebers far too oftenly post arguments to never return to the debate threads. Many members do not respect the rules of debate, or make a mockery of such. Some members do not seem capable to be included in a reasonable and intellectual debate. A majority of the arguments posted are repeated arguments which have been served pages worth of rebuttles, yet continue to be posted. This all disrupts the point, and the enjoyement driven from these threads. Because of these reasons, and more, I wish that we could create a more close-knit, intellectual, and interested party for the debate section of Createblog.

(I wanted to have the debate in here, as it was a debate, and I don't think I have any kind of serious influence on policy making here. I just want to see what everyone else thinks. After some deliberation here, maybe some of us could bring this idea, or another, to the attention of those who do make policy here.)

Discuss?

[*mipadi*]

The general idea seems to be that some Debate posters' ideas are better than those of others' because theirs are backed up by facts. I'm hesitant to subscribe to this view, mainly because very few people who post in Debate—even those who back their ideas up with "facts"—actually cite any of their sources. An opinion backed up with uncited facts is, in my mind, not significantly more valuable than one not backed up with any facts at all, yet most people in Debate simply do not cite their sources.

Another startling trend is what I would call the overuse of sources such as Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a great resource for general knowledge, but it is an encyclopedia, and encyclopedias should never be a focus of research—one has to look deeper than that. So merely backing up a statement by citing Wikipedia isn't a very solid basis, either.

Furthermore, there's the fact that many opinions which seem to be supported are merely paraphrashed—or even taken verbatim—from Wikipedia, almost always without a citation. There are many, many times in Debate when someone posts an opinion and I think, "Hey, this kid's pretty sharp. I should do more research on this," and then I go to Wikipedia to get a quick run-down of the topic, and find that the opinion came almost directly from a Wikipedia article. How does paraphrasing an encyclopedia really add anything to Debate?

Finally, I think the goal of the Debate Forum needs to be clarified. Many people seem look at it as "Debate" in terms of a high school forensics competition, in which debators get scored and one is declared a "winner". I think that's a stupid idea for this forum. First of all, the discussion of knowledge shouldn't be about one "winner"—indeed, everyon can "win". Secondly, there's no one to judge who wins and who loses here, so it's hardly a competition—although many frequent posters seem to be more concerned with "pwning" other posters, rather than actually learning.

No, I think Debate is more a place for academic discourse. People post an idea or opinion and throw it up for discussion and critique. Maybe they're trying to convince others of their opinion, but I think that everyone who comes here needs to be ready to listen to others, too—not something that happens very often, because many people in this forum seem to have the idea that they are "too smart" to listen to others.

I think making the Debate forum exclusive just emphasizes the idea that certain cBers are smarter than others, and don't have to listen to the less privileged ones, which couldn't be further from the truth. The Debate forum should be about learning from everyone and discussing with everyone, rather than dismissing or mocking the views of others who aren't as accustomed to the traditions of the Debate forum.

Besides, get a grip: A lot of people who come in here are 12, 13, 14 years old, and aren't use to discussing anything on an academic or intellectual level. They need to learn the "rules of the game", so to speak. By kicking people out, you could be missing out on a very intelligent debator.