Hey! I'm building an online debate platform, and I'm looking for people to help me test it out!

[mario]

Hello fellow INTPs and INTP sympathizers,

The name's Mario (as you might have ascertained from my username), and I'm attempting to build an online debate platform with the goal of facilitating critical discussion on the Internet. As a long-time lurker of INTP Forum, I do believe forums such as this one provide excellent communication platforms on their own. However, I'm fairly confident that the current social media landscape could benefit from a bit more depth, could benefit from a platform in which the exploration and exchange of ideas is not only permissible, but encouraged.

If you're interested in learning more about the project, you can check out our blog at www.clusory.wordpress.com.

So, we're looking for debaters! I know INTPers are generally a thoughtful bunch, and I'm sure you all have weird and wonderful things you'd like to see discussed on a wider level. So, here's the deal:

If you're interested in debating, let me know! Respond either to this thread, or email me at clusory@gmail.com, and I'll work with you to come up with a topic you'd like to debate. We'll conduct the debate (either between you and I or between you and a friend of your choosing); our editorial team (which, for the moment, is me) will moderate it, add pictures, add intros and conclusions, format it correctly; and then the results will go on clusory.wordpress.com for our audience of ~100 consistent readers to read. If you'd like an example of what a finished debate would look like, check out our ISIS debate here. Of course, if you'd prefer the results not be published, that's also an option - just let me know and I'll send the results to you privately instead of putting it up on the site.

If you don't know what you'd want to debate, that's totally cool! Just hit me up and we can work something out. I'm personally inclined towards all things historical, political, or literary, but if you're down to do something more scientific I'm up for that as well. Just let me know ahead of time so that I can do the requisite background research to debate intelligently on whatever subject you'd like to discuss.

Well, cool! That's it from me. If you're merely interested in the project and don't want to debate, feel free to sign up for our mailing list at signup.clusory.com and we'll keep you in the loop as debates come out. And, of course, if you have any questions about what we're trying to accomplish, fire away! I'm always up to talk.

 

[Rook]

We'll conduct the debate (either between you and I or between you and a friend of your choosing); our editorial team (which, for the moment, is me) will moderate it, add pictures, add intros and conclusions, format it correctly; and then the results will go on clusory.wordpress.com for our audience of ~100 consistent readers to read.

Interesting idea, more intellectual platforms are needed.
I've never participated in a project of this nature, it piques my interest and I may sign up in due time.

Just a few quick questions after a cursory reading:
1.Extent of moderation.
I understand that posting the whole unredacted debate will not suit the general needs of an audience, but I have to ascertain as to the nature of moderation. Will it simply be to mitigate grammatical errors and cut irrelevancies, or will the debate be compacted, with core arguments shortened?

2.Expansion of debaters
Two debaters is the norm, though would it be possible to expand the numbers?
The inclusion of one or two more participants may lead to a diversification of opinions, thus making the debate more interesting, and the arguments less one-sided. A closed IRC channel may be congenial in bringing this about.

3.Format
I noticed that in the ISIS debate, the opinions are mostly in opposition to one another, with some agreements being established.
Is it required of the debaters to wholly contradict each other, or can complete agreement on key issues be facilitated?

Note that I am not experienced at debating, so these queries are mainly raised to gain familiarity with what you propose.

 

[mario]

Hey Rook!

Will it simply be to mitigate grammatical errors and cut irrelevancies, or will the debate be compacted, with core arguments shortened?

Part of the nature of our debate platform is that you're limited in your responses to certain predefined parameters. The format we've been working with is as follows:

(Up to) 5 Opening Statements, 3 Rebuttals, and 1 Conclusory Statement, all capped at 280 characters (twice the length of a tweet).

This ensures a good mix between brevity and accuracy, as we've found that going too much above/below this limit leads either to leaving details out or to unnecessary verbosity.

Two debaters is the norm, though would it be possible to expand the numbers?

This is a possibility we'd very much like to implement, but the logistics of A) conducting the debate and B) presenting the debate in an accessible, organic manner become much more difficult when moving beyond two debaters. Your IRC suggestion is a good one, but then there's the problem of making sure people adhere to the debate format.

Is it required of the debaters to wholly contradict each other, or can complete agreement on key issues be facilitated?

We're working on a process by which the two debaters agree on specific definitions, certain scopes of argument, etc. before the debate starts, so as to make the terms of debate more clear. As the project currently involves few people beyond myself and people I know personally, it's easy to establish this prior to the debate starting. However - and I thank you for bringing this up because it's something we'll need to work on - it's important that a protocol be established so that, even without my input, two people who wish to debate around a set of predefined premises can establish those premises efficiently.

Edit: Also, no debating experience is necessary! While we're using traditional debate platforms as inspiration for our own platform, we're more concerned with having good conversation than adhering to strict methods of competition.

 

[Direwolf]

I asked 1 of my debator friends and she seemed pumped and i messaged curiosity as well

 

[Absurdity]

Just took a look at the site. This is actually a really cool idea.

The only thing I don't like about it is the imposed brevity, although I completely understand how it will likely increase the amount of people who read entire debates and drive up traffic. Capping responses at 280 characters seems to intrinsically limit the potential topics available for debate, meaning you can really only debate things people have prior knowledge of because they are recognized in "the public sphere" as "debates" like the potential topics you have up there.

Maybe further down the line you could have extended versions that look deeply at more esoteric topics, because as it stands I'm not learning anything new in terms of substance, I'm just seeing a new way to package it.

 

[Grayman]

INTP

Good at discussion and finding new ideas.

Bad at debate.

Why?

They often enter a discussion without any idea of where they want it to go. They are in the discussion to come to a conclusion and have not yet picked a side.

Debate is ripe with opinion and bias but INTP's like to stay away from these things and prefer to stick the information on the table and let everyone else figure out their own opinions.

This is not always true but mostly.



Try INFJ. They love debate but have a tendency to be more biased toward ideology/talking points than the INTJ. They tend to be attracted to debate.

INTJ make good debaters but they are more likely to think they know the answer an don't feel as if it needs explaination.

Maybe I am just full of shit.

 

[Jennywocky]

So who is the moderator / how is the moderator chosen for a particular debate?

 

[mario]

Maybe further down the line you could have extended versions that look deeply at more esoteric topics, because as it stands I'm not learning anything new in terms of substance, I'm just seeing a new way to package it.

This is a tricky one for me. I'm a huge fan of long-form journalism, and am under no impressions that all of the subjects we'd want to cover could be properly explored with the format we have now. However, making debates short is not only good for the readers, but for the debaters as well. Not everyone has a ton of time to conduct debates, and we've found that the fewer restrictions we place on length, the fewer debates are actually finished. We're working to build expansions into the format, though - it's just a matter of finding the best way to do so.

Try INFJ. They love debate but have a tendency to be more biased toward ideology/talking points than the INTJ. They tend to be attracted to debate.

Will do! As an INTP, I have my own hesitations with debate and its limitations. However, the necessity, to my mind, stems from the fact that no good conversation ever starts from a point of agreement. It comes from differences, from finding out something you believe in is different from what someone else believes and from exploring these differences further. Debate is a good method of doing that, hence our debate platform. However, we're looking into developing other ways to promote good, productive conversation. Suggestions always accepted!

So who is the moderator / how is the moderator chosen for a particular debate?

Right now, myself and my friends/cofounders are doing all the moderating. We spend a day or two before the debate researching the topic being debated so that we can comment intelligently on the subject at hand. Ideally, we'd like to have people help out with moderating, but we're waiting for interest/community to grow somewhat before we reach out.

Thanks for the questions y'all! Good to see some interest. Join us, and assist in the INTP intellectual takeover of the world!!!

(No takeover is currently planned. I mainly just needed an excuse to bust out Cthulhu.)

 

[kora]

Hey! I'm building an online debate platform, and I'm looking for people to he...

Infj here, I'm in. But only if it's with cogniscant on the hard problem of consciousness


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[mario]

Re: Hey! I'm building an online debate platform, and I'm looking for people to he...

Infj here, I'm in. But only if it's with cogniscant on the hard problem of consciousness

Done! Just get Cognisant to accept your challenge, and I'll set it up!