Debate Forum Teething Problems.

For almost a week now we have been involved in a debate in the new forum.
Those involved have experienced some problems.I am hoping that we can discuss them here and hopefully learn from these early problems.Also anyone not involved can tell us what they think.

This is definately not a critisism of any posters.

1) I feel that four is too big a number on each team.Even though my team have been lucky three is probably too many to co-ordinate also.

2)I fully understand why the subject was chosen (because it is a test on debating skills regardless of subject)but ,and I think I can speak for everyone involved,not one of us has any interest in the subject.

3)The time limit is too long if we have 34 posts and if everyone takes 24 hours then it will take over a month and I think I will have lost the will to live by then.

All of these thing together make the debate feel like a first world war battle.
How does everyone else feel?

I think the debate forum is an excellent idea and I still have a lot of enthusiasm for it but I would like to get it sorted before it becomes torture.

Yes I agree 100% with everything you mentioned up there. I think this was a good trial run and needs work.
For one thing our Team Capt. was abducted before he could post his debate and that kind of threw any interest I may have had out the door..and if he were to come back, how could he possibly deny that aliens don't exist?

OK sorry couldn't resist..all silliness asside though..I've lost interest. Seems K_OS and I are the only ones on our team willing to debate..

I think we should all get a gold star and close it out...I'm still willing to do it, just needs some organization and fine tuning

So what do you think William?
Magestica

I would like to see the debates become more dynamic.

With two main types of debate.

The first for those who have replied to a topic.

Using hypothetical names X and Y are on the open forum discussing "Children in Camp Xray".It is obvious that they hold their view point strongly and it is suggested that they debate in a more structured way.
If both except then they debate but each reply must be within half an hour.The entire debate is over within a day.

The second would be for for 1 or two per team.

X decides to issue a challenge to the forum for another team to debate against him on a subject.It may be that no one will take up the challenge or it may be that they do and then teams have,say,6 hours to reply.

These are only suggestions.I'm interested in alternative suggestions or refinements.

bah! I couldn't do a reply within a half hour ... I gotta work ya know

Hey guys

Agree with both of you here!

How about just having two people in the debate and having a sort of a 'referee' on the sidelines to get a outsiders opinion?

The only rule for that is the 'referee' can't post on that certain topic!

would this work?

Yeh E-non,Perhaps 1/2 hour is too short a time.Maybe if the two people debating agree a time limit.
Also wouldn't it be cool if there was a clock like in chess which starts as soon as you post which would indicate how long your opponent has before he must reply.

We had a team of 4 but Bout Time was a bit busy last week.The rest of us dom,Cold Anger and myself discussed our tactics on a site dom set up.I think we were pretty organised but I think we all felt we had to seek permission to post the next reply from the other two this led to delays waiting for others to acknowledge that they had read the proposed reply.

Gryffen,The Mods and Admin were refereeing the debate.I'm more than happy for them to be the judges though it is a shame if it excludes them as they are amoung the most eloquent posters.
Perhaps a poll at the end though this may not reflect how good each debater was.

Yea, the time clock thing is a good idea. Should be doable in php right? Have the team's register for the debate and the code can keep track of who should be posting next and how long they have till then. Should also be able to allow everyone to view the progress as well... Too bad I don't know php!

I agree.

The topic is a good one, but sadly I have no knowledge of it and cannot find any info on it.