So, you've stumbled across debate section of the forum and you want to dive in and get to the debating..Great, but heres a few handy tips to get you going and to make sure your thread wont sink off the page after a few posts.

1: the best kind of debates begin as simple questions, for example :

Should red be the new blue?

this allows debaters to wade in and discuss the pros and cons of the subject, and a debate is born! Yay!
News websites are great places to look for topics to debate.

2: try to keep your posts to atleast 30 words or more. Explain your reasons for your views and people will take you and your theorys more seriously. Simple "RED IS BAD" posts don't contribute anything to the discussion and run the risk of killing a healthy debate and wasting everyones time, and try not to repeat yourself.

3: leave your emotions at the door! Debates can get pretty heated, and even if you feel extremely strongley about blue, getting angry about it will only make you look silly and your points seem invalid. Stay calm, stick to the facts, and people will be more willing to see from your point of view.

4: sometimes, for the sake of a good debate, you have to take the opposite side. This is called playing the devils advocate, and theres nothing wrong with it. Observations dont always equal opinions and it can be a great way to prove a point. A valid weapon in your debating arsenal.

5: Rise above it, once you've backed your opponent into a corner things can quickly turn nasty as they clamber for anything to make you and your arguement against them look bad. Don't sink to their level and throw crap back at them, it'll only inflame the situation. Just ignore the outbursts and keep pushing home the facts. Try to think of it like this the moment you start attacking a persons character, you have lost the debate.

6: stay open minded, you might not agree with bobs opinions about Red, but at least try to see his point of view on the situation, this way you can stay level headed and offer up an intelligent rebuttal.

7: have fun. Things may get pretty serious here, but the idea is to enjoy yourself and learn new things.

Okay, i think this is a great way for us to release what we feel. It will also help us learn new things and let us talk about what we want to.

*gains more respect for RichiCrypt*

Those are good rules. I endorse them XD (like anyone cares )

i endorse them too
BUT i also think there should be a formal debate thread on here where once a month or so
people will seperate into two groups and will debate over a picked topic
they will have 3 days to prepare and a judge (who MUST look at it from an independant view) will decide the victor group of that debate
(i did it in history and it was REALLY fun!)

I think Adam or Trys or maybe MC would do good for that kind of a petition and I dont think thats such a bad idea.

hmmm.... I would be up to it. I am rather impartial when it comes to things and would be willing to host a judged debate.

Tell me when...

Setting up a formal debate would be pretty easy, it would be better to have one person versus another rather then teams as that would make a formal debate hard to follow on a message board.

Each debatee would have a maximum of six posts (of any length) to get their points across. When both members have taken had the six posts a second thread will then be posted to decide which member made the most valid points. after 2 days of voting at the polls the winner is decided.

I'm going to make a sign up thread now..

Come back, Richi! Come baaaaaack...!

Stay there, Richi!! Stay theeeere!!

excellent! a site that ALLOWS this kind of stuff!

fab idea,ye its amazing,i wouldnt of even thought of such a great phenomonum