Beat ya to it spike.

[Theroy]

Originally posted by Spike
It's not clear to me that anyone who really needs to read some of what I have to say will, but this becoming too large a problem to let slide any longer. We get our fair share of traffic in here, and many of these ppl come from either Asylum or CC. So click here by accident. But most come here out of curiousity. And many have no idea on how to participate in a decent debate. We get a lot of one liners, useless ones. A lot of ppl who don't seem to read Raya's Purposes and Rules topic. Not naming names, but, in the hopes of bringing in new topics and being able to enjoy those topics and the debates they encure as much as possible, I am posting this.

I'm going to lay out a quick definition of an "honest argument." I'm not going to cover the full field of rhetorical and logical errors, but instead will focus on a few particular errors that seem to come up an awful lot. This "honest argument" terminology is a little stange, I admit, but it's the best term I've come up with so far to describe the process I use to judge someone's words when they're disagreeing with me about something.

Just to be clear, I'm using the word argument in the sense of a verbal debate and discussion about some matter. I'm not talking about yelling matches about whose turn it is to do the dishes.

Proper Debating

First, I will address proper debating. When most ppl debate, they debate in hope of converting their opposition to their side. So when debating, there are 3 parts.

1.) Stating your initial opinion/case/feelings/morals/ect....

2.) Presenting evidence or support for your case, whether it be scientific, logical reasoning, or some other form. It's also best to provide internet links to legit, credible sites that contain your evidence or support. This will all but eliminate any chance of your opposition accusing you of posting flase evidence or questioning the credibility of said evidence.

3.) Questioning and debunking (if possible) the arguements and evidence provided by your opposition. In some case this can not be done, mostly whenever religion enters the debate. Religion exists on a plane outside of science, logic and reasoning and common sence. Religion is based solely on faith, and faith (much like stupidity, no offence intended to anyone of any religion) can not be disproved or proven, and all arguements of science, common sence and logic are pretty much void when dealing with religions or any type.

Now, debating, real debating is a time consuming thing. It is something that you have to enjoy in order to do it right, or to even do it at all. It's time consuming in the area tht you have to research, find fact, find evidence, and find evidence that not only furthers your case, but also debunks your opponents case. Time consuming that you much also type up your arguements. Time consuming that you have to do it, again and again, just for one debate.

Grammar

Here at AS, we aren't sticklers on grammar, because most ppl here have decent grammar. But, we do have certain rules concerning grammar. These have never really been announced, but they will be added to the Purposes and Rules topic soon.

Rules are simple.

1.) No L337 (1337, leet, l33t, ect...) speak is allowed, save for certain words, (like r0xx0rs, or suxx0rs). But, entire posts in L337 speak are not allowed.

2.) No 12 year old AOL speak. Also known as Gaheadga talk. If you don't know what that is, then here's a link for ya, http://ssshotaru.homestead.com/file...translator.html
Type something in there, maybe copy and past this paragraph in there, hit "Translate". Thats AOL speak.

3.) NoNe Of ThIs KiNdA sHiT.

4.)Ok is Yoda talk in one or 2 lines, but not for the entire post.

And thats it. Everything else is fine and allowed.

Now this is just the begining. There are many other faux pas out there that ppl stumble onto. If you're interested in debating, and getting good at it, here are a few links for you that contain the do's and don't's of debating and several tactics that your opponents might use against you and how to counter them.

http://www.co-prosperity.org/~annis/arguing.html

http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/index.htm

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/rhetoric.php

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/badmoves.php

Thanks to Raya and Amantis for the links.

And in hope of attracting more ppl to this topic, I will leave it stickied and open to reply

So does that make you the master debater?

 

[Tempest Storm]

Yeppers.

 

[DRaKHNiR]

To debate or not to debate, that is the question. :rollie

 

[jackalopes]

what dumb rules