Introduction

Welcome to the Interfaith Forums Formal Debate!

It is our hope that this forum will provide a place for members to engage in more focused debate around topics of great interest, with a minimum of “noise,” from casual participants, while still providing space for those casual participants to get involved (see the Bleachers, below).

Formal debates, unlike our other debate forums, are more structured and follow rules (usually adopted and agreed to by the debate participants themselves) that guide how the discussion will proceed. Number of rounds, length of posts, length of time allowed between posts, etc. are all things upon which the debaters must agree prior to beginning the debate proper.

Please note that a formal debate can represent a significant commitment of time and effort, so be sure you really wish to commit before signing on. Defaulting, partway through a debate, is also most unfair to your opponent.

Challenging

Before a debate can begin, a challenge must be issued and accepted. This is done by posting “Challenge” threads in the forum. The challenge thread will be used to accept the challenge and develop the rules for the debate, and will be closed when the debate begins and removed after the debate is completed.

A Challenge thread should have the subject “Challenge: subject of debate.” If you are interested in challenging a specific member directly (or opening it up to several members) you may also want to post a notification in the regular debate forums, since not every member will always pay attention to the Formal Debate forum.

Challenges can be “open” or directed towards another member. Just remember, no member is ever required to accept your challenge -- or even to respond to it! If you are issuing a challenge to a specific member, you would be wise to send a Private Message to the member as well. If no member wishes to accept, please respect their decision.

Other forum members may of course post in the challenge thread, but are respectfully asked to keep their comments helpful to the process of getting a debate started. This is not the place to actually debate, so comments should only be about the process.

Rules for Challenges

Before debate moderators will approve a formal debate, the following must be addressed:

1. Topic: Must be relevant to Interfaith Forums, and therefore may include religion, politics, philosophy, ethics, or society. Moderators will not approve topics outside of the usual scope of IF. Topics should be clearly defined.
2. Scope: try to narrow the range over which discussion will be allowed, often by ruling out possible branches.
3. Participants and the position (affirm/oppose) they will argue: For now, this will be limited to 2 participants.
4. Number of rounds: from 3 to 10, the final round being concluding statements. Each round consists of one statement by each party, as defined by the rules.
5. Start date.
6. Who posts first: No debate can begin until this is resolved.
7. Elapsed time between statements. The maximum time that can elapse after the last post for the responder to reply. Minimal extensions may be granted in emergencies. More than 2 extensions will not be granted. Specify if grace periods are to be allowed, and the rules for grace periods (usually declining with each occurrence).
8. Maximum length of each statement: measured in words. Quotes from opponent will be counted. Be aware that there is an implied minimum number of words, in that a statement must set forth at least one argument.
9. Other rules as agreed to by the participants.

Debating

Once the rules for the debate have been agreed to, a thread will be started on the “Start Date” called “Debate: subject of debate,” and the “Challenge: subject of debate” thread will be closed. Only the debate participants and moderators may post to the debate, and all other posts will be deleted. (Members wishing to comment on the action should use the "Bleachers" thread. The action proceeds according to the rules, enforced by the moderators, until the debate is finished, at which point the debate thread will be closed.

Rules

The rules of debate, as agreed to by the participants, will of course apply. Moderators will enforce these rules by removing an offending post, which may be rewritten within the time limit, and any grace period allowed by the rules.

All of IF’s usual posting rules apply, and infractions can result in a forfeit, a deleted statement (may be revised within the time limit), text deletions, warnings, etc. Multiple occurrences may result in a forfeit. Be aware that minor infractions that might be overlooked in our usual debate forums will not be overlooked in the formal debate.

In the event of a forfeit or withdrawal, the remaining debater will be permitted to make a concluding statement.

The Bleachers

The Bleachers is a thread that allows the rest of the IF community to comment on a formal debate as it progresses. It will be called “Bleachers: subject of debate.” Debate participants should not post here, as non-debaters should not post in the debate thread proper.

Winners/Losers

There are none, at least not formally. Observers in the IF community are encouraged, however, to make their comments (“I think xxx won,” or “xxx really changed my mind on this”) in the Bleachers thread. This can prove enormously helpful to the participants in honing their debating style, or simply learning more about their topic.

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evangelicalhumanist: Greek "eu"=good and "angelos"=messenger. Spreading the good news of Humanism.