Post by Tiki-Torch on Aug 2, 2006 15:07:59 GMT -5
The debate forum often breeds confrontation and heated exchanges, which contrary to popular belief isn't frowned upon per se. It's more how you act within those exchanges that leads to problems...just follow these general points and everything should be dandy.
Appropiate Debates
The forum is for debates related to world affairs such as natural events, politics, social movements and so forth. Similar debates come up often, so take some time to quickly check if the topic has arisen in recent times.
Posting Debates
We encourage you to use sources and external content to help provide some reading on a topic. You can't expect users to instantly know everything about the topic at hand. You don't need to quote the entire source, just link to it.
Posting Replies
Only join a debate if you can actually contribute and care to discuss the topic. Simply saying "I agree" or "That's rubbish", for example, is not welcome and will be instantly deleted.
Do not reply if you think you can't handle having your post discussed and replied to by others, it is clear some users just can't accept the concept of debates and become upset and unhappy when people disagree with them and argue against them.
Acceptable Behaviour
Debates will always become heated, especially with sensitive topics. We do not wish to deter such exchanges, it's all part of the experience, however we do frown heavily upon the use of personal and off-topic comments that are used to insult and attack the person and not the points put forward. Remember, just because someone disagrees with your opinion doesn't automatically mean they dislike you.
An example of this is attacking a persons intelligence directly, such as "You're an idiot for saying that" as opposed to simply disproving what they said with facts and counter-arguments, such as "What you said doesn't make sense because...". Personal insults are the poor debators way to "win" a debate, it is not welcome nor does it win a debate.
If you see or are victim of such posts/content, report the post and ignore it. By replying in kind you only worsen the debate.
Evolving Topics
Debates can often evolve into a debate about something else, and this is perfectly acceptable. However, the evolution has to be natural within the debate and not simply a user jumping onto an oft-treaded debate that is related in a very minimal way.
Moderator Actions
Moderators can and will edit insulting content or delete entire posts if they are deemed to go against the aforementioned points. We will also take further action such as banning if one continues to go against the grain.
Appropiate Debates
The forum is for debates related to world affairs such as natural events, politics, social movements and so forth. Similar debates come up often, so take some time to quickly check if the topic has arisen in recent times.
Posting Debates
We encourage you to use sources and external content to help provide some reading on a topic. You can't expect users to instantly know everything about the topic at hand. You don't need to quote the entire source, just link to it.
Posting Replies
Only join a debate if you can actually contribute and care to discuss the topic. Simply saying "I agree" or "That's rubbish", for example, is not welcome and will be instantly deleted.
Do not reply if you think you can't handle having your post discussed and replied to by others, it is clear some users just can't accept the concept of debates and become upset and unhappy when people disagree with them and argue against them.
Acceptable Behaviour
Debates will always become heated, especially with sensitive topics. We do not wish to deter such exchanges, it's all part of the experience, however we do frown heavily upon the use of personal and off-topic comments that are used to insult and attack the person and not the points put forward. Remember, just because someone disagrees with your opinion doesn't automatically mean they dislike you.
An example of this is attacking a persons intelligence directly, such as "You're an idiot for saying that" as opposed to simply disproving what they said with facts and counter-arguments, such as "What you said doesn't make sense because...". Personal insults are the poor debators way to "win" a debate, it is not welcome nor does it win a debate.
If you see or are victim of such posts/content, report the post and ignore it. By replying in kind you only worsen the debate.
Evolving Topics
Debates can often evolve into a debate about something else, and this is perfectly acceptable. However, the evolution has to be natural within the debate and not simply a user jumping onto an oft-treaded debate that is related in a very minimal way.
Moderator Actions
Moderators can and will edit insulting content or delete entire posts if they are deemed to go against the aforementioned points. We will also take further action such as banning if one continues to go against the grain.