Real-time Debating
I've posted this under "debate proposals" because I'm proposing a debate format. What I mean by real-time debating is a debate with very short time restrictions to ensure quick, concise, response. I've noticed that some members seem to enjoy the rapid back and forth of chatter, but due to the difficulties of holding intelligent conversations under these conditions, the discussions usually degenerate into trivial nonsense or banter quite rapidly. The conversation is no longer interesting. I, for one, would be very interested to see if some of these members could maintain an extended, intelligent debate, under these conditions.
The idea would be to have a topic, and an overall time period of perhaps an hour or two. If some participants enjoyed it, and became proficient, they might want to try four hours. Participants would have a limited time period for response, perhaps five or ten minutes, to keep the replies short and sweet. No editing. Some sort of round robin with three or more participants might work as well, giving the individuals a little more time between posts.
Afterwards we could hold discussion, and judgement. Participants would not be judged on "winning the point", as we know this is impossible. They would be judged on their ability to stay true to the topic, adequately interpret the opponent's points, provide coherent and intelligible replies, while staying true to the time constraints. And, on how well an overall knowledge of the subject is expressed. I think that some members here, engaged in such a debate could produce some entertaining reading material.
Start with easy topics. Any thoughts, or volunteers?
The idea would be to have a topic, and an overall time period of perhaps an hour or two. If some participants enjoyed it, and became proficient, they might want to try four hours. Participants would have a limited time period for response, perhaps five or ten minutes, to keep the replies short and sweet. No editing. Some sort of round robin with three or more participants might work as well, giving the individuals a little more time between posts.
Afterwards we could hold discussion, and judgement. Participants would not be judged on "winning the point", as we know this is impossible. They would be judged on their ability to stay true to the topic, adequately interpret the opponent's points, provide coherent and intelligible replies, while staying true to the time constraints. And, on how well an overall knowledge of the subject is expressed. I think that some members here, engaged in such a debate could produce some entertaining reading material.
Start with easy topics. Any thoughts, or volunteers?
Comments (18)
There are also some kinks that would need to be worked out, like how the first person to speak would have to spend part of their allotted time to just introduce the topic and offer some loose background info. Also, how exactly would the participants do this? Google Hangout?
I think audio is too difficult. It adds the dimension of comprehending the sounds, and remembering what was said. Playback would be required, to maintain quality responses, and then what would be the point? The written word provides a better forum.
Quoting Chany
That's the whole idea, to focus on style and technique. A good discussion requires that each member focus not only on what they themselves want to say, but also on what the others are saying. This format would give participants the chance to practise rapid comprehension of written material, and rapid response, as well as give the audience a chance to criticize those who go off on a tangent, fail to display a clear understanding of what the opponent said, or write clearly It is to compare and balance interpretive skills with writing skills.
Quoting Chany
There's no need for Google Hangout, do it here. Just limit the thread to the participants only, who agree before hand to the timing factors. A mod could introduce the topic and flip a coin or something to see who goes first. After the debate the audience, as well as the participants, can pick it apart.
What I like doing more than posting on a message board is chatting. I used to frequent IRC, especially the philosophy channel on Undernet. Unfortunately, IRC has more or less died off, or at least it seems to not attract any new people. I don't know why chat isn't more popular, but I prefer to communicate online as if I were having a conversation with someone in person/in real time.
Me against you on politics mate, any time 8-)
Pace Rich and Agustino's remarks, I think politics would generate more heat than light.
Let's develop philosophical topics that we keep coming back to here.
Wait. What is the meaning of good? What is time? Is time real or just an illusion? And what is your self? :wink:
Having posted the concept, I would suggest about ten to fifteen minutes of time to reply. If the debate period was designated as two hours, this would mean 4-6 replies per participant. One would have to have the two hour time period dedicated.
Shorter reply time might mean low quality replies, and longer reply time would require a longer overall dedicated time period (very serious participants).
Also I think that the topic should be set the day before the debate so as to give the debaters a chance to catch up on the topic. I don't mean do a complete investigation, but I personally like to have some time to think through things before I have discussions on them. This might not be needed if the topic is about recent events or more common ideas, but most of those would be boring .
Maybe it could be done in video with no audio. The participants would need to mime their philosophical arguments as best as they can.