JordanL
03-13-2007, 08:04
The Politics Forum Debate Club is a a group of people who are committed to constructive and open debate on politics
The debate club is open for all to apply. Anyone may apply to join the debate club. The club is meant to be a group of people who are committed to open, constructive, intellectual political discourse between each other and other members on the subject of politics. Members will be considered to be able to articulate themselves in both their politics and their person.
Not everyone is able to accurately represent their politics. This does not mean that they don't understand their politics, nor that they don't understand the reasons behind them, however the debate club is reserved for those who can articulate both themselves and their politics in the interest of constructive debate.
You can maintain any ideology you wish. The debate club does not discriminate against any political view, popular or unpopular, if adherence to the rest of these guidelines is maintained. You are encouraged to define yourself instead of letting others define you.
There will be debate club threads from time to time. The debate club will occasionally decide on a topic of debate which is to be discussed, and a debate between members will be held in the forum for a short period of time, (usually no more than a week). During that time we ask that only debate club members respond to the topic. After the debate is over, comment on both the topic and the debate itself is encouraged.
As mentioned before, not all people are able to articulate themselves. It is in the interests of smooth debate that we ask only debate club member participate in debate club topic threads. While a debate is on, friendly rooting for a member who articulates your views is encouraged, though not in thread. This means positive reinforcement. We ask that booing for members you don't agree with is refrained from.
Adherence to basics of political discourse will be required. I outlined in a guide to political debate (http://www.ps3forums.com/showthread.php?t=60586) some simple and easy guidelines and standards for political debate. Debate club members should put forth their best effort to adhere to these and any other community guidelines.
Members are to be given no special authority on any given topic unless they are themselves an authority on that topic. Being in the debate club does not mean a person is any more right or wrong on any subject. As such, there will be zero tolerance for flagrant elitism originating from the membership of one member or another. For some members, the only barrier to membership may be their non-native English speaking skills. For others, it will be time. For others, simple things like patience or vocabulary. None of these things make a person any better or worse, right or wrong than the next person. They just streamline the debate process itself.
Flamebaiting rules will be more mild in this section in general, but especially for debate club threads. In accordance with political debate as a whole, flamebaiting rules will be slightly more relaxed. This is for two reasons: (1) it is less realistic to expect a person to not flamebait when discussing a political topic and (2) flamebaiting typically is used to provoke responses from less articulate posters, who theoretically do not comprise the debate club. This does not mean that attack other people, name calling, open flaming or baiting another person are acceptable, it means that the community is expected more so to be able to recognize when something is and isn't constructive to the debate.
No one is to hold a users political views against them in any capacity, either here or elsewhere on the forums. We fully expect that just because two people disagree passionately on a topic here in the politics forum they will not proceed to hunt each other down throughout other threads and sabotage one another. There will zero tolerance for this behavior. If you feel this is occurring to you, simply document the posts and report it.
The ability to have a good laugh is critical. Being able to laugh with your intellectual foe is a must. At the end, most political debate is a philosophical disagreement, but that does not mean you cannot joke and have fun with the people whom you don't agree with. Just because a person is a communist does not mean that you cannot both enjoy the latest episode of South Park or the humor behind a comic strip.
Please, feel free to suggest or request clarification or addition to any of these guidelines. Below you will find a list of each member of the debate club, along with their self-described political orientation. For these purposes, we will be using the common meanings of words such as 'liberal', 'conservative', 'libertarian', etc.
To apply, please PM JordanL or reply here.
Red = More Conservative Than Liberal
Blue = More Liberal Than Conservative
Libertarians
JordanL
Moderates
Axe&Hammer
Supaman²²³
THEREALNEXTGEN
Firefox
Ideologues
momomike3
DOGG
DINAMO788
Current Debate Thread: http://www.ps3forums.com/showthread.php?t=63761
The debate club is open for all to apply. Anyone may apply to join the debate club. The club is meant to be a group of people who are committed to open, constructive, intellectual political discourse between each other and other members on the subject of politics. Members will be considered to be able to articulate themselves in both their politics and their person.
Not everyone is able to accurately represent their politics. This does not mean that they don't understand their politics, nor that they don't understand the reasons behind them, however the debate club is reserved for those who can articulate both themselves and their politics in the interest of constructive debate.
You can maintain any ideology you wish. The debate club does not discriminate against any political view, popular or unpopular, if adherence to the rest of these guidelines is maintained. You are encouraged to define yourself instead of letting others define you.
There will be debate club threads from time to time. The debate club will occasionally decide on a topic of debate which is to be discussed, and a debate between members will be held in the forum for a short period of time, (usually no more than a week). During that time we ask that only debate club members respond to the topic. After the debate is over, comment on both the topic and the debate itself is encouraged.
As mentioned before, not all people are able to articulate themselves. It is in the interests of smooth debate that we ask only debate club member participate in debate club topic threads. While a debate is on, friendly rooting for a member who articulates your views is encouraged, though not in thread. This means positive reinforcement. We ask that booing for members you don't agree with is refrained from.
Adherence to basics of political discourse will be required. I outlined in a guide to political debate (http://www.ps3forums.com/showthread.php?t=60586) some simple and easy guidelines and standards for political debate. Debate club members should put forth their best effort to adhere to these and any other community guidelines.
Members are to be given no special authority on any given topic unless they are themselves an authority on that topic. Being in the debate club does not mean a person is any more right or wrong on any subject. As such, there will be zero tolerance for flagrant elitism originating from the membership of one member or another. For some members, the only barrier to membership may be their non-native English speaking skills. For others, it will be time. For others, simple things like patience or vocabulary. None of these things make a person any better or worse, right or wrong than the next person. They just streamline the debate process itself.
Flamebaiting rules will be more mild in this section in general, but especially for debate club threads. In accordance with political debate as a whole, flamebaiting rules will be slightly more relaxed. This is for two reasons: (1) it is less realistic to expect a person to not flamebait when discussing a political topic and (2) flamebaiting typically is used to provoke responses from less articulate posters, who theoretically do not comprise the debate club. This does not mean that attack other people, name calling, open flaming or baiting another person are acceptable, it means that the community is expected more so to be able to recognize when something is and isn't constructive to the debate.
No one is to hold a users political views against them in any capacity, either here or elsewhere on the forums. We fully expect that just because two people disagree passionately on a topic here in the politics forum they will not proceed to hunt each other down throughout other threads and sabotage one another. There will zero tolerance for this behavior. If you feel this is occurring to you, simply document the posts and report it.
The ability to have a good laugh is critical. Being able to laugh with your intellectual foe is a must. At the end, most political debate is a philosophical disagreement, but that does not mean you cannot joke and have fun with the people whom you don't agree with. Just because a person is a communist does not mean that you cannot both enjoy the latest episode of South Park or the humor behind a comic strip.
Please, feel free to suggest or request clarification or addition to any of these guidelines. Below you will find a list of each member of the debate club, along with their self-described political orientation. For these purposes, we will be using the common meanings of words such as 'liberal', 'conservative', 'libertarian', etc.
To apply, please PM JordanL or reply here.
Red = More Conservative Than Liberal
Blue = More Liberal Than Conservative
Libertarians
JordanL
Moderates
Axe&Hammer
Supaman²²³
THEREALNEXTGEN
Firefox
Ideologues
momomike3
DOGG
DINAMO788
Current Debate Thread: http://www.ps3forums.com/showthread.php?t=63761