Welcome to Formal Debate -- Questions and Answers

MarkRohfrietsch

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Hi everyone:wave:,

If you are reading this, you have already noticed that this is a new forum; and if you have read the Formal Debate Guidelines
you will note that this new forum is very similar in structure and in purpose to the Formal Debate Forum in General Theology. Along with a change in location, there are some other notable changes.


  • The owner and staff of Christian Forums has always striven to not only serve the Christian community, but to serve all of our members; orthodox, unorthodox and non christian. Formal Debate in GT was a Christian Only Forum. This forum will be open to all of our members.
  • In the past, it was found that the discussion of certain topics in open forums caused a great deal of strife in the threads (and for staff with the number of reports generated). In the interest of promoting peace, a list of "Controversial Topics and various restrictions regarding their discussion After much discussion and consideration was developed and maintained by staff. Since formal Debate is one on one and fully moderated, Members are now welcome to propose the one on one discussion and debate of most of these topics; however staff reserves the right to approve or deny a proposal in the best interest of CF.
  • In Formal Debate in GT a "Peanut Gallery" was created in the GT forum for those not participating in the Formal Debate, so they could also discuss the topic and the progress of the debate. The two debaters can not post in the PG thread until the debate is closed. They can, and often do check the PG as a bit of a barometer to gauge how it's going, and which tack they should take in their next post. This adds an additional dynamic to the debate, and allows participation out side of the debate for interested members. The Peanut Galleries will now be located in their own sub forum so they will be easy to find.
  • In further regard to the Peanut Galleries; we are trying something new when a debate involves one of the Controversial Topics. We know these topics can be emotional, and their discussion often leads to violations of our rules; so for controversial topics, that Peanut Gallery will be fully moderated. That means that when a member post, that post will be visible only to the moderators; moderators will review the post, and if no rule violations will un moderate it, and it will become visible. If there is a rule violation, staff will contact the member and either ask them to edit their post (when possible), or explain why it will not be posted... there will be no warnings or infractions issued when we moderate posts.:):thumbsup: In non controversial topic debates, the Peanut gallery will be open.
It is our hope and prayer that these changes will better serve our membership in their contemplation, exploration, understanding and growth here at Christian Forums, and that we all can have a bit of fun doing so;)!


Please feel free to ask what ever comes to mind regarding Formal Debate, and I and other members of staff will do our best to answer them for you.


Grace, peace and mercy to all!


Mark:)


Staff Supervisor.
 
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Gadarene

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Thanks for making the forum, though I'm more of a peanut gallery kind of guy ;)

If I were to debate, I wouldn't want the participants to be able to even read the peanut gallery (myself included - I'd consider it cheating ^_^). I think it's useful for nonparticipants to tackle points made as they occur, but is there a way for the participants to be blocked from viewing the peanut gallery (either while logged in or logged out) while the debate is ongoing?
 
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MarkRohfrietsch

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Thanks for making the forum, though I'm more of a peanut gallery kind of guy ;)

If I were to debate, I wouldn't want the participants to be able to even read the peanut gallery (myself included - I'd consider it cheating ^_^). I think it's useful for nonparticipants to tackle points made as they occur, but is there a way for the participants to be blocked from viewing the peanut gallery (either while logged in or logged out) while the debate is ongoing?

Thanks for stopping by:wave:.

Not cheating, because it's within the rules;), however...

I'm the kind of guy that can use all the help I can get:blush:; however, I don't have a problem should two opponents request a 'hold' be put on the peanut gallery until after the debate. Once the debate was closed, we could open the PG and of course, the opponents would be free to post in it as well. Our desire is to make this as user friendly as possible, and to accommodate as many people as we can. Please feel free to consider it.:)
 
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AGODBELIEVERlove1stfaith2

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hello



thank for creating such a group


Hi everyone:wave:,

If you are reading this, you have already noticed that this is a new forum; and if you have read the Formal Debate Guidelines
you will note that this new forum is very similar in structure and in purpose to the Formal Debate Forum in General Theology. Along with a change in location, there are some other notable changes.


  • The owner and staff of Christian Forums has always striven to not only serve the Christian community, but to serve all of our members; orthodox, unorthodox and non christian. Formal Debate in GT was a Christian Only Forum. This forum will be open to all of our members.
  • In the past, it was found that the discussion of certain topics in open forums caused a great deal of strife in the threads (and for staff with the number of reports generated). In the interest of promoting peace, a list of "Controversial Topics and various restrictions regarding their discussion After much discussion and consideration was developed and maintained by staff. Since formal Debate is one on one and fully moderated, Members are now welcome to propose the one on one discussion and debate of most of these topics; however staff reserves the right to approve or deny a proposal in the best interest of CF.
  • In Formal Debate in GT a "Peanut Gallery" was created in the GT forum for those not participating in the Formal Debate, so they could also discuss the topic and the progress of the debate. The two debaters can not post in the PG thread until the debate is closed. They can, and often do check the PG as a bit of a barometer to gauge how it's going, and which tack they should take in their next post. This adds an additional dynamic to the debate, and allows participation out side of the debate for interested members. The Peanut Galleries will now be located in their own sub forum so they will be easy to find.
  • In further regard to the Peanut Galleries; we are trying something new when a debate involves one of the Controversial Topics. We know these topics can be emotional, and their discussion often leads to violations of our rules; so for controversial topics, that Peanut Gallery will be fully moderated. That means that when a member post, that post will be visible only to the moderators; moderators will review the post, and if no rule violations will un moderate it, and it will become visible. If there is a rule violation, staff will contact the member and either ask them to edit their post (when possible), or explain why it will not be posted... there will be no warnings or infractions issued when we moderate posts.:):thumbsup: In non controversial topic debates, the Peanut gallery will be open.
It is our hope and prayer that these changes will better serve our membership in their contemplation, exploration, understanding and growth here at Christian Forums, and that we all can have a bit of fun doing so;)!


Please feel free to ask what ever comes to mind regarding Formal Debate, and I and other members of staff will do our best to answer them for you.


Grace, peace and mercy to all!


Mark:)


Staff Supervisor.
 
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MarkRohfrietsch

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blessings ,,,, i find it discouraging to see BEER as a person's signature in a christian forum .. hm hm

Well, it is a Christian Forum, but the great majority of Christians are not abstainers.;) Food, money etc. has proven very detrimental for a great many people. Moderation and responsible use of any thing is key; immoderate and irresponsible behavior with anything is a sin. We must be stewards of everything that we are given.:)

hello



thank for creating such a group

On behalf of CF; you are most welcome.
 
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TheyCallMeDavid

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Thanks for making the forum, though I'm more of a peanut gallery kind of guy ;)

If I were to debate, I wouldn't want the participants to be able to even read the peanut gallery (myself included - I'd consider it cheating ^_^). I think it's useful for nonparticipants to tackle points made as they occur, but is there a way for the participants to be blocked from viewing the peanut gallery (either while logged in or logged out) while the debate is ongoing?

Let me know if you ever graduate to a FORMAL DEBATE kind of guy , cause id like to go a few rounds with you on any subject , particularly the dangers of atheistic ideologies in a civil society.

Its not 'cheating' for a Peanut Gallery to exist ...even if Debate Participants read the responses. So what if they do and perhaps gain some additional knowledge or ammunition ; it will only add to the Formal Debate to see if the Opposition can cogently rebut .
 
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MarkRohfrietsch

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Cool! I look forward to these changes.

Also, Jesus turned water into wine. Alcohol can't be all that bad if the Son of God can make it out of the one chemical essential for life.

:)

Let me know if you ever graduate to a FORMAL DEBATE kind of guy , cause id like to go a few rounds with you on any subject , particularly the dangers of atheistic ideologies in a civil society.

Sounds like a good topic to me!:thumbsup:

Its not 'cheating' for a Peanut Gallery to exist ...even if Debate Participants read the responses. So what if they do and perhaps gain some additional knowledge or ammunition ; it will only add to the Formal Debate to see if the Opposition can cogently rebut .

In open debate we get feed back right away, in a popular thread, sometimes so much feedback, that we become overwhelmed (I've posted in threads, and came back later that same day to find that my response was 10 pages back, and no longer relevant to the direction that the thread had gone). On the other hand, in formal debate one's response, naturally, must be to their opponents previous post.

The peanut gallery can give a glimpse of not only how we are doing, but how others (not in the conversation) take the meaning and context of what is posted. That can help us tailor or response.

However, if the opponents stipulate no Peanut Gallery, I would still create one, but leave it closed until the debate has been completed.
 
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MarkRohfrietsch

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Does the moderated slash mean only the poster can see the post? I think I missed that somewhere.

Yes, the poster and the moderators; this thread is not supposed to be moderated, so I'm not sure why this happened; they are approved now (unmoderated).

Will the current closed debates continue to be available? If so where? Thanks. I think some of them are very important.

I will be moving relevant threads over here. Current proposals in the GT forum are still relevant and will be moved.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thanks for reminding me.;)
 
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Yes, the poster and the moderators; this thread is not supposed to be moderated, so I'm not sure why this happened; they are approved now (unmoderated).



I will be moving relevant threads over here. Current proposals in the GT forum are still relevant and will be moved.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thanks for reminding me.;)
Will closed debates still be available for reading. This is important to me.
 
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Yes, the poster and the moderators; this thread is not supposed to be moderated, so I'm not sure why this happened; they are approved now (unmoderated).



I will be moving relevant threads over here. Current proposals in the GT forum are still relevant and will be moved.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thanks for reminding me.;)

I take this to mean closed debates won't be available anymore.
 
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