The last "How did you find America's Debate" topic (here) was started waaaaaaaay back in 2002. It's about time that we start a new one.

It's nice to know how people find us, so thanks for participating!

Mike

Mike convinced me to join.

I was looking for a site just like this during a Christmas break several years back.

Just surfing. I googled something, if it remains recorded it is on that previous thread.

I was just looking around for something on Google about a year ago, and I honestly can't remember what it was. Apparently it might have had something to do with the same-sex marriage issue, since that was what I mostly recall being discussed when I looked at the site.

I poked around, and I was intrigued by the posting rules laid down, which seemed quite unlike what you see anywhere else. Most other discussion boards have some restrictions on people getting out-of-hand, but still put up with a lot of hooey that can get really disruptive and annoying. It was encouraging to see a site that actually cares enough about rational discussion to want to do what's necessary to protect it. So, I made a mental note of it, but didn't work up the activation energy to actually sign up until rather recently.

I'm grateful to logophage for referring me to this site.

As mentioned in my Introduction topic, member Jaellon is my brother. He mentioned the site while I was recovering from an illness and was bored with nothing to do.

I was perusing the Democratic underground website about three years ago, and knew I couldn't post there, but someone mentioned this site as a place for reasonable debate. I've been hooked ever since.

I had been participating in a variety of political discussion boards but found them either too partisan (like Smirking Chimp or Free Republic) or too contentious (like Arianna Online or the now defunct State of Everything).

I did a Google search on "political discussion board" and, thanks to Mike's uncanny manipulation of search engines, found this place about two months after its launch.

My brother Radiowen clued me in on AD. Even though he hasn't been on in, well, way too long, he still likes it. I nag on him to post, but he has "more important" things to do, whatever that means. Reading this site is probably one of the most productive things I do all day (and I think I learn more here than I do in class).

I voted "I've been here so long that I don't remember". Not that 11 months qualifies as very long, but it's long enough that I can't remember how I found it. I remember I was looking for something on the net and stumbled across it.

I was on a separate board and was googling a court case about the interstate commerce act when a link took me to a post by someone here. I looked around the site and registered-the rest is history.

Hi everyone!
First of all, i ask you to tolerate my not-so-well-spoken english language because i don't know to speak it very well...

I found AD while i was doing a google search (keywords: english debates forum). I want to improve my english language and, after many searches, i found and join this forum. I don't think i will write very much because i am not very interested in politics, as i observed that most of the topics are related to political issues... but i find this a good oportunity to learn more about America.

I'll tell more about me at the presentation topic.
Thanks for listening.

Marcus.

A former member (now banned) called Go America on another forum told me about this site. Since that forum was a mess of trolls and bile, I came, saw and conquered this place

I saw a link to AD on a message board related to online gaming. It was in the Off Topic section where some people were arguing about the Iraq war.

At the time, I wasn't all that interested in politics.

I'm still not.

A former member Brunhilde referred me while we both posted on another site - now defunkt, so there's no point putting a link to it, even if it were not the mess of trolling and insults that it turned into - which was the same one moif used to post on.

Brunie changed jobs and so didn't have time to post any more, which was a shame as she was fun to have around. I've since lost touch with her altogether.

I found this site from a DMOZ listing.

I don't even remember now. It has been a long time since I have been here, but I am pretty sure it was through google about a year ago...

I was told about americasdebate by Wertz, who I shared a forum with called 'State of Everything', now deceased. He was dissatisfied by the contentiousness, as he said, and produced probably one of the greatest goodbye posts of all time. Well he had a guy named Jack to inspire him.

Thanks for bringing up unfortunate memories.

Sorry buddy, I thought you'd take it as humorous.

Heh - I did. I was also flattered by the "probably one of the greatest goodbye posts of all time". While I scarcely remember what I may have said, I somehow doubt that it was brief.

I hung out on a variety of boards but found most of them either to casual and flippant like Debate Relate and Public Debate, or just too poorly moderated like Joeuser. I also searched for users that took the time delve further into issues and tracked them across the web. After breaking War Debate I turned my attentions here have been raising kane ever since...

I did a Google search to find a debate forum about history and the Constitution.

I found America's Debate though I-Tunes. I was looking for politics programmes and literally stumbled across it. I listened to the first couple of shows and then subscribed, having found my interest sparked. Since then I have popped in to the forums when my currently busy life allowed me and have tended to listen to the shows in chunks, digesting 2 or 3 at a time.

That is almost exactly how I came to find . I was searching for a history debate forum using Google. I clicked on a link, came on the site, registered and never left.

I did a google search with key words "POLITICAL DEBATE"

This site was derided on SmirkingChimp.com and I checked it out.

It's light years better and so much more civilized.

Another member told me about it.

Cool! Our first few shows were pretty rough. We've done 39 shows now and I think we are getting the hang of it.


Hah! We're definitely different than most of the other discussion-type sites, that's for sure. Not to say that the way other sites do it is bad. There's all kinds of debate and discussion for all kinds of people.

Curiosity got me and I headed over there to see what was said. I couldn't find it. But I did find a $5k per quarter fundraiser, though. Holy cow-- $20k/year! We haven't spent (or generated) half of that-- total-- since August 1, 2002.

Thanks for reigniting this topic, and thanks to the long-term members (residents?) who chimed in, too. It's always neat to learn how people found !

Mike

Wertz invited me here, too. That was years ago.

Glad you finally made it over here SC. I hope you enjoy your stay. You've already outposted Cricket.

I could outpost her in a single post.
I guess I won't enjoy it much. My style didn't suit the moderators. Oh, well. Maybe I'll catch you at my other home one of these days.

Hmmm. No deleted posts. No strikes. No warnings that I see.

A couple of closed topics that would likely be reopened if you PM the moderator who closed them (we just want to make sure that new topics have a high likelihood at staying on track once underway).

One edited post (nothing you did wrong-- you just happened to quote a post that unintentionally broke the formatting of the forum, and every post that contained the format-breaker was edited, but not for content).

Don't give up just yet. If you have any questions, just ask. We're different than most forums, but I'm sure Wertz wouldn't have invited you here if he didn't think you would enjoy it.

Mike

I did not notice I was edited.
While I did not contact the moderator, he sent me a PM about closing my topics. There is nothing I can do to make them better, and that's why I figure this is not the place for me. I guess you could say that I'm not one for minding my p's and q's. I honestly did not think it would be difficult to post here. I'm a bit on the lazy side and not interested in changing my style or personality just to post. I can probably get input and answers to my two questions somewhere. It might not be as “civil,” but sometimes there are genuine pearls tucked into uncivil discourse.
It was going to be nice not to be called nasty names, though.

SC, I've tried to start threads that got rejected due to lack of specificity or whatever and found that quite irritating. I just post on somebody else's thread for a while. One doesn't have to play it all or nothing. I treat AD as one place to post among a number. You know two others at least. This place has a fair number of high quality posters and from various countries. In addition it gets a lot of beltway attention and a very high nonposting viewership, if exercising some persuasive influence might possibly be an attraction. The high level of moderation has the plus of keeping off cranks, preventing topic diversion and flaming and generally sustaining serious conversation and attracting serious posters.

Your posting style actually reminds me somewhat of Jaime on her blog, where she loosens up a bit. I think you'll do just fine here. Just take a break when you feel they are being a little too restrictive. Then, while at hypercrites, you can contemplate the advantages. For instance, it doesn't have Woody.

Don't tempt the beast!

I'd agree with everything Mike and Dingo said. Regarding closed threads, the Moderators tend to be very responsive - and frequently reopen new threads with a bit of editing.

Honey, I'm home!!

And no Jack. And no rodeo. And no . . . well . . .

I found this place, I can't quite remember now, I think through a search engine.

I found AD on Yahoo search. America's Debate must have been on the first page, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten that far, but I can't remember my exact search terms. I thought it was "political chat" or chat politics", but neither one brings up AD anywhere near the top. "political chat room" comes in at #22.

It looks like our search terms could use some tweaking. Also, chatmag.com, a list of political chat forums, doesn't list us at all. I'm starting to feel lucky I ever found AD.

I was on a break between gigs and was bored. I googled: debate politics.

Well, I joined this site in 2003 so I can't remember the exact keywords I used to find it, but I'm sure it was probably along the lines of "political" "debate" "forum".

I used to be a regular poster to the Everlore forums, an Everquest gaming community. In fact, a few of the posters from that site came here, including Izdaari and Rattlesnake. Both of which I haven't seen here in a while though.

I followed a link supplied by JonBon (who has been away for quite a while, I believe.)

Wow, has it really been 4 and a half years since I joined AD? Thats scary, I think I'm going to browse my early, early posts and see how radically my opinions have changed over the years.

Anyway, I still remember exactly how I found AD. I typed "Ann Coulter discussion" into Google and eventually wound up at an AD thread discussing some crazy thing she did four years ago.

I took a right at Moveon.com



Actually I believe it was a like from a long forgotten site.

I sent him that link

I followed some guy whose name I forgot (was it GoAmerica?) from another forum.

I became involved with Internet political discussions after 9/11 and posted regularly on a USA Today discussion site before and during the Afghanistan invasion. I generally took a position supporting the invasion and sympathetic to the US military's strategy against some right wing fanatics who wanted an overwhelming invasion and bombing campaign. After the Taliban were overthrown and the failure to capture or kill bin Laden, the Bush Administration began talking up the need to invade Iraq and I became super critical in on-line discussion and joined a peace group to try and prevent an invasion. The USA Today discussion site was important as a way to frame arguments and observe the war hysteria that was being created. The invasion took place and I continued to oppose the war, the occupation, and what I considered to be war crimes. Suddenly in late 2004, without notice, USA Today shut down their discussion server(s). Needing an alternative, I googled for Iraq discussion and found America Debates. Frankly, I have never found it as satisfying as the other totally open forum but it meets my needs. I still participate marginally in the Iraq forums but consider the damage done to be unredeemable and have transferred most of my attention to preventing a bombing campaign against Iran and to educating people on global warming issues.

I was refered here from, of all places- a mopar only site (for those not hot rod savvy- a mopar is a chrysler-dodge-plymouth powered vehicle, and to a lessor extent, jeep and amc) - those sites are usually very right wing, and though I have some very right wing views myself, I know edit when I see it, even when it comes from philosophies I would like to agree with. That other member was here, I can't remember his name, and he linked me- he said something to the effect of "you have to be pretty high browed or you will sink instead of swim"

I found this site they way I find most sites worth anything, through a Google search. Except it was probably something else back then, circa 2001, 2002, Momma's maybe. That one I found by searching on the keyword "search" probably in Yahoo.

I'm pretty sure the keywords were "political" and "debate" so nothing very profound. I doubt that I used "America".

My motivation was that I was bored with my routine and needed something stimulating. Yep, this has certainly helped in that area. It's a favorite break from the daily grind.

I was doing a research project for a class and just came across this site

I thought it was neat and then a while later I joined.

I found this by googling my name and "forum" and found a debate about our baby being seized. I like the site, but I rarely have time to post.