Why are the rules for America's Debate considered strict? I don't think they are. I'm glad to enter a forum where there's no flaming, no profanity, and no pornography.

It's all a matter of perception. Many people perceive our rules as being strict because many other web forums either have no rules, minimal rules, or strict rules that go unenforced.

We've found that an enforced set of specific rules is key to laying the foundation for constructive debate.

Mike

That depends on what other forums you've been to, and the kind of "debate" those forums allow, I think.

To some who come here, they expect to be able to flame other members, and use profanity laced arguments in an attempt to bully the conversation their direction. They also feel that if they say it, it's to be taken as gospel, no back-up of their position is needed. That's hardly a forum for civilized discussion, though. And most of those people don't stick around for long.

Most members here, however, are like you and I. They like coming to a forum where their ideas are challenged, where they may be asked for substantiation of their positions. They like that they can ask for an opposing debater's substantiation of their facts as well. We like the fact that the name calling and flaming are kept to an absolute minimum. It forces you to really think about the questions, respond to the topic at hand, and not have to deal with the "*** NOTICE: THIS WORD IS AGAINST THE RULES. FAILURE TO REMOVE IT WILL RESULT IN A STRIKE. ***".

I don't think the rules are too strict. If anything they're not strict enough. The problem is that stricter rules require greater vigilance and enforcement effort, and the staff are already stretched thin. Even with the rules as they are, there's a broad class of non-constructive debate behaviors that will only be enforced about half the time, leading to inconsistency which some misinterpret as bias. If the rules were stricter consistent enforcement would be even more difficult, and the inevitable complaints about enforcement would only make things worse. The moderators must strive for consistency above all, and if that means that they have to decide that some rules don't get enforced because of resource constraints that's life.

A debating forum needs to be quite strict since conversations can easily go out of control. Fortunately there seem to be very few blind iditos here, that reuqire swearing at etc So it doesnt bother me, infact I commend the mods who do a great job and this is one of the best forums I have ever come across. Expect my post count to rise rapidly.....

I'm getting miffed by the profanity filter.

I think it is just uggy.

Heh. Guess it doesn't get arcaine profanity.