Debates Leader

[buttons]

What do you all think of having a debates leader? I know in the past people have thought of it as pointless but I don't see the harm in it, especially as it's a way for people to earn rewards! However, despite these rewards, people never seem to want to post, although they will read the thread .

So I'm wondering if a) people aren't interested in debating full stop, b) official debates are boring, c) the rewards aren't good enough d) something else?

Do you guys think the position is pointless? I have people coming to me with ideas for debates without realising they can make it themselves!


Im just curious if there's a way I can get more people to engage in my debates? Or are people just never going to be interested?

ty for your views

[Alysha]

I tend to read them and keep up with them, but I never tend to post because it always turns to personal attacks on other members on this forum. They always go from debate, to a repetitive argument.
I don't think the debates are boring as such, it's just that they are few a far between, sometimes it might be better to throw a lighthearted on into the mix too.

[Joe]

I'm like Alysha - I follow them and always read them, but I just don't think I'm interested enough or passionate about the subjects that are being posted for me to bother about writing paragraph upon paragraph only to be insulted. I think there's certain people are love debating and, credit to them, they are either very passionate about a lot of things or have the ability to switch it on when they see the debate come up - just something I could never do myself.

If I do give you any improvements that you could make, I think better visibility across the forum as well as possibly on site to get more people involved, making the topics more lighthearted so everyone can join in (rather than just the debates gang as it seems to be) and maybe a penalty if you do see the debate turning on people, like into attacks. I think you should be able to step in and either remove them from it or penalise them!

[buttons]

I haven't seen people insulting each other since I took over from dan I know it's still happening in current affairs but I don't have power/permissions to do anything there lol. All the debates I think of are ones that I'm personally interested in but I will definitely think of some light hearted ones! If you ever do, feel free to post them yourself or suggest to me

Oh for visibility, I try to get involved with Habbox competitions/events (such as HXSS), I probably could have done more in the Christmas period though but when people don't participate I obviously lose motivation to do anything.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I secured permission for the role to be expanded when I was in post that I assume still stands... you're allowed to hand awards out for any debates or generally good discussions by users across the forum and not just in Debates or Current Affairs. I never saw why just because a good post or series of good posts by a forum member wasn't in the Debates Forum itself that the Debates Leader couldn't have handed out rewards for them.

There's been over the years numerous good debates by @Kardan; @FlyingJesus; @snr; @conservative; @Chippiewill; @The Don; and others which could be awarded for general posting awards. For example Chippiewill and conservative always tend (I think) to debate on a conservative manner and push ideas like that whereas the likes of The Don and Kardan have tended to be more radical and there's an award for that too.

As for people complaining about tone, I think many are confusing passion/real disagreement for nastiness. We have both, but more passionate on this forum. The moderators address any issues in threads in a pretty fair-handed way and personally I'd rather see people clash than everyone agree followed by smileys and +reps.

[Inseriousity.]

Lol some of the debates can get intense so I can see why people who don't feel confident enough to debate an issue with someone who's going to twist their words (dan) or sarcastically attack them (tom) or use a ton of stats (akeem) or write a huge essay (gommeinc lol well when he was around) etc don't really take part in them. Debates don't really feel like a place for people who don't feel passionate about something and unfortunately I don't think that's something you'll be able to ever change (similar things happen in real life. Everyone will remember the classroom where it's a small handful of people who contribute the most and some don't speak at all). I think it's human nature.

Whether that means the Debates Leader position is pointless, well that's up for debate, I'm not that passionate about it either way
I will say the reason I don't post that much anymore in the debates is that I've not been playing too much attention to things. I did take part in the eugenics debate and I liked the role of devil's advocate you played in that in trying to get more than a "one-reply-then-im-outta-here." That sort of thing would encourage a conversation to develop so that's good. I'll assume you have continued that.

[Lewis]

I occasionally post if it's a debate that interests me and others seem to be posting. If there's a lot of people in the debate with the same opinion and no one with my opinion, I'd probably rather not get attacked by 10 people at once!

Debates can get really irritating and angering for me personally, so I do try to avoid going into too much depth if I post. Plus I'm not too good at debating anyway.

Although if I am very passionate about something and stupidly post about it, it could end up in 10 page debate with Akeam again - which I'd rather avoid!

[abc]

What do you all think of having a debates leader?

Don't we already have one - YOU?

[MKR&*42]

Whether that means the Debates Leader position is pointless, well that's up for debate, I'm not that passionate about it either way

This is genuinely the worst pun you've ever made Michael, accidental or not
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Woops OT: I don't really ever post in debates enough to comment on this, but in the past it's certainly been a case where things end up very heated between a few people and the line between passionate debating/argumentative attitude is a thin one. However the debate topics themselves don't seem that bad and are at least relevant to current situations e.g. Gendered Prisons.

[Empired]

I would debate for fun and being attacked for daring to share my own opinion is not fun, quite simply. Plus this is gonna sound stupid and sorry but I hate posting in there because I remember always just being met with users posting millions of statistics which can be twisted to support literally any opinion depending on how you look at them and then just repeatedly being told "look at the stats look at the stats look at the stats you can't argue with the stats". To me that's just not debating. And there's no prize worth bothering with that.

I know this is only speculation but I wonder if debating on HabboxForum isn't fun because there's too few of us? Of course it gets personal because everyone knows everyone and we've all formed prejudices that we're not prepared to reconsider. I don't know how that could possibly be tackled though as "get more users" is such a cop-out answer to so many feedback threads.

I don't think the position of Debates Leader is pointless but I do think it's not being used very well at the moment. As I said above I don't think prizes are worth all the personal attacks that are doled out to everyone by everyone, but I was wondering if a Debates Leader could somehow make people feel more involved. Lewis mentioned how he wouldn't want to post if he was the only one holding a different opinion and I do think it should be the job of the Debates Leader to spark off a different (maybe slightly controversial) perspective. I don't know I could be completely wrong though lol sorry