If Incorporating Cross Examination Is "Easy", DART should do it.
The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.
After 1 vote and with 5 points ahead, the winner is...
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Standard
- Number of rounds
- 4
- Time for argument
- Two weeks
- Max argument characters
- 8,000
- Voting period
- One month
- Point system
- Multiple criterions
- Voting system
- Open
Full resolution: If the Cost of incorporating Cross Examination is negligible (i.e., it takes little effort, time, money, etc. to add in a Cross Examination Feature, perhaps similar to a real time chat, such as Edeb8's Cross Examination system as an example), then Debate Art should incorporate the Cross Examination System.
Which Cross Examination system will I be vouching for?
Edeb8's Cross examination system. If there are any flaws, con may ask if pro can address these flaws.
How will Cross Examination factor into debate?
The two may ask each other questions in a chat format for everyone to see, so that some parts of the arguments may be cleared up with some quick questions or phrasing. This will be useful in more complex debates such as Abortion to get over some arguments that may take many many iterations of back-and-forth to complete.
Formal definition of Cross Examination:
Cross-ex, short for cross-examination, is a period of time between speeches where opponents ask each other questions to clarify and better understand each other's case (and, if all goes well, an important concession for you to win the debate).
Ultimately, you can think of cross-ex as another speech, except instead of continuous talking, you actually engage with your opponent. During this time, you are given the opportunity to demonstrate confidence and credibility that will allow you to become a more persuasive speaker and help you win speaker points.
Source: https://thedebateguru.weebly.com/cross-examination.html#:~:text=Cross%2Dex%2C%20short%20for%20cross,you%20to%20win%20the%20debate).
This is a very close one.
Pro's argument is that the goal of incorporating Cross-Examining should be to explore the levels of an opponent's points deeper in order to get to the truth and that honesty should be prioritized over the conventional parlor tricks normally used to win a debate. The example of how cross-examining is used in courts to highlight deceptiveness and inconsistencies is a great one that supports Pro's point. While Pro does make convincing statements concerning the use of CE and gives great examples that would be ideal for those striving for logical consistency, he fails to provide reasons for why we need CE and there is a lack of an explanation of why CE is even necessary. There's also a lack of sources or empirical evidence that would even suggest that the use of CE would be beneficial for a site like CE.
While Con may not be wrong, he is ignoring the first half of the Resolution. Con mentions that the active userbase on DART is currently very small and that adding CE runs the risk of pushing customers away. This is a compelling reason, but it makes a very bold claim that speaks with such certainty, but Con provides no evidence to suggest that this is even true. It's based only on personal feeling. Furthermore, just because Con admits he personally would stop using the site, how can he infer that others would do the same? This argument is sufficient enough on its own simply with the mention of the amount of people currently using the site and the risk that it would cause, but just because it's a good argument doesn't make it a valid rebuttal simply because it doesn't address the topic's first clause, "If incorporating CE is easy,"
The rest of Con's rebuttal explains that of all the people on DART, this is the first time anyone has requested the need for CE. This is a valid rebuttal because it demonstrates why CE is unnecessary. However, the rest of Con's argument goes on explaining why adding CE would be too difficult which completely misses the mark by failing to acknowledge the prompt.
Pro counters this by mentioning Con's lack of evidence, suggesting the potential that CE could have in the future and that it adds more diversity in terms of options for debating. Pro also mentions that Con's argument about time management is lacking evidence and points out that he is ignoring the title of the debate. The comparison between the judicial system and DART was a strong one, Pro calls out Con for dismissing this example by implying that he was using a False Equivalence fallacy without giving details to back this up. Pro accuses Con of using a Generalization fallacy and uses Con's own actions to attempt to prove the need for Cross-Examination, which was a really desperate tactic and inconsistent with Pro's own philosophy.
Round 3 is where Con presents his strongest case. He firsthand demonstrates at best how CE could even be counter-productive by illustrating that if Pro's goal is to discover the truth of an argument, CE runs the risk of only making the opponent's argument stronger. That it could possibly backfire. In this round, Con also picks a part the example used by Pro previously, by elaborating on the distinction between the judicial system and an internet debate forum through suggesting that using a form of arguing used by lawyers could be deconstructed on an informal setting like the forums. Con also points out that the forums already have everything that Pro could ever ask for.
Both opponents forfeited a round and Pro failed to meet the criteria for the Burden of Proof while Con struggled, but eventually pulled through.
In conclusion, Pro mentions great advantages of a CE system but fails to demonstrate the need for it. Remember, the word "should" in the title. DART "should" add CE. The main question remains unanswered, why "should" DART add CE? Meanwhile, Con's arguments are great but don't address the resolution until the very end by demonstrating the potential failures of CE and how it is unnecessary for DART.
Con also provided more sources by pulling directly from the website as an example.
4 days left. A vote is helpful.
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>Reported Vote: Sir.Lancelot // Mod action: Removed
>Voting Policy: info.debateart.com/terms-of-service/voting-policy
>Points Awarded: 6 points to Con, 1 point to Pro
>Reason for Decision: Pro didn't provide many compelling reasons for incorporating Cross-Examining.
However, Con demonstrated many reasons why Cross-Examining would be an inconvenience, such as the lack of a coding team and the overall amount of work would fall to one person. The idea that people would lose interest in the site.
Con backed up his reasoning with logical explanations. However, the forfeiting of a round merits the loss of a point.
>Reason for Mod Action:
The argument points are insufficiently explained. The voter does provide some analysis of Con's arguments, but is required to specifically assess Pro's arguments as well. It is insufficient to state that they "didn't provide many compelling reasons" to affirm - if there were compelling reasons, the voter has to state why they were insufficient to win him the debate, and if there weren't compelling reasons, the voter has to state why they weren't compelling.
The source points are insufficiently explained. The voter doesn't assess sources presented by either side, and must assess sources presented by both to award these points.
The S&G point is insufficiently explained. The voter doesn't assess spelling or grammar in their RFD.
The conduct point is insufficiently explained. Both sides forfeited a round, yet the voter awards this point by only recognizing one of them.
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I am poking the debate's resolution, seriously, like I always do. Unless people can actually prove me wrong on all fronts or I am just being a dumbasss I am usually correct. The advantage of that is I always argue exactly what the resolution is, exactly.
Part of me believes you’re poking fun at the debate’s resolution.
Another part of me thinks you’re being serious.
I am reporting your vote because you are not being clear enough. If you still think I won this debate, you can write the same verdicts with a little bit more details, hmm.
Unfortunately a modeling contest took away most of my free time resulting in me unable to find large chunks of time to type it here, which would take over an hour at least. It is highly likely that I will forfeit the second round although I do have ideas for rebuttals.
That is not saying I "will not" respond. If I do, that just means time cleared up, although it is highly unlikely.
Looking forward to seeing Intelligence’s rebuttals.
either is possible. Edeb8's creator somehow managed to implement it in between rounds shown as a small chat window between the two debaters.
Would cross examination take place in the comments or a new tab?
Con cannot win
why not, I like to have some fun.