Where DDO People At..?

Ragnar here and there. I am not ashamed of myself, so I don't repeatedly hide who I am nor the connection to who I was however many years ago.

Castin was Casten on DDO.  She can't fool me.

- Yes, I recognized you. Have any of your views changed since DDO?

Salamoalaykom brother. Sup?

- Yes, we almost had a debate once...

Always ready to serve airmax's ego, even when he's gone. What a hard @ss.

Forthelulz there, Forthelulz here.

On a side note, the Discord invite link was invalid when I clicked it.

I think your sense of humor won't answer the phone.

Ringing...

Ringing...

Bitch I am a friggin' master of disguise. Future aliases:

Caston

Castan

Castyn

Behold the untapped depths of my creative genius. I have the power to utterly reinvent myself, my range is limitless. FEAR ME.

No like everyone on the internet I continue to argue about issues I will almost certainly never change my core beliefs about.

I mean let's all be honest here.

If you mean Internet as in broad spectrum, then yes. 

If you mean DebateDotOrg (DDO), DebateIsland (DI) and Debateart.Com (DarC) then not exactly... (CreateDebate [CD] is a trollfest, it doesn't count as a proper debating website but it's ruthless banter that trains my ability to debate under pressure in ways no other site ever has)

Some do debate solely to express views they will not change, I can completely comprehend a Religions Forum main genuinely seeing DDO and DarC as much of a thoughtless cesspool of trolls as the rest of the Internet when it comes to debating. If you ventured out to any forum other than the Religion Forums and, more importantly, observed the Formal Debating, element of DDO and DarC, you'd begin to have seen a very different evolution and current status of people. These people include many of the top debaters ranked on the site. While all systems are culpable to corrupt voting screwing up the ratings system and other means to climb Elo than necessarily being the most knowledgeable and high-IQ debater, what usually is one thing you can rely on is that the people ranked at the top of the debating sites are usually the most open-minded (but not at all proportionally 1-20 is more to less or vice versa, it's dispersed but consistent with the extremes) and almost all of the people ranked on the bottom of the website were precisely there to do what you say people do on the Internet when debating. This is almost certainly true no matter how bad the website's rating system is, so long as there's genuine Formal Debating format being the means by which things are ranked and that the mods at least care enough to remove blatantly malicious, or stupid, votes.

The reason why it's almost always true that there's negative correlation between rank and how rigid one is in their views, is that the people at the top of the debate site, if it's ranked by Formal Debating and the mods at least care a little anymore to moderate ad spam and blatantly malicious votes, is that there is a secret link between the ability to debate well and the ability to change one's mind for better ideas. This is NOT as simple as 'better is more' in a directly proportional sense across a debate site's ranks but it IS very rigid if everyone were to keep at it. This includes the factor of 'debating more gets you a higher rank' because the people more enthusiastic and who would spend their spare time on a hobby as unappreciated socially and demanding intellectually and emotionally as this (trust me it's demanding emotionally if you are as dedicated as Alec or myself are to this website's ranking) then what you learn is that the people towards the top are almost always willing to consider other options and at the very least are undeniably the most likely debaters to put genuine effort into debating against their real views (or angled in between their real view and a mainstream take on it) that broaden their horizon at least in understanding why the opposition thinks what they think.

The 'flippers' who totally flip wings and severe core beliefs will always be few but you will never find that they are amongst the worst debaters unless their flips are totally random and not to do with the debates they had on the website at all, in which case there won't be that correlation.

I would have thought a champion debater is someone who can construct a good argument for something they don't believe in.

Can do it? Yes. Will do on this matter in the forums? No.

I'm aware you tried to troll me but you're supporting my case despite the tease.

i'd like to think that formal debating is for people who want hone/show off their advocacy skills and the forums are for open-ended discussion and co-operative exploration of topics, rather like brainstorming.

I don't do formal debates - its just not 'my thing' beause I don't want to be a lawyer or a politician etc.  Forums are disappointing because they end up being polarised and adversarial.  Indeed they often start out that way and get worse!

I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone change their mind or even admit to havng made a mistake or overlooked something.  It's remarkable how every poster on internet forums is an infallible(*) expert on everything from evolution and economics to international relations and quantum physics!

(* or rather incorrigible!)

 

Agreed. It's easy to debate something you ardently believe. Arguing the opposite and winning is MasterCraft.

I used to love DDO. Had some good debates there. I just read that apparently everyone from there is here now. Glad I found this site.

Welcome :)

I'm a DDO refugee. 

DDO username: SamStevens 

Outplaying there Outplayed here. And yes, my views spiritually have changed or i should say evolved, since DDO. I have also learned how to say i really don't know... which makes me a hybrid spiritual agnostic. But i am more confident in a spiritual outcome than the latter... i just accept it's also a possible outcome that you just die. And honestly, it feels a lot better knowing and not being sure. I personally always need to find humility in what i believe to feel my conclusions may also be right. I've also engaged in more of the topics than i did on DDO... politics, philosophy, and others when i see an interesting topic. But just like DDO, i disappear and reappear. If only people knew i disappear just to read what they have to say without my opinions being asserted into the conversation.  

Ramshutu here and there.

I was very off and on. For 8 years. Things went downhill when all the hardcore religious nut jobs stopped arguing evolution and started arguing for trump.

Free debate and formal debate are definitely very different environments. But the majority of debate on the internet is free debate. Informal argument.

In a formal debate you're not defending your personal identity, you're playing a game. In free debate you're defending your personal identity. And wherever people are defending their personal identities, there will be shitstorms and stubborn refusal to change.

Plus a formal debater has to actually research their stance, examine it critically, get informed. I have no problem believing that process results in more, "Hey, I didn't know as much about this as I thought I did, I think I've changed my mind."

Rosalie :)

I hail from DDO. Username Debaticus, same as here.

I'm from DDO. My soul still hurts from the loss of that site. Just popping in here to see how everyone is doing, and am happy to see that the spirit of debate is still alive and well. 

Hey Blade!! Great seeing you. It is indeed sad to see the state of DDO. I will miss the site greatly. I am glad we can all have a fresh start and a clean slate 

Great to see you man!