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Author: DebateArt.com

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ethang5
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@RationalMadman
No, wrong.
Wrong how? Mike is the one who will decide.

Influencing others is a major strategy here and you are doing it too.
So? The decision still is not mine.

If you want me to support your goal of being mod, just ask me to support you. But I will not do so. If you get it you will have to do so without my enforcement.

Good luck.
RationalMadman
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@ethang5
It is like your debate with me on here, you think you know it all until it's too late.

I don't need your enforcement if I am going to be the enforcer in the mods.


9 days later

Barney
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@DebateArt.com
Questions:

  1. What names have you gone by on other sites?
  2. What made you decide to launch this site?
  3. Why did you name it Debate Art? And anything we should infer from the name?
  4. What can we do to help?

    ...

And a couple suggestions:
  1. DA.Admin would be a good user name for you.
  2. Have a different persona(s) for casual use of the site. On top of many obvious reasons, a good vote should speak for itself, not have opinions on it dictated by it coming from the admin.
  3. I've seen people suggesting you should ask the moderator of another site for his black book (records of users): Don't! We've crashed on these shores, and should do our best to forgive past grudges; certainly those should not be institutionalized parts of our new experience here. ... If someone repeats familiar stupidity, I'll personally be faster to judge them for their habits, but I'm not the site admin, I'm allowed to be a normal petty user.
  4. Threads like this should probably be reorganized to have an updated gist section as the second post. Like you've answered all these questions, users could jump to one post with just he Q and A, rather than tracing your answers back to whom asked what, which is needless work and with a larger user base would result in questions being repeated.
  5. When disputes arise, try to think in terms of User X and Debate Y. Official rulings could mirror that, further decreasing confirmation bias. As an example:
"In a recent dispute raised by several unnamed members, Ragnar (henceforth User X, has been accused of repeated failure as a sportsman. In the topic of US military intervention (henceforth Topic Y), he has voted every time in favor of Con, to include on Debate Z when con forfeited every round until the last so that no rebuttals could be made (which should be an automatic lose), and on various other debates in Topic Y refused to penalize conduct even when con made strictly Ad Hominem attacks full of swear words and sexual slander. It is thus ruled that User X shall lose ALL voting privileges for six months, in addition to Topic Y in perpetuity." 
Smithereens
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@Barney
We've all started calling him Mike/Mikhail. It's caught on at this point.
Smithereens
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I don't even know if that's his name, but he's never corrected me or anyone else as far as I'm aware so I guess it's fine? 
Zeichen
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@Smithereens
I don't even know if that's his name, but he's never corrected me or anyone else as far as I'm aware so I guess it's fine? 
That's his name :) 

I personally call him Mikhail, lol. 

RationalMadman
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@Barney
the term blackbook doesn't mean what you think it means, trust me I know the criminal world and the meaning.


The blackbook is what pimps and massage parlors use for their inner circle of regulars. It's their best, loyal customers they put there and list their specific kinks and stuff.

the black book is MOST significantly used by high end dominant, female escorts with well-known clients as then it's not just 'dirty' but embarassing the kind of stuff they've done with the dominatrix.
Barney
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@RationalMadman
That's quite the bad mental image you've put in my head.

Imabench
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Is there a timeline on when character limits could be implemented for debates? Id be more then happy to put out 4 or 5 debate ideas that have been swimming around in my head, but I want to be able to keep the debates brief so that readers dont feel like their doing PhD research when deciding how to vote. 
David
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@Imabench
the current max is 30K I believe, but that’s far too much IMO. I think we need options of max characters 
DebateArt.com
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@Imabench
I'll jump to the debates section in a week, more or less, and arguments preview, chars limits and some other things will be there in a few days after that :)
Castin
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@DebateArt.com
Why did you ban vagabond and Willows?
DebateArt.com
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@Castin
They were misbehaving in the religion forum. Lots of Insults, topics spam and etc.
Castin
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@DebateArt.com
Gotcha, thanks. I just missed what went down.

Um. Do you consider participation in flamewars a bannable offense?
Castin
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Because I'm really hoping not, at the moment. They're good members who are just caught up in a nasty brawl.
keithprosser
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@Castin
I'd consider one day suspensions for flaming (with something more severe for persistent flaming).

Castin
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@keithprosser
Well we do know temp bans have been used and are in the toolbox. So that suggestion is doable. Although I'm not clear on how many of the previous bans have been temp bans or permabans, or what behavior lands you a temp ban vs permaban.

keithprosser
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@Castin
I think a thread that announces disciplinary actions would be useful.  Make it writeable only by the admin because its for announcing bans, not debating them.



DebateArt.com
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@Castin
I barely care about flamewars until it gets completely outta hand. What I dislike is random unnecessary insults, like what Vagabond practiced and threads spam, like what Willis did. It's really irritating for many people. I mean, if you don't believe in God and don't like people that do, it doesn't mean that you have to express it in 50 goddamn topics created in a day's time, especially when lots of people are not too happy with it. 

I am really flexible when it comes to banning and try not go for it when it's not necessary but something it's just the only way it seems.
Castin
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@DebateArt.com
Well I've never seen a flamewar without unnecessary insults, though they're not particularly random insults. But I agree that is problem behavior. Can I ask if there is anything going on right now that you consider out of hand enough to take action?
DebateArt.com
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@Castin
I believe there was one thread here with a fight happening between imabench and ethang5 and I am gonna take a look into it today later, maybe it'd make sense to just delete the topic and be done with it but I don't know yet.
Castin
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@DebateArt.com
Thanks for the feedback as always. If you mean the Ridiculous Flamewars thread, it would be a shame to get rid of blamonkey's OP.
DebateArt.com
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@Castin
Sure, I am always here :) Yeah, that was my thought too, I guess we'll see
ethang5
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@Castin
There is something else to consider.

Say troll X insults person A out of the blue. Person A replies in kind. And on it goes.

If Mike bans both of them, what do you think happens the next time troll Y insults someone out of the blue? Yes. He takes it for fear of being banned.

The site has then become a troll-fest because the abused and the abuser have been made morally equivalent. Both are bannable.

Bans should not be a tool only to quell unrest, but to correct injustice. Bans can show members that it is important to the management of the site that people are treated fairly.

Bans used only to silence unrest can be manipulated to ban whomever the troll targets. If membership sees that the mod(s) don't really care about who was right and who was wrong, they will lose faith in the process and we will end up with a troll-fest again.

Sometimes, carving the baby in two is not the best option.
EtrnlVw
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@DebateArt.com
How the heck do you deactivate an account???
DebateArt.com
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@EtrnlVw
How the heck do you deactivate an account???
That's not exactly a polite way to ask questions. But there's no interface for that yet. You want to completely delete it? Or what is it exactly?