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For me, there's a lot of issue areas that are important to me, but which I don't really have strong stances on. These are some issues which are both important to me and which I have strong stances on.
(1) I believe that climate change (i.e., global warming) exists, is human-caused, and is a significant threat. Therefore, I strongly support significant climate change mitigation policies, including a significantly higher gas tax, a tax on carbon emissions on all households and corporations (exempting some low-income and lower-middle class households), significant investment in clean energy, and stronger, enforceable international agreements to attempt to limit global land-sea mean temperature increase at 2.5 degrees Celsius at least.
(2) I'm quite strongly in favor of free trade. Between developed countries, there are very few existing tariffs, so I am skeptical of many recent trade deals, though I lean in favor of ones such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. However, I think India -- which is the country I'm from -- should significantly liberalize its policies toward trade and economic globalization more generally. The extent of tariffs that it places could be quite destructive to economic growth and long-term poverty alleviation. There's certainly some constraints in developing countries such as India -- for instance, I think tariff reductions should be phased in, and I don't support significant tariff reductions in some industries such as textiles, where the effects could be devastating; in addition, I would want to avoid instances such as the dumping of Chinese goods in sub-Saharan Africa -- but I'm generally in favor of free trade. This support for free trade also translates into opposition for things like farm subsidies that developed countries have in plenty.
(3) I'm also very pro-immigration -- in particular, I would make it much easier for skilled immigrants to come into developed countries (at least if I'm assessing this exclusively from the perspective of what policies would maximize benefit to those very developed countries). I think unskilled immigrants are also generally an economic good, but that's something I'm much less sure about (due to effects such as lower trust in communities, economic effects like loose labor markets causing wage depression and unemployment for local workers).
(4) I very firmly believe in the independence of central banks. The election of central bankers or democratic legislatures dictating monetary policy/issuing directions to the central bank -- as India's current Finance Ministry is trying to do with the Reserve Bank of India -- could potentially be very destructive. I oppose the "audit the Fed" act. I oppose executive leaders going after central bank leaders like Trump is doing with his own appointments without any real understanding of the issues. There's a reason central banks are independent: incompetent elected officials are struggling, as it is, with public policy they do have power over. It would be genuinely scary if the people in charge of monetary policy were Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, and their colleagues.
(5) I support really strong animal welfare legislation. I believe nonhuman animals have much more moral worth than is accorded to them and the sheer amount of suffering inflicted by factory farming is despicable. I support really tough regulations to protect animal welfare and to reduce meat consumption, including ethical warning labels on meat packaging, potentially sin taxes on some forms of meat, and so on, complemented with significant subsidies for consumers of vegetarian/vegan products. This would reduce net suffering and help combat the effects of climate change and environmental destruction caused by meat consumption. Moreover, I support strong legislation to protect wildlife from human encroachment and devastation.
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What are some political issues important to you when it comes for voting for a proposition or candidate, or more generally? What are your stances on them?
Just to be super-clear on what I mean: you can't say an issue is important to you but you're undecided on what stance to take. I mean specific stances that you would like administrators, politicians, and bureaucrats to take. In other words, evaluate two things: (1) The probability that you think your stance is correct. (2) The magnitude of importance of that issue to you.
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@drafterman
I'm not certain of this, but (1) harassment and malicious CoC violations could occur via PM and moderators need evidence to act to prevent such violations and (2) it would allow moderation to better enforce restraining orders.
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I'd be in favor of the primary moderator having PM access.
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@David
So all bans are perma-bans?We can ban the account, but that’s not reversible.
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@DebateArt.com
This just seems like a DDO mass PM. Or an email thread.
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@DebateArt.com
Any updates on a "choose winner" option being created as an alternative to the 7-point system for voting? (To be clear, the option would exist for the Instigator of a debate.)
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@DebateArt.com
You mean all arguments by both sides? Then that's fine.Okay, so I have changed the implementation to the one mentioned before, all forfeits OR no casted votes make the debate failed and prevent the rating change.
If it's only by one side, I still have a problem with it.
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@DebateArt.com
Two problems with this:Debates with forfeited arguments ... are now considered failed and are not the subject for the rating change.
(1) It's possible to have a debate with a single forfeit, where a debater nonetheless does a good job and ends up taking the win on arguments. Those are debates that absolutely should count for rating change.
(2) Even if one debater forfeits, it should be considered because:
(a) It creates a rating-based incentive to not forfeit.
(b) It's still a fair-and-square win; it doesn't matter if a debater forfeited, they made the choice to lose the debate. Or, at least, that's a community norm that should be followed to deter forfeits.
I think you should change it back, or, at least, see what the community thinks rather than just make changes because two people thought those fundamental changes should exist.
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@DebateArt.com
Recommendation: create a list of major social/political issues, allow users to pick "Pro," "Con," "Undecided," and "No Opinion," and display on profiles.
My recommended list:
Affirmative action
Angela Merkel
Assault weapons ban
Ban on pornography
Belt and Road Initiative
Bitcoin
Black Lives Matter
Border wall
Brexit
Capital gains tax
Capital punishment
Carbon taxes
Citizens United v. FEC
Domestic surveillance
Donald Trump
Drone strikes
Electoral College
Emmanuel Macron
Estate tax
FairTax
Federal Reserve
Fracking
Free trade
Free trade
Global warming is human-caused
Government access to encrypted devices
Government-funded space exploration
Hard drug legalization
Hate speech prohibition
Independent redistricting commission
Jacinda Ardern
Justin Trudeau
Legal abortion
Legal gun ownership
Legalized assisted suicide
Legalized prostitution
Mandatory vaccinations
Marijuana legalization
#MeToo
Medicare-for-All
Military interventionism
Minimum wage
Narendra Modi
Negative income tax
Net neutrality
Nuclear energy
Obamacare
PETA
Presidential term limits
Progressive taxation
Racial profiling
Right-to-work laws
Rodrigo Duterte
Safe spaces in universities
Same-sex marriage
Sanctuary cities
School vouchers
Social Security
Socialism
Stimulus spending
Theresa May
Torture
Trigger warnings
United Nations
Universal basic income
Voluntary euthanasia
Voter photo ID requirements
Workfare
Angela Merkel
Assault weapons ban
Ban on pornography
Belt and Road Initiative
Bitcoin
Black Lives Matter
Border wall
Brexit
Capital gains tax
Capital punishment
Carbon taxes
Citizens United v. FEC
Domestic surveillance
Donald Trump
Drone strikes
Electoral College
Emmanuel Macron
Estate tax
FairTax
Federal Reserve
Fracking
Free trade
Free trade
Global warming is human-caused
Government access to encrypted devices
Government-funded space exploration
Hard drug legalization
Hate speech prohibition
Independent redistricting commission
Jacinda Ardern
Justin Trudeau
Legal abortion
Legal gun ownership
Legalized assisted suicide
Legalized prostitution
Mandatory vaccinations
Marijuana legalization
#MeToo
Medicare-for-All
Military interventionism
Minimum wage
Narendra Modi
Negative income tax
Net neutrality
Nuclear energy
Obamacare
PETA
Presidential term limits
Progressive taxation
Racial profiling
Right-to-work laws
Rodrigo Duterte
Safe spaces in universities
Same-sex marriage
Sanctuary cities
School vouchers
Social Security
Socialism
Stimulus spending
Theresa May
Torture
Trigger warnings
United Nations
Universal basic income
Voluntary euthanasia
Voter photo ID requirements
Workfare
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Have you ever read Yuval Harari's Sapiens?
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@triangle.128k
Knew you'd make your appearance.
You can keep your sexism to yourself. :)
Edit: In fact, I even preempted this -- see post #23.
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@RationalMadman
Pretty sure Policy is only a thing in the US...
If you meant me by "they," though, I'm from India.
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@Smithereens
It's sort of a combination of what I'm guessing would be "Matter" and "Method" in Australia, though it's much more hinged on arguments/warrants/impacts that are dropped or remain "on the flow" at the end of the round.
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@DebateArt.com
Yay, thanks!Okay folk, I'll change that in the next release. Not sure when it's gonna happen though, have a pile of things to manage after getting back from the vacation
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@RationalMadman
I don't think I invented it...
It's literally the status quo on DDO, there's nothing to invent. I believe kbub was responsible for the suggestion on DDO.
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@DebateArt.com
Edit:
My proposal would be:
(1) Add an "other" option.
(2) Change it from "sex" to "gender."
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@Death23
Sure, I don't have a problem with female, male, and other.
I'm also fine with bsh1's options (apart from intersex and transgender) as well as an "other" option.
(btw, sex isn't binary either, but I agree on the standard being asking for gender and not sex.)
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@bsh1
Sure, I'm cool with genderfluid remaining.
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@Death23
That would just open up to sexist trolls writing in their gender as "F-35 fighter aircraft" -- which I've seen trolls on DDO say and do.Perhaps having it as a write-in field would work.
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@bsh1
Then people should at least be able to tick multiple options if they want.
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@bsh1
The majority of intersex and trans people identify with a gender identity that's female, male, or nonbinary.
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@DebateArt.com
Recommendation:
To the list of options when you click on your own profile picture on the top right corner (e.g. "edit profile," "activities," "favorites," "debates"), also add a direct link to view the profile page, so users can do it with one click once they're on DebateArt.com and don't have to do edit profile --> view profile page.
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@Vaarka
Neither of those posts is relevant to the title or the OP...
Do you think there should be an "other" option for gender on DART?
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@bsh1
I would argue that the terms are distinct.Genderqueer implies that a person identifies with a combination of gender identities (such as male and female). Genderfluid implies that one oscillates between discrete gender identities. And transgender implies, of course, that one identifies with a gender which is the converse of one's biological sex. Intersex implies that one is hermaphroditic, that is, biologically neither male nor female, but both.Intersex =/= genderqueer, because it implies a biologic component which shapes one's gender identity. Similarly, it is not male or female because it is hermaphroditic.Genderfluid =/= male, female, intersex, etc. because it implies that one shifts, based on the situation, between two discrete identities. This is different from genderqueer, in that genderqueer implies a stable identity across all situations.Transgender =/= male or female because, like intersex, it is tied relationally to one's biological sex; that is, it denotes that one's gender identity is the opposite of one's biological sex.
I didn't say the terms meant the same. I meant the terms could coincide, i.e. are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Transgender could absolutely be male or female... that's what trans women and trans men are, people who were assigned the opposite sex at birth but transitioned to a gender identity that is still a gender identity. The same with trans genderqueer people.
Intersex people could also be genderqueer because they could, if they choose to, identify as genderqueer while also incidentally being intersex; similarly, intersex people may identify as female or male.
Genderfluid, similarly, isn't mutually exclusive to being female, male, or nonbinary at particular points in time.
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@bsh1
The DDO options were pretty bad, if I recall correctly. Your options look pretty good.
The only problem is many of them aren't mutually exclusive. "Transgender" isn't mutually exclusive to "male" or "female" or any other gender. "Intersex" isn't mutually exclusive to male, female, or genderqueer. "Genderfluid" similarly isn't mutually exclusive to any of the genders. And these seem to be a combination of possible biological sexes and genders. So I'm not really sure about those three, at least. Maybe you could tick multiple options.
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I think DART should have an "other" option in the gender category, in case someone doesn't identify as female or male (e.g. nonbinary people). This is pretty much the status quo on DDO.
Even for those of you who believe that gender is equivalent to biological sex, there's a whole community of intersex people who don't fit within the binary.
In any case, even if gender is actually a binary (which I don't think it is), there is no harm in letting people who don't think it is classify themselves as not being female or male.
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@DebateArt.com
Sure, will do.Well, it's not a problem for me to add the thing but could you guys create a topic somewhere and ask what other people think? It's all new to me and I don't want to mess up the whole situation implementing things without giving it a proper thought.
I'll point out that it is the status quo on DDO.
DDO offers the following options for gender:
Female, male, agender, androgyne, bigender, genderqueer, prefer not to say
I think the options should just be female, male, other, prefer not to say.
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@DebateArt.com
Also, it's untrue re: biological sex as well -- intersex people exist and they don't fit within those two options even as far as biological sex is concerned.So I've talked with some guy that understands something about all that stuff and apparently, what you are talking about is gender but on the profile page we have sex therefore only two options are available. So I don't think it's gonna change since it's a different thing.
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@DebateArt.com
So I've talked with some guy that understands something about all that stuff and apparently, what you are talking about is gender but on the profile page we have sex therefore only two options are available. So I don't think it's gonna change since it's a different thing.
Except biological sex is *meaningless* to know.
Nobody cares what your biological sex is. The thing which you socially express -- and the reason there is such an option on a profile page -- is gender, so that people know what pronouns to use while talking about you in the third person, etc.
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@DebateArt.com
Any update on adding an "other" option under gender in profile pages?
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@Logical-Master
Like I said, I debate in a different format than LD/PF/Policy.
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@Logical-Master
To a certain extent maybe, but formal debate is bogged down by too many rules that don't exist anywhere else in life. "Dropped" and "extended" arguments is a great example. Just because the other party does not address every single thing you just said doesn't mean they concede to the parts they didn't address and judges/juries understand that.
This isn't necessarily true of all formal debate formats, though. The ones I debate in don't judge "by the flow" in that extreme way.
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There's a lot of former HS debaters in this community, but I don't think there are many current high school debaters.
When I joined DDO, there were a few active ones (e.g. debatability). Is anyone on here currently a high school debater? What format do you debate in?
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@DebateArt.com
I really think moderators should be able to remove votes after the voting period expires -- a voter could just cast a nonsensical strategic vote 5 minutes before the debate is over and the voting period expires, and that vote bomb would stick. That's why, on DDO, the policy is that votes should be removed if they don't meet the standards up to one month after the voting period expires.
re: the concern that the rankings and Elo would change -- yes, they would. What's the problem with that?
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@RationalMadman
At least for me, I just have to click it once, no need to hold down the mouse and wait. It turns red right after.
Don't see why it would be different for you.
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@secularmerlin
I often use a preference for coffee or tea to illustrate my beliefs on the subject of freewill. Just wondering if that had anything to do with this.
Nah.
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@secularmerlin
Is this a freewill question?
Not sure what "freewill question" means.
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@Mopac
That's quite a bizarre definition of "God." If that were the definition of God held by the majority of people, it'd make no sense to worship it, to personify it in some manner, and to consider it a source of moral authority. Defining "God" as "truth" or "reality" is a clever way to say that God exists, but the atheist's argument isn't to contest that definition of God.
I'd also note that "ultimate reality" is different than "truth" or "reality." Merriam-Webster itself clarifies this: "the supreme or ultimate reality, such as the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe."
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@DebateArt.com
Recommendation: Allow the reporting of votes for at least a one-month period after the voting period of a debate closes.
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@bsh1
I wouldn't say that Europeans prefer things which are fancy, they simply prefer things which are different. Europeans drink quite a lot of coffee, but in the form of espressos and cappuccinos. They also treat coffee as a social drink--you don't rush in to grab your Starbucks and then leave. You buy your coffee and you sit down and stay for half an hour or more. The whole "to-go" culture is much more de-emphasized in Europe.
I haven't been to the US in ages, maybe the "to-go" culture there is extreme, but I definitely encountered it in Europe, including with food/beverages.
Coffee isn't that popular in London, it's super-popular as a "to-go" drink in France though, based on personal experience. It's definitely something that's hastily grabbed from a coffee shop and taken to the train, at least in some times of the day in urban Paris.
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"I've done it. I've memed a political disagreement. I'm officially a radical centrist." -a friend of mine
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@Vader
I really can't tell if your post is satirical...
Because if you're serious, you're really not helping your side, lol.
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@DebateArt.com
What about a feature that allows you to add friends?
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@DebateArt.com
Any update on creating a "select winner" option for voting, which Instigators can pick instead of the current 7-point system (with sources, spelling and grammar, conduct, and arguments)?
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@Smithereens
A lot of your suggestions on fallacies and structuring arguments/rebuttal are there in the "Official Guide to Debating and Tournaments" linked in post #2 of the thread in question.
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@DebateArt.com
I think instigators should have an option to edit the debate description after issuing the challenge, similar to the system on DDO, without having to delete the entire debate and its comments and start a new one.
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@DebateArt.com
Recommendation:
In the profile pages (i.e. /participants/[username]), in addition to the "about," "debates," and "forum topics," I recommend creating "forum posts" and "votes cast" sections. The former displays all the forum posts of the user, as on DDO. The latter is a list of debates on which the user has voted.
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Anyone on here like coffee or tea or both?
What are your coffee and tea preferences?
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@DebateArt.com
Recommendation:
Allow users to get notifications for any comments on their debates (and not just ones they're tagged in) and any votes cast on their debates.
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