[IDEA]Debate club

[Alice I]

Count me in with what ever rules everyone agrees on

[TDM]

4 mods, one from each house, right? not necessarily one of the prefects, if i'm not mistaken. i'll gladly help, and drop the books forum if i can only have 2.

( it's sad to say, but i don't visit the books area much anymore. i haven't touched any of my books for awhile, and i was thinking about dropping the mod of books forum anyway.)

[Plep]

I too would love to help with this!

[fierce]

I just realised I don't know how much i'll be able to contribute to the debate if it starts this week or so... I'm going to be away this weekend (at a convent no less... don't ask ).

I guess i mean that if i was invovled in the debate i'd have to be able to be more available than that wouldn't I? I'm kinda disappointed too, i mean i was really looking forward to the whole debate thing.

But if it isn't starting until next week, then woopdi-doo, i can join in!

[Liquid Ice]

Man I cant believe all this sprang up while I was away...
Can I join? It sounds really cool.

[ministryofmagic]

add me to the list please!!!

[Paul]

Alrighty - I've set up the new section and moved this thread into what I've called The Great Hall Organised Debates as a preliminary title to differentiate it from the general free-form discusions in the main Great Hall section.

Thanks, TheDragonMaster for volunteering to be the Moderator for Ravenclaw - Very happy to swap things around with the books section and pleased to say you're the first Moderator of the new section here!


Plep, if you'd like to be Moderator for Hufflepuff, that would be great - just get back to me to confirm for definate and I'll set things up for you.

It'll probably take about a week to get everything totally organised, Fierce, so I foresee the actual debates probably starting at the end of next week at the very earliest.

[Plep]

I would love to be the moderator for Hufflepuff!

i'm trying to set up a possible plan to organise the discussions...i'll post it here as soon as it's finished!

[Amon Rê]

I'm still in, if ya need a Ravenclaw I can be a moderator. I'm only in the movie section right now

[Paul]

Wow, that's quick....Thanks, Plep and Amon Rê. Congratulations on becoming Moderators here in the new section on behalf of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw! Best of luck with the forthcoming debates! Will be interested in seeing your ideas, Plep. If you've any general questions or discussions about Moderating, you've now got full access to the Moderators' private forum too.

Congratulations and thanks, Amon Rê and Plep.

[Plep]

Oh boy, I’m getting excited! Moderator and fully qualified wizard in one week, I can hardly believe it!

Anyway, here are my rough plans for the debates, I really like the idea of making house teams, so it can eventually be used in the house competition:

Sunday (could also be any other day, but I’m just using this as an example) the debate and the topic is announced and a poll can be made to see how many people agree or disagree wih the subject.
Next Sunday the poll will be closed and by now the moderators of each house have handed in a list of the members on their team (in order of appearance). The overall judge (Paul?) will then decide which house will be the for-team and which house will be the against-team.
The teams can consist of 4 members. These members can be others than the previous debate, to make sure everyone gets a chance of joining a debate.

Then the debate can start!

For the debate itself I like the suggestion made by fierce:

So, say we flipped a coin and the 'for' team won the coin toss. The first speaker for the 'for' team outlines the arguments the 'for' team will make, and elaborates on a couple of the major points. Then it's the first speaker for the 'against' team's turn. The first spearker for 'against' team does much the same as the first speaker of the 'for' team, but then also rebuts the 'for' teams first speaker's argument. The next speaker for the 'for' team then establishes more the points the first speaker of the 'for' team has made, and brings forth new points, and rebuts the points of the first speaker 'against'. The second 'against' speaker does much the same thing, and then the third speaker for the 'for' team rebuts the second speaker 'against's points, and summarises the arguments made by the 'for' team. the third speaker for the against does the same thing.

I would also like to add that I think that before a speaker speaks it’s advisable to discuss the things you are gonna say in the common room of your house, but of course this is up to the players…

When the discussion is finished, so everyone had his or her turn (dunno how long this will take, I think around a week or so), it will be closed and a new poll can be made that will also be open for a week.
After a week we can count the votes again and the team that gained the most votes wins…it will have to be explicitly mentioned that you can only vote if you voted in the first poll and read the entire discussion…otherwise the whole system is not working…
(is there maybe an option when making a poll to let only the people who voted previously vote?)

So, one discussion takes about 3 weeks in total, but most of the time is for the polls…therefore I think we can make the discussions overlap and have a discussion every week or 2 weeks…


Well that’s about it…feel free to comment on this!

And now I’m really going to bed!

[Amon Rê]

I second Pleps Idea...congrats to him too for fully qualified wizard and moderator

[Krum]

is there maybe an option when making a poll to let only the people who voted previously vote?

let's just hope there are no pople actually dumb enough to break the rules

[Nobby]

nobby is still in!

congrats to plep

[Violet]

Wow, this all sounds like a really good idea! Count me in for the next debate!

I think i read right when it said that you want a mod from each house for this section, so i have asked in the slytherin common room to see if anyone would like the position.