I thought of an idea while wallowing in the lengthy Frank Zappa thread over on C/NC that maybe it would be fun to have an EA Virtual Debate Club. I never participated in formal competitive debate myself, but I think it would be fun to form teams, and each one assigned pro or con on a given resolution, and have to fight it out. Maybe have judges as well. Is this more or less how competitive debates work? Those with expertise (Faiz, at least...) - please comment.

And those with and without expertise, please comment and say is my idea do you think a Crap Idea or Not a Crap Idea?

I love that stuff.

Where do I sign?

I think you just did, my friend.

darn, i though you were gonna respond "oh, i'm sorry, we intend to exclude the British from this entirely". shit, count me out if the Brits are in. or wait, can there be a team called "Queens are for Queers" or something? i'd be on that one.

actually, if i really think seriously about it, there are at least a handful of too-smart motherfuckers up in here that are either, um, *lawyers*, or just generally doudes with giant brains. it's pretty intimidating.

as long as i get to talk trash on Britons, count me in!

Actually, what I was thinking was that we would have the old playground "captains pick teams" system, so the too smart motherfucking giant brained lawyers would be split up. But I thought of a way to do it so nobody's feelings would be hurt by being last picked. Also, I was kind of hoping that trash talk might be kept to a minimum, but... did I mention that a Briton pulled out his rapier wit on me and made me cry once? So, yeah, trash away... it's payback time!

I'm in if I can fight TMH. No yanqui pigdog besmirches my monarch and gets away with it! (unless its like, really funny or something)

LVP, what about starting two separate groups, one being the debate teams and the other being the shit-talk teams? so people who want to for-real debate can be on a debate team, and people that wanna say stuff like "the british are a bunch of nancy little bitches" and have a team to do that, too? and no trash-talking would be allowed in the debate arena, just logic, and no logic would be allowed in the trash-talking arena, just stupid, cheap shots? can i be on one of each team?

also, do we get extra credit if we used phrases like "fallacy of obsequious undergarments" and shit? can we debate while drunk?

this seems fun. i'll shut up now.

aren't we all already part of the "electrical audio debate society?"
does this formalization of the idea mean we're gonna get satin jackets, now?

Satin jackets? I'm in!

segerandpriest wrote:aren't we all already part of the "electrical audio debate society?"
does this formalization of the idea mean we're gonna get satin jackets, now?

Basically, the analogy I'm thinking of is, let's say that there's a bunch of people who hang out and shoot pool at the same place regularly, and it's all very casual and just friendly games, and I'm just saying, anybody want to start a league? Keep score, keep rankings and such. It sounds like a few people are interested... I'd be glad to run it, but I'll need some help, because I think it should be modeled after actual competitive debating events, and I don't have the experience in that area.

I also hope nobody thinks that I'm saying this should supplant anything that goes on here now. That would be ridiculous. This would just be something additional.