DDO should have a setting for no votes.

From my understanding, there are two key reasons why you don"t like voting on your debates: 1) People vote for their friends or with some sort of bias. 2) People go against your rules within the debate. I will address each point, and then address the other things you stated at the end of your argument. 1) People vote for their friends or with some sort of bias. First I'd like to point out that there is a report button next to every vote. For example, when there is a vote you think didn't give a good enough reason for its' decision, report it. The admin(s) will come and check it out, and see if it is a legitimate claim. Secondly, there will always be some sort of bias when someone votes. It is extremely hard to not be bias. Therefore, DDO implemented a judging system which you are using for this debate to decide on who wins. This way, you can get people from each bias to vote. For example, you can get people who are your friends, and who aren't your friends. Another example is you can get two people who are Christians, and two who are Atheists. It makes things fair. 2) People go against your rules within the debate. With this point, you should look at what the seven point voting system does. There is a part for "conduct". What is conduct exactly? Conduct can mean a few different things. To simplify, it basically means the way someone acts (1). With that, if someone goes against the rules established at the beginning of the debate, then they would lose a conduct point in the seven point voting system. Now I'd like to address your claim of unfair voting. If we look at the votes from each debate you posted, they seem quite fair indeed. I will go through each debate, and show you what I mean. For example, if we go to the first debate that you posted, many people agreed with you on your opponent breaking the rules. I counted three people giving you a conduct point for what I stated above (2). As for the second debate, I counted two people giving you the conduct point. However, many people voted against you because of you forfeiting (3). What is forfeiting? Basically, forfeiting is when you give up (4). The reason you would lose, I can explain if you don't understand. I go to a martial arts tournament. I don't like how my opponent practices Muay Thai, so I don't want to fight against them. Does that mean I lose? Yes, of course I lose. My opponent progresses forward and I lose in the tournament. The same is with DDO. As for the last debate you posted, all he did was lose a conduct point. My advice to you would be to act mature, and you will gain the conduct point while he loses it. It will just make it easier for you to win the debate. However, you've currently decided to forfeit, which basically allows him to win (5). You have posted your reasons as to why a non-voting addition to DDO would be positive. I will now post why I disagree with your opinions. The main reason I disagree with this is because it makes the ranking less accurate. My point is, people right now can choose who they want to debate against so they get a strong opponent so to speak. What if the opposite started to happen? If someone was only challenge by a strong debater, they can make it a non-voting debate. However, when it is a weaker opponent, that they think they can defeat, they just make it a voting debate so they can rank up. That is my main problem with non-voting debates in the first place. Moreover, say that DDO fixes that. You can't set the settings so nobody can choose their opponent. Then what is the point of the debate? A debate is supposed to have a winner most of the time, "Though logical consistency, factual accuracy and some degree of emotional appeal to the audience are important elements of the art of persuasion, in debating, one side often prevails over the other side by presenting a superior "context" and/or framework of the issue, which is far more subtle and strategic. The outcome of a debate depends upon consensus or some formal way of reaching a resolution, rather than the objective facts as such. In a formal debating contest, there are rules for participants to discuss and decide on differences, within a framework defining how they will interact." (6). Wouldn't it then just become a discussion instead of a debate? (7). You do make a good case. There is good reasoning behind your decisions. However, debates are meant to be voted on to see who did the best from my understanding. I appreciate you debating with me nonprophet. It is an interesting debate and you make very good points. I await your response in round 3. Resources: (1) http://dictionary.reference.com... (2) http://www.debate.org... (3) http://www.debate.org... (4) http://dictionary.reference.com... (5) http://www.debate.org... (6) http://en.wikipedia.org... (7) http://dictionary.reference.com...