Debate.org's "coming soon" additions will be a good thing.

I am against the new additions debate.org claims they will be launching soon. Thus, the polar opposite of my stance will have to be that the additions are good things, something I think most members will agree on, but I'll remind you that your personal opinions are not the standard of your voting, but which debater proved their point better. If you feel the need to justify your anonymous vote, you can do so in the comments area. Now to my points. Here are the additions that will be put up on this site. You can easily view them if you scroll down to the bottom of the main page where it says "Coming Soon". I realize there are more additions viewable when you look in "My Account" but I agree with some of those. I'll simply be arguing against what they have on the main page. 1)Friends and Messages You will soon be able to build a list of friends, and send them messages directly through your account. 2)Groups We're giving you the ability to create private and public groups. 3)Forums Our forums system will span a broad array of topics. 4)Blogs Publish your very own blog. 5)Custom Polls Invent your own poll questions and ask the community, or post them on the Internet as a widget. My main concern is that these features will remove the intellectual nature of this site. I realize that people CAN use them toward a sophisticated purpose, but I highly doubt that they WILL. My main example of this is the atrocity now known as MySpace. Few people know this, but Tom's original purpose for creating the site was to advertise for his band. It started off well enough, but then users began to find different ways to use the sites features for a more personal use. It was not long until the site became a mass social network for preteens though adults, and Tom's band long forgotten. This information is courtesy of a Times Magazine interview with Tom Anderson. All 5 features can be found on any social network, including but not limited to: MySpace, FaceBook, Yahoo, YouTube, etc. I think that if these applications are brought into fruition they will have the same effects on this site in a matter of weeks and make debate.org become another place to talk about your very boring life. Its come to my attention others feel that the site has begun to deteriorate already, and I say these additions will only further that rotting. Onto the specifics of each feature: 1) Friends should be a primary concern. We are all each others opponents here. We must maintain such a status in order to continue to debate. Friends may also cause a certain amount of bias towards one person rather than their argument. Because you are friends you would have a certain amount of loyalty to them, and may vote in favor of their side simply because they are there. Favoritism will only decrease the chances of the opponent, especially if that opponent has less friends than his competition. Also, the messaging is a bad idea. This can be used for conspiracies. Whatever is said here should be viewable to the entire public, as this is a very public site. If you want to talk about you join any of the established social networks, I assure you there's more than enough. These features must not be allowed. 2) Groups will have almost the same effect as friends. Think of it almost like gangs. Some will appeal to one point more than the other. This is a problem current political candidates must overcome. They know a quick tactic to win is to appeal to a group with a large amount of votes. Every candidate knows of and uses this tactic. I see no reason why the same will not happen on this site. While I can not argue against those groups in real life, its more than possible to see that that problem can be avoided here. The corruption can be stopped ahead of time, but once it starts it will never stop. 3) Forums are something this site does not need. There are thousands of other sites that have forums, I see no reason why they need to be here. The current forum method used here is sufficient, being the 1-5 rounds between two people. Mass people forums take away from debating and make it more into a discussion. This isn't discussion.com it's debate.org. We're here to argue, not talk like English women at tea time. If there is something on your chest present it in a debate format like what I am doing right now. If you don't think your last debate was fair post it again and see if the outcome is different. Again, forums will just deteriorate this sites main purpose. 4) Blogs, like forums, will take away from this site. I foresee that it will start off well enough, with topics like "I don't agree with Evolution, here's why" or "Some Points I missed on my Last debate", but then they will quickly escalate to blogs like "I had a bad day today" or "I think dairygirl4u2c posts stuff waaaay to much". These little self monologues will, again, distract on from the main purpose to why they are here. Rather than face the fear that they may lose on a subject they feel is important, they'll just talk about it, free from opposition, and wait for the 'good job' comments to role in. 5) Polls will turn ugly fast, just like the previous 4 features. There is already this feature in your account, being the topics you are For of Against. Click on which one you like, then if you want to know what other people think about it go to their page and see what the Disagreement Ratio is. Adding Polls will do basically the same thing, but with a more pointless purpose. It will just combine people's votes into a useless statistic. I think what we have now is far more beneficial. Besides, you can easily express your feelings on a matter in the comments, a practice many indulge in. So in summary, I think these features will Kill debate.org rather than help heal it. Before you know it, this site will be another MySpace. I fail to see how the creators do not see this. I doubt this topic will have any real effect on the outcome of whether or not the features will still come up, it's just something I feel will threaten this site. I joined close to it's launch, and its now my favorite and most frequent website to visit, because it was unlike any other site out there. People seemed smart, they wanted to discuss important things, and debated strongly. It wasn't like YouTube or FaceBook were people just did things for the heck of it, spamming the site hoping for some social acceptance from total strangers. No, these members didn't care about that, only about the subjects they argued on. I would hate to lose that individuality. This is why I feel these features should not be put up, and I defy anyone who says anything to the contrary, though welcome their attempts at justification.