The Voting System For Debate.org Has Many Avoidable Mistakes

Debate.org (DDO) relies on review by other debaters to decide which of the side has won the debate. The DDO community takes the integrity of voting system very seriously. Comments, criticism and suggestions are always welcomed for further improvement of the system. This is not a cliché. In past, the members have suggested many changes to the voting system. These suggestions have been incorporated to improve the system. The resolution for the debate is, The Voting System For Debate.org Has Many Avoidable Mistakes This has been elaborated by my esteemed opponent in R1: … it contains easily avoidable and significant errors that were caused by the conscious decisions on the part of the creator(s) of this website. To win this debate my opponent needs to show DDO voting system contains significant errors. The errors are caused by conscious decision of creator(s) Let us look into the errors pointed by Criticalthinkingmachine and see if any of them fulfill the criteria presented by him. 1. Who did you agree with before/after the debate: This is not irrelevant. It allows voters to specify their own positions. For example I am a strong theist. If there is a debate on religion where atheist has clearly won (because theist debater has not been that good), then it present a dilemma for me. However in DDO voting system, I can vote all points for the deserving side while specifying my own position through first two points. The first two points also provide a useful feedback to the debaters. 2. Who had better conduct / spelling and grammar: Pro feels that these factors should not contribute to debates. However in opinion of most debaters, these factors should also be considered. This encourages good conduct, spelling and grammar. Reading a debate is much more enjoyable when opponents have invested some effort in it. My opponent admits there has to be some way of penalizing poor conduct, spelling or grammar. A point each dedicated for these is the best penalty as well as incentive. 3. Who had better sources: In a formal debate, presenting arguments with proper evidence and sources requires lots of effort. It is essential that some weight is given to it. In debates where sources are not needed; or in debates where both sides have presented good sources, this point can be left as a tie. In cases where one side has made the required effort, it is essential that they should be rewarded. In case, my opponent feels strongly about this issue, he can provide an overall vote based on arguments only. As long as the reason for voting is clearly specified, no one would object to that. 4. Reason for voting: In case a person votes with obviously fake reasons, this community takes the issue very seriously. In the language of DDO, such votes are known as vote-bombs. Once the issue is raised by debaters, warning is issued to the concerned user. Members help in ‘countering’ such votes. In case a dubious voter votes on multiple debates, her account is banned. As a further precaution, new debaters are not allowed to vote until they complete a definite number of debates. There is a related problem of users voting by submitting poorly written RFDs. There is no direct solution for this problem, since it is possible that a particular voter may not be as intelligent as the debaters. It is not feasible to stop someone for voting as a result of ‘lack of intelligence’. However this is not an ‘avoidable error’ due to ‘conscious decisions on the part of the creator(s)’. In fact if my opponent has any suggestions as to how this problem can be avoided, I am sure all of us would like to hear it. 5. Debaters voting on their own debates: This is not allowed. Earlier this was possible, however this facility has been blocked as per suggestions by users of this site. 6. Indefinite voting period: This was allowed earlier. However it is no longer allowed. My opponent has referred to a debate without providing the link. He was apparently referring to this debate [2]. It can be seen that the debate is at least two years old. 7. Won vs. Winning / Lost vs. Losing: This is not a significant issue. Thanks to Criticalthinkingmachine for concern for my health and age. It is well established that middle earth is same as the current earth, which is now passing through the fifth age (or the Age of Lesser Humans). Waiting eagerly for rebuttals by my esteemed opponent. References 1. http://www.debate.org... 2. http://www.debate.org...