debate.org is a terrible website

I bet you all know about Debate.org, and there's a reason you pick this site over debate.org, but here are mine:

* Debate.org has no moderation, there are no serious debates. A lot of the debates are about really disgusting/immoral topics and things that should not even be up for debate.

* The userbase is terrible. One particularly bad user is backwardseden(you know who I'm talking) this crazy, illiterate, child-in-a-man's-body ,atheist nutjob is the boogeyman of debate.org. I remember when I started debating online I was foolish enough to debate him. I made some reasonably sound arguments but he responded with pure ad hominems, insults, lies(like when he said he answered a point when he didn't), etc. I wasn't even being mean to him, I was trying to s how my respect. So I did as the bible says to "shake the dust off my shoes and leave." and a friendly user over there introduced by here.

* People don't even debate here, they just wanna attack opposition and troll them. And when they're about to lose they leave.

Redeeming qualities:

* I know that the website looks outdated to some of you, but I find the UI charming. This is mostly because I love skeuomorphism and other 2000s style designs.

Be free to state opinions. 

Eh, first social website I remember joining,

Good conversation 'is far and between, but I find bits now and then.

I'm even enjoying a conversation now,

Though I wouldn't say I've quite grasped their logic yet.

I 'do like the user interface of DDO.

*looks at date of posting*

*falls off chair*

Seriously, I am just baffled at that debate.org even exist now. It was already an anarchy back in 2018, let alone now.

The mods were a joke there even when it was moderated. Airmax was corrupt. Nothing else to say about that.

DDO was like an abusive girlfriend to me, I was mistreated in many ways but kept on coming back.

DART has also had some mishaps with me, Ive been mistreated at times too but way, way less.

The people here are a kinder bunch overall.

I agree with you but I don't visit debate.org much.

Let's agree, many of us started at debate.org. Am I right?

Probably half the population here jumped ship from DDO.

I know a couple people have jumped back to enjoy a moderation free experience.

DebateArt is a terrible website, it's simply the lesser of two bad websites for online debating. Anyone has to choose one based on subjective criteria if they wish to debate in public online spaces in an organized format.

I like Debateart, it's much better moderated.

There are reasons this site doesn't grow past the maybe 30- 40 people that post here on a regular basis.

I think the biggest problem with this website is that most of the people who post on it are just unbelievably disingenuous and dishonest. I think it’s a symptom of American (and western more broadly) politics becoming so polarized. I don’t enjoy posting here very often because when I do it’s like engaging with defense attorneys instead of actual people. Reaching fundamental disagreement is way more interesting than trying to smear the other side but most people are more interested in the latter 

You are absolutely right, and many of these people carry the same dishonest attitude to debates, so it becomes very hard to have them in good faith

I hope to bring up these issues in a debate I am planning to have with the undefeated Bones, concerning this subject matter 

Objection! Argumentative…

The "defense attorney" attitude that thett is describing is (IMO) appropriate in debates, since the purpose of a debate is to win. Even if you're convinced of an opposing position you're still not supposed to give ground unless it's strategic for you to do so. With the forums, the purpose is (IMO) more about coming closer to the truth through argumentation. In a forum environment, making concessions when you know you're wrong about something is just being a good sport.  

Never admitting when one is wrong usually leads to a person building a personality cult/air of infallibility around themselves. 

DDO really shouldn’t be compared to DART unless you’re comparing DART to the old DDO. I enjoyed that sight but once the bots got to it and they were either unwilling or unable to do anything about it everyone abandoned ship so it hasn’t been the same ever since. Now it’s just a shadow of what it used to be.

Bots and or people  that make multiple ( post topics ) and push the proper post topics  of the main page are pure cold blooded killers.

 It works well stuffing up a site. 

Ironically Elon Musk has put buying Twitter on hold, citing their bot population.

I've said similar before about DDO, that they prefer bots to real users, as it creates the illusion of content to raise the valuation of the site. 

Absolutely agree.

I remember that the religious forum was so bad that a sort of pseudo-mod position was created called "Ambassador" that was supposed to help with making sure that that particular section had enough people that could monitor shit and make sure it was moderated.

As someone that was one of those "Ambassadors", I can tell you that nothing was ever done. The position was created, people were given the titles, and then said people were basically ignored.

The site just went downhill with the polarization of American politics that just went crazy in late 2015 though and made the place completely unappealing by any metric.

For those of you who don't know, Lucifer Morningstar is a rebel archangel who was once given Hell as his own domain. After several thousand years he decided he no longer wanted to do what he believed was expected of him, and so he abandoned Hell and "retired" to Earth.