First Member Judged Debates and First-Timers-Only Tournament

Well, Stanford is my first choice, and I think Georgetown might be my second... I'm from Southern California and I think moving to Boston would be a bit rough... but as far as transfer students are concerned, Harvard actually was slightly easier to get into last year. I know, cry you a river. Believe me, I will when it comes time to pay for it.

Shame that Yale doesn't take transfer aps though. I could absolutely be skull and bones, if I could hide the fact that I believe in democracy and know what the word "integrity" means.

Of course... I sometimes forget what integrity means in the midst of debates.
If I have to compare you to Kenny G, attack the pope, challenge the definitions of words that we all hear on an almost daily basis, or somehow draw a connection between your position and penile implants, I'm more than willing to stoop to that level.

so is this happening then?

Typical Vagabond... I said I'd do it today and so I signed on to do it today... at 11:30pm. I'm sorry guys. I had planned to spend a few hours studying for the SAT, but it turned into 7 hours... then I couldn't think for an hour afterwards.

Threads will be up momentarily. Obviously I won't be real quick on the draw for DQs since it's gonna be sunday and most of you probably checked today, when it was supposed to start.

I have obtained commentary on the GAOTU789 v Budski debate, as I promised.

The idea of reincarnation has always intrigued me, so I was surprised to find myself siding with Budski through most of the debate.
GAOTU789 may have been his own worst enemy. Although he did well with a difficult position, he also took a few bad steps which played right into Budski's aggressive style.
GAO's dubious readings of the bible made him look desperate early on and allowed Budski to establish an early lead.
When Budski started to falter with his ill-advised free-will argument, GAO seemed almost to come to his rescue by presenting Dr. Ian Stevenson's work, which was not very impressive, and made Budski's link on Bridey Murphy seem stronger.
To make a long story short, the deciding factors were aggression and organization. Budski did a good job of challenging arguments and making it feel like his opponent was continually on the defensive. GAO could have presented a stronger case by better ordering his arguments (I was surprised the Dalai Lama came up so late).

Good luck to all participants of the second roung, including my opponent and myself. The topics chosen look totally refreshing and exciting.

Congrats to Souls for winning the debate. It was a great show and i searioulsy enjoyed it

Now my ignorance was against me - if i knew i needed more stars...

congratulations to a good debate shearder. I saw you as the winner most of the time but admire how souls managed to turn it around. congratulations souls!

That was pretty close, unlucky for shearder as the judge thought him the winner - now we can all see just how important those stars are.

Well done to souls, and good luck for the next round.

It would be interesting to know if either of you...shearder or souls...actually believed in the position you were taking.

reply to post by Skyfloating


I actually believed the position i was in
So i was in a comfort zone i guess but it still wasn't easy to steer away from values lol even if i didn't feel they were reason enough not to do national service hehehe

But i had a good opponent.

Originally posted by budski
... - now we can all see just how important those stars are.

Well done to souls, and good luck for the next round.

Absolutely! Very important. I would have steered some friends to have a read. Yes, i wish him luck too with all honesty. It was fun to say the least.

I had never thought about any of this before until the debate. I can see how it is important for people to help out in the country but I did come to the realization that maybe it really is not such a good idea. It is kind of hard to pause your train of thought from day to day, and try to continue what it is you wanted to express later on.

I do realize that some points shearder made I did not address, but I really wish the character count could have less of a limit. I believed that defining the topic was very important, but maybe I did spend too much on it. Oh well, I did enjoy the debate a lot and do look forward to the next one. One point!!! Talk about close...

Thanks Vagabond for the arena, and everyone else for making the debates possible.

Good job to both of you. It was indeed close and I was following closely.
Congrats to souls.

All the debates in this round have been/are very good. Looking forward to the next round.

[edit on 26-10-2007 by GAOTU789]

Originally posted by GAOTU789

All the debates in this round have been/are very good. Looking forward to the next round.

[edit on 26-10-2007 by GAOTU789]

If Budski and Xtrozero EVER finish their debate.

Well this sure sounds interesting, unfortunately i don't really have the time for debating anymore.

I've got a few questions if you don't mind me asking;

Is this an annual thing?

How long do these tournaments last for usually?

Would i be able to join in next time?

How is the debate moderated - are there points given for the strength of the arguement or points deducted for the weakness of the arguement?

This really does sound kinda cool, when you think about how pretty much everything can be debated - even evidence to a point.

reply to post by Throbber


Tournaments are announced once in awhile in threads like these. Go to the Forum "Member Debates" to check out what its all about.

reply to post by Skyfloating


Well, apart from one reply which was a couple of days late (cleared with vagabond) all my posts have been on time.

Frankly, I'm as bored with it as you are, and this is showing in my posts.

Originally posted by budski

reply to post by Tuning Spork


Well, considering this has been dragging on for nearly 3 weeks, I think I'm allowed a touch of boredom, especially as I thought I was going to have to concede at one point (personal reasons), and also that the response time was posted as 24 hours.

Still, never mind - only closing to go.
All I have to do is wait
again

There, there. I feel yer pain.



Well, then: Whatever happened to the forfeit? It was pretty rigorously enforced when I was debating. Vag...???