What is debatepoint?
Debatepoint is a deliberation tool. It can be used to organize arguments and formalize a popular consensus over issues.
A consensus is determined based on the moderation of supporting and opposing arguments. Each argument is subject to further deliberation by child arguments in the same fashion. The structure of each debate forms a tree of arguments. The root of this tree is a single support/oppose stance for the particular point being debated.
Possible areas for use of debatepoint.org:
- politics: find a consensus over political issues
- free software: debate features and methods of development
- blog feedback: submit points of your blog entries
Terminology:
- point: short statement in which to argue over. ie. a point might assert a position over a known issue.
- argument: a statement either supporting or opposing a point or parent argument.
- consensus: resulting moderation on points and arguments.
- stance: whether an argument is in support of or in opposition to its parent. The stance of a point is also sometimes used to refer to the resulting consensus over a point.
- certainty: the certainty that a consensus is representative "enough".
debatepoint is currently being written and hosted by:
James D. Taylor <james.d.taylor (a) gmail.com>
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Links to other debate sites that I'm aware of: