Debate topic voting thread

[Moe]

Right, everyone can cast their votes now. I've taken most of the suggestions from the thread. I've excluded a few because the scope was very broad and it would have been very difficult to define the positions of the two teams.

I've also excluded a few suggestions because the topics didn't exactly lend themselves to this kind of debate, for example the "is there a god" topic as well as the "lets all discuss the different ways of hitting on girls in high school" one.

[Homdax]

Damn. Two candidates. One is mine and another is interesting. I will wait with my vote a couple of days.

[Moe]

Don't wait for too long, I plan on closing this on sunday :D

[Homdax]

/me gives Moe lunch money
Sunday 20.00 GMT...

[Penitent]

Interesting that the sci fi topic is winning currently, perhaps more people on this forum have something to say on the matter compared to everything else. Although it seems to me to still be a niche for all but the most popular franchises out there. I'm being premature though with 15 votes cast :p

[M37]

I would be willing to argue just about any of the above options thogh I think Iraq's three state solution, Sci-fi or Uban Sprawl would be my top three at the current time.

[JAL-18]

The spreading democracy one sounds like a good debate.

[Homdax]

The Democracy governments legitimacy is juicy...:thumb:

[mckoll]

i agree with Jal-18, that would be a good topic of discussion, thats what i voted for.

[Locutus]

I think the sci-fi debate would be a great topic, not only becuase it is something most people on these boards could relate to, but also because it would be a pleasant hiatus from the many politics threads which are common in the GD.

[Homdax]

Fortunately I just read a book on Star Trek, science in the series, and popular effects...:p

[Bonnet]

Democracy is only one of many legitimate forms of government: Defend or Refute.

God I hope that one pulls ahead, I would rather not debate about sci-fi. I read it alot but...we are going to end up talking about Star Wars.

By the way shouldn't that one and the one directly under it be merged since essentially they will result in the same debate?

[Splitstar]

Dont worry zbob i plan on voting early and often for Democracy debate.

+1 for merge.

[Tiresias]

My worry about the Sci-Fi debate is that, are there going to be two sides to that debate? I'm not these boards have many people who despise Sci-fi, except maybe a few people who joined with CoH, and most of those haven't migrated to GD from the CoH section yet

[No Surrender]

I Think the Sci-Fi is a bit low brow for the study. I mean, what exactly is there to debate? How much Sci-Fi has influenced society? Maybe we ought to merge the two democracy topics together since they're pretty similar in the first place.

[Moe]

Wait why the hell are there 72 votes, if only 33 people have signed up for this debate?

Ok, anyhow, Re: the democracy thing. I originally posted them as two different topics, because, well they are. However, they are closely linked - if we were to decide, for example, that democracy is one of many legitimate forms of government and that, say, an englightened dictatorship is just as legitimate, then one could go on and ask whether it is just to attempt to overthrow said dictator in order to spread democracy.

However, this is your debate, so you guys decide. Is anyone opposed to merging the two topics and if no, what should the combined topic be called?


are there going to be two sides to that debate?

Random teams, remember? There will be two sides, equal in numbers, regardless of which topic is selected.

The following people have not yet voted:
Mad Moe, Unk, Paladin, Sosbra, Langy, Shaitan, NovaBurn, Zell, Sword_Monkey, BrianGeneral, Silver_Wolf#, The fizu

I suggest you guys remedy that, unless you don't care and want to argue any of the topics.

[Homdax]

Wait why the hell are there 72 votes, if only 33 people have signed up for this debate?
Moe fails at crowd control...

[CrimsonAngel]

Very simple because not all of flood the study very often.

So chance are we did not notice the sign up part because the "Vote thing" is the first thing we noticed.

[Locutus]

I don't think that the topics should be merged. Although similiar, I think that a very clear distinction can be made between spreading a form of government (and therefore believing that it is superior to other forms) and the concept of legitimacy. Whether or not a form of government is legitimate is quite a bit different from the question of whether or not we are morally justified in spreading our chosen form of government forcefully or peacefully.

[Benjamin]

I find the Spreading Democracy is no more morally legitimate than spreading Fascism or Anarchy: Defend or Refute. a bit missleading.

Anarchy is mearly opposed to centrol control, and is pritty much the exact opposite of fascism. It kind of sounds like they're being put into the same bag as it were. I think it should be changed to Spreading Democracy is no more morally legitamate then spreading any ideology: Defend or refute.

[ionfish]

Anarchism is a political ideology, and thus can be referred to in the same breath as fascism without implicitly claiming that they are morally equivalent.

[naradaman]

Scifi topic sounds really boring tbh. I'm not gonna read a debate about that. Spreading democoracy hell yea!

[Homdax]

I think it is unwise to have signed up for a debate, which I assume you have, and then sod off if you dont like the subject. Even if I would prefere an outcome leaning towards discussing democracy and it's up and downs, I am not a stranger to SciFi, although I bet many on these boards have a bigger piece of the SciFi culture than me, not being northamerican.

Saying you will not take part if the vote goes against your interest is taking away an important part of the whole idea of The Study, I presume.

[Locutus]

Wait why the hell are there 72 [now 89] votes, if only 33 people have signed up for this debate?
Moe, were only people who signed up to debate supposed to vote on the topic? Your first post didnt' state that. Perhaps only count votes of the people who registered for the debate?

PS: Wasn't the voting supposed to be closed by now?

[Jianaran]

In my opinion, The Sci-Fi one would be pretty boring. It is an interesting subject, but not really possible to debate. A GD thread on it would be more appropriate. I think that we should stick to more heavy subjects i.e Gun Control, Western Democracy etc etc.

[Mogolov]

Didnt realise we needed to sign up for this debate, but I will more than happily take part in whichever debate is put forward.

[Locutus]

@Mogolov: See the Rules, Description & Signup Thread (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=113350). HINT: Its the one RIGHT BELOW this one! :thumb:

[Mogolov]

:lol:

Yeah, I've already seen it now mate. :D


* bows head in shame for not seeing the original thread.

[naradaman]

I think it is unwise to have signed up for a debate, which I assume you have, and then sod off if you dont like the subject. Even if I would prefere an outcome leaning towards discussing democracy and it's up and downs, I am not a stranger to SciFi, although I bet many on these boards have a bigger piece of the SciFi culture than me, not being northamerican.

Saying you will not take part if the vote goes against your interest is taking away an important part of the whole idea of The Study, I presume. My post was from a spectator's point of view, I'm not participating in the debate.

[Moe]

Ok it's been two days, and we're still tied at 17-17 for the democracy vs scifi thing. Three options:

1) we do another vote, just between the two topics
2) we wait
3) I flip a coin.

[General Nuke Em]

Flip the coin if there is an independent third party to verify the results. Random forum member from Germany, this means you.

Failing that, another vote would work.

[No Surrender]

Divide the house: Vote again just between the two options without the other choices.

[Siguld_001]

2nd ballot seems like the best option, but it may take time

[Homdax]

Isn't this getting a bit out of hand just in order to select a topic for The Study?
Wont be one topic per year or with a million dollar prize or anything...

Moe, Squid: flip it.

[No Surrender]

Or alternatively, flip a coin to see which topic to debate first. The topic that loses will be our next topic. That would save a bit of time in comming up with another topic suggestion/voting thread.

[Locutus]

Or alternatively, flip a coin to see which topic to debate first. The topic that loses will be our next topic. That would save a bit of time in comming up with another topic suggestion/voting thread.Seconded. There is obviously support for both topics, so lets debate them both. :)

[Homdax]

Moe, Squid: flip it.

Yes, flip.
Coin.

[Moe]

Ok I flipped a coin, and it fell behind my desk and I haven't found it since. While searching for it I knocked 0.5 liters of apple juice off my desk, so now everything is sticky and smells like apples, and I still don't have my two euros back.

Fuck coins. We're going with democracy for this one. Going to do the team drawings (without the damn coins) later tonight.