DWYP 1 Archieves ( Merged )

[Crimson King]

I'll be out of town this weekend. After that, or if I get some time, I'll post how we will do round two, who is in, and all that good stuff.

 

[McCloud]

>_>

I declare this thread bumped, as I'm sure we're all anxious for round 2 and the judges are anxious to start it.

 

[Crimson King]

We haven't forgotten. I'm just extremely busy with school, work, a second job, and life. EE claims the same, and I am sure Mediocre too. Sorry guys, we'll get this done.

I also purged the DH last night. Though we have less members, I am trying to make it so only members of the DH who are active can flag themselves as Debaters. No need having someone who just wants all the flags. Mods, are in by default.

 

[Digital Watches]

Hard to call who's active when it moves so slow though.

Well, I guess it's not that hard, just a longer timescale to take into account.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Slow it may be but I have stumbled on people with pink names who I have never seen post in this room. I worked hard to get into debate hall for a reason besides the color name.

 

[DoH]

I'm only here because pink color coordinates with my avatar.

Seriously.

 

[Digital Watches]

That would explain why you never seem to have strong opinions about anything.

 

[McCloud]

I'm here cause the pink is freakin hot.

and edit - oh snap @ Digital Watches. Was that a callout to DoH??

 

[DoH]

Yeah, I've never had a strong opinion about gay marriage or bigotry or civil liberties in the wake of 9/11, or ocean policy, or the UN...

Or by strong opinions would you rather me to start an entire debate over the use of a word and make myself look like quite pretentious? Or maybe you'd rather me debate in a fantasy world where magically perfect political parties appear out of thin air?

 

[Digital Watches]

Yeah, I've never had a strong opinion about gay marriage or bigotry or civil liberties in the wake of 9/11, or ocean policy, or the UN...

Sorry, was the sarcasm too subtle?

Or by strong opinions would you rather me to start an entire debate over the use of a word and make myself look like quite pretentious? Or maybe you'd rather me debate in a fantasy world where magically perfect political parties appear out of thin air?

Semantics can be very important in an age of information. Germany isn't thin air.

 

[DoH]

Sorry, was the sarcasm too subtle?



Semantics can be very important in an age of information. Germany isn't thin air.

At the point in which your semantics co-opted the original message, then it crossed the line of having an actual point.

And how do you plan on getting enough Germans over to influence the US elections, much less getting enough political leaders and fundings to begin a new party in America?

 

[Digital Watches]

At the point in which your semantics co-opted the original message, then it crossed the line of having an actual point.

Er. Explain? That seems to be an oversimplification of events, and, if I recall correctly, quite an inaccurate one.

And how do you plan on getting enough Germans over to influence the US elections, much less getting enough political leaders and fundings to begin a new party in America?

Again with the literalism. Borrowed ideology is standard practice in philosophy and politics. Political parties have formed and disappeared before. Look at the Whigs and the Republicans. The former is long gone after being prominent, and the Republicans are only 150 years old or so. I don't actually propose to ship over enough supporters of the German SPD to influence the American vote. That would just be crazy, wouldn't it?

 

[Deleted member]

I'm going to pretend like I understand what you guys are talking about

 

[Digital Watches]

I could explain it briefly if you'd like.

 

[McCloud]

I think Digital Watches is forming the NeoNational Socialist Party. Or something of that sort.

 

[Digital Watches]

Oh god! I've been figured out! Start the car, Jimmy!

 

[KishPrime]

I'm still here...

<_<

 

[Eor]

No he's not

 

[Digital Watches]

No he's not

Who's not what now?

I'm confused.

 

[Eor]

I'm still here...

<_<

No he's not

So...do any of the judges have an idea on when round 2 starts.

 

[Mediocre]

So...do any of the judges have an idea on when round 2 starts.

It starts whenever we say it starts, jerkwad.

Actually, I have no fricking clue. Crimson King did IM me a little while ago and said that he's definitely planning on doing the second round, but he's been really busy. I'm not so busy, so I can do it whenever. I don't know what EE's up to.

Anyhow, that's all the information I've got. I can see why some people are getting antsy, but remember people are the internet are people off the internet, too, and they have other things to do.

Not that there's anything wrong with asking when it's going to start, of course. I'm just asking people to be considerate of the judge's schedules outside of Smashboards.

 

[KishPrime]

So in the meantime do I still not participate in anything?

 

[Crimson King]

Meh, go for it. I think I booted all the people who didn't make the second round. So as a gift for being insanely late in this, Temp debaters can post in topics. If you spam, I will take that privilege away for all. Have fun!

 

[Crimson King]

Debate With Your Power - The Conclusion

Well, obviously this contest went extremely poorly. The biggest issue was this is one of the few contests that required participation by two members within a time limit. That alone hurt our turn-out, as well as quality and people staying to their commitments.

I am not saying all the entries were bad by any means. The good ones were amazing. The ones that were poor were poor because they lacked time, an opponent, or some other factor.

Time was a huge issue in the failure of this contest. We had three judges, two were amazing and great to work with, but when one of us was ready for grading, at least one other could not for a number of reasons. Mediocre too so long to grade all the entries because his computer spontaneously died. The issue with this is had he not resolved it, we would have never known what happened to him, and the amount of work he put into it was beyond measure. This leads to my next point. Unlike say, Write With Your Power, Debate With Your Power required plenty work before hand. We had to set-up topics, set-up brackets, set-up times, and so much more before the debate could begin. Multiply by multiple rounds, and you see the issue. Grading went really well and I feel mine was only so fast because it wasn't as in-depth as EE's and no where even close to Mediocre's. I can't even remember when round 1 took place but it took place during a very calm period before the proverbial storm that this past semester too. It was a roller coaster ride from April to May on ultra high speed. I was drained physically, mentally, and emotionally during last month and having left DWYP incomplete didn't help my self-esteem.

So where does that leave round two? I don't know. I want to finish this God awful contest as soon as possible and pretend it never happened. I am setting the deadline however to have DWYP 1.2 started by next Tuesday, and if it's not, I want my PM box FLOODED by Wednesday. After next weekend, I have plans to leave for a week or so and I want it done before then. I had planned for at least 4-5 rounds, but right now, even one more is too much for me to bear.

I'm sorry this went haywire, and I don't know what to do.

I will say that any future DWYP contests will be without my participation, but I will do whatever I can to help if any members of the Hall wish to do it again. I'll leave the Temp Debater group alive so we can use that again for future contests and take care of all prizes via Gid.

Any suggestions?

 

[Sargent_Peach]

Thanks for putting so much work into DWYP. I really do appreciate it, I love to debate, and I guess I need to write an essay to get into the hall. Sorry for *****ing about my grades, I really just didn't understand the grading scale. When you think of all the variables, we had a really good turnout, especially since you needed two debaters in the same time period, with people all across the US.

As for suggestions, I really don't have much, unless you let the debate go for a month or so, so that the debaters can debate at their leisure for a longer time period. That would fix, a lot of problems, and I'm sure cause some more. Other than that, I really can't think of much else right now.

p.s. Is their a topic you would like to hear about for an entrance essay?

 

[Eor]

Perhaps, when compared to how you originally envisioned it, this contest was a failure. But I had a blast doing it, even for single round we did.

Perhaps you could have a grading system for the next round? It wouldn't be 1v1, but instead more like WWYP. We'd debate 1v1, but each person would get a numerical number ranking how far they did by each judge, which is then added up. The top 1-3 people with the highest numbers are the Winners for having the best debates, even if they all debated each other. It'd be a nice and quick way to get it done.

 

[McCloud]

First and foremost, thanks for the work that everyone put into running DWYP.

The next time this is run, we'll be able to anticipate problems and take them more in stride, I think.

But for now, let's finish DWYP1.

 

[cF=)]

Apart from the time issue, perhaps the problem was the distribution of the tasks. Three judges and a few members tried to run a complete tournament, which requiered much preparation and organisation. I guess next time, you could ask any members of the Hall to throw in debate ideas instead of making a designated group of persons do the job.

However, even if you said DWYP was a catastrophic disappointement, I can assure you I had much fun doing and reading the entries of this contest. Really, don't let it down even if you did not reach the goals you've thought you would. Just wait for summer time imo, because even if you push yourself to do a second round, participation might not increase (ie: I'm in my final exams right now).

If I can add anything, Eor's idea might work if we all give it a try.

 

[Deleted member]

Even if I don't move on, even if the contest doesn't move on, even if you call it a failure, just the fact that I got to participate in a spotlight debate was really pro and a lot of fun.

One rebuttal I stayed up past 4 AM editing and rechecking over in Notepad..just for the fun of it.

So really, it doesn't matter...because it's clear that even if this doesn't progress the participants still highly enjoyed themselves and appreciate the work the organizers did.

 

[Crimson King]

I discussed with EE the possibility of revamping the Debate Hall as well after seeing how the contest went. Instead of being purely a debate forum where we should be rebutting all sides of arguments and such. My idea was more of an intellectual forum where we discuss important issues (much how it is now), general news articles, occasional rants, and sanctioned one-on-one debates.

I put it in here so only the members who actually cared enough about DWYP would read it.

 

[cF=)]

^ I'm sure it would higher the activity level of the Hall. You could maybe rename this for something like "The World Today", which open borders to much more topics and discussion.

Besides, I think it would be important to make some publicity throughout the forum. The "temporary debaters" group gathered a tremendous number of people in a short time frame. I believe there's a lot of smashers who are just uninformed about here.

 

[Digital Watches]

I'll jump on the bandwagon here to say that while in many aspects the contest was a failure, it was really enjoyable

And regarding CK's above idea... It wouldn't change much within the forum, but I'm all for officially recognizing what this forum has really become about.

 

[KishPrime]

I enjoyed it. <_<

I'll still enjoy Round 2!

 

[McCloud]

Well, in that case we would need a revamp in terms of membership. The solution to this of course would be the temporary debater group (which has already been established)

Thus, we have a trial period to determine who sucks at debate, and who doesn't. Those who don't may then move into the rank of Smash Debater and get the amazing pink title. :D

The other problem I see that needs to be rectified is what we debate.. I believe we're all for discussing important issues regarding life around the world.

I also believe activity will pick up over the summer, as most of us will be less busy. So, have faith. All will be right in the end.

 

[lonejedi]

The Debate Tournament a failure? Simply No.

Yes there were complications, with judges being busy, technical problems, and other random problems, but for the most part, we got round 1 done rather well. Think about it, with the exception of Medicores gradings, the round went relatively well, and we won't have the problem with round 2, since all the people left standing, should be active, and not having to quit, with College being over, and high school almost done. I honestly think Round 2 and so on will only take us a week to 2 weeks at a time.

Here's my take on DWYP. We should do one main DWYP, right before the Summer, since when summer starts, and it's ready to roll, everyone will have time to debate. Every year, with multiple rounds, like a real tournament. Then we could have Mini-DWYP's, where we use Eor's idea, of just one debate, we grade everyone as a whole, top 3 place, every now and again, to still attract members. The Big DWYP would be our Big Hitter, and we could seed the tournament through the smaller DWYP placings. The smaller ones would attract members, and get them hyped up for the big one.

 

[Eor]

Revamping this place would kind of kill off all the intelligent topics the poolroom is able to have.

 

[cF=)]

The Proom has intelligent topics?

It's not like people bother going there to find something good to discuss. One time out of ten, a good topic might lead somewhere, but a quick 4chan/ytmnd/Tera reference swaps every single particle of rational thinking that could've been created by other members.

Don't bother showing mercy, you still have access to the Broom, lucky you.

 

[Crimson King]

Eor, in response to you, most people in the Proom don't use the search anyway, so I doubt it would be an issue.

I do like the idea of revamping the admissions process.

 

[Gamer4Fire]

I like this temp debater badge idea. Then laters they can get the much coveted Debater badge if and only if they aren't brain dead.

I kind of got here after the DWYP contest started so I just ignored it. Maybe you could judge things a little more freestyle and use the "rules" more as guidelines. It would make judging things easier.

But we definitely need A) more blood, this room is hurting for peeps and 2. a means by which to screen out the less intelligent of posters. Which is why I like the "temp" badge -> Smash Debater Über badge. And we can have a temporary one month dunce badge for those who fail as a lesson to others to not be idiots.

 

[Sargent_Peach]

I'll say one thing, DWYP really got me interested in the debate hall. The problem is that temp debaters can't post in topics unless they are DWYP safe.