One on one debates

Hello.

I've been a part of other forums in the past where they had a separate sub-section where people could engage in one on one debates on an agreed upon topic without any interference from other posters. Those who weren't a part of the formal debate were able to post in a "Peanut Gallery" or in a separate thread which pertained to the debated topic, but they were not permitted to interfere with the actual debate itself in which alternate posts were made by the two debaters.

Can something like this be set up here?

I'd love to debate certain individuals on certain topics WITHOUT the usual barroom brawls that regularly break out on threads.

You might be able to do this on a blog or a visitor message board as you would have the ability to delete unwanted comments or messages from those that are not part of the debate yet the debate would still be available for public viewing.

A blog would never work...unless they greatly increase the amount of text that can be contained within a post. I recently looked into blogging and I had to break down a single forum post which I had made into three separate blog entries just to get it to fit.

I'm not sure what the visitor message board is all about...???

You have to create that option on your profile page. I am not sure what the word limit is.

That would be against the point of a public forum, wouldn't it?

if you want one- one - one discussions with a member, give them your contact details

I've been on other forums which have had the same type of feature that I'm describing and I actually found the same to be beneficial.

In case you haven't noticed, the same old discussions break out all of the Bible Discussion Forum over and over again and there's always a lot of derailment and infighting and the actual topic doesn't always get properly addressed from a scriptural perspective. I'm just looking for a way to civilly debate certain topics with certain individuals so that both sides can be presented scripturally and so that such can later be used as a point of reference when the topic inevitably comes up again.

I'd be up for that! A bit of real one on one meaningful discussion on-line

Considering the mentality of the average BD forum user this would incite more arguments. I imagine some of these guys would have heart attacks if they had to see someone arguing against their theology and couldn't put that person in their place and teach them why they are wrong and bound for hell because of it. And the ones that didn't die would just rage on everyone else just to get it out of their system =P

I once had a Roman Catholic address me in a private message and we ended up in a long one on one debate that finally ended when I got tired of him bombarding me with an avalanche of arguments without ever seriously considering what I had to say. He then said, "I'm not surprised that you are backing out. This is typical when one is challenged with questions that expose false beliefs," which was not the case at all, but that was his goal. Get me to end the discussion first and then declare me the loser of the debate for refusing to continue to waste my time beating a dead horse. His final words to me were, "May the Holy Spirit and all the angels and saints intercede on your behalf and open your heart and your mind to the fullness of God's revelation found only in His Catholic Church." My final words to him were, "The "fullness" of God's revelation? You call adding un-Biblical traditions of men (which is not what Paul meant by traditions, but you can't figure that out because of your indoctrination) and uninspired books to God's Word the "fullness" of God's revelation? The Mormons have added to God's Word as well with the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and they call it the "fullness" of the gospel. I find it interesting that both the Roman Catholic church and the Mormon church claim to be the one and only "True Church" and both also claim to have the "full" revelation of God. This is the PRIDE that has kept both Roman Catholics and Mormons blinded from the gospel truth, which is Satan's goal (2 Corinthians 4:3,4).

lol...a lot of comments so far, but no responses yet, that I know of, from anybody who could possibly grant me my request.

Are there any Moderators or Administrators reading this thread?

If so, then I would appreciate an answer to my question if possible.

Thank you.

Through Private Messages is the only way that I know how to engage in a one on one debate on this forum. Maybe the Moderators or Administrators can give you a more thorough answer.

I understand that, but I'm suggesting that they open up a sub-section on this forum for one on one debates as such sub-sections already exist on other Christian sites.

My goal is basically this...

To have an arena (like where the gladiators fought...lol) where only two people are involved in presenting opposing sides to an argument and there's not the inevitable off topic, trollish interference which regularly transpires and which inevitably results in somebody having to wade through pages of posts just to find something that actually addresses the topic.

Others can post their comments in a "Peanut Gallery" or on a separate thread which is designated for the same and if people feel like they have something to add to the debate, then they can always PM the person involved in the side of the debate which they agree with and see if that debater will address any of their points or not.

That's about it...

Mods don't usually address these unless there is a specific reason to, such as explaining why a debated idea won't work. So if you're waiting, you could be waiting a long time because most of these posts get zero response from staff.
It is the decision of one person, the site owner. He will take ideas and consider them. And 90% of the time, if he does like an idea it will take a long time for him to implement it.

Okay...thanks for the heads-up...

Create a Chat Group.

~ You will "own" it and "control" it.
~ Please do not choose "too generic" a name. For example - do not use "One on one debates" - use "One on one debates with JesusistheChrist" --- other people will probably want to do the same, and - ideally - it would be good if the names of all of these groups followed the same pattern...

Create a debate thread.

~ Set it up so that any-and-all can read it, but only you and one other person can write to it.
~ You will probably be limited to debating one person at a time - unless this can be set on a thread basis.
~ You will probably be limited to one thread at a time - unless you have more than one simultaneous thread going with the same person.

I believe this will probably work. No guarantee. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong. I have never created my own chat group, so I am not absolutely sure...

How do you set up a debate thread where only two members can debate? Is that even possible?

I believe he means create the thread within the Chat Group. Though the only way to make this effective is to allow one person at a time to join the group. And even then, though the debate would technically be public, it will not show on the main screen, so only those who specifically know about it and have an interest in going out of their way to follow it would even see it. Few would likely bother. Most people here seem to prefer duking it out themselves rather than watching others and not being able to chime in.

Exactly.

EDIT: And probably more trouble than it is worth...

There is no fun in that if your desire is for an "audience".

I like the idea of a public one on one where everyone else can see what you're saying but not participate. However, they could vote on who's winning the debate. Eventually, these things could be nightly events, where all during the day the 'showdown' gets advertised on the front page of the site. Of course, to make it interesting, we would have to allow betting and such.

I'll be the bookie.