Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9164 total)
3 online now:
Newest Member: ChatGPT
Post Volume: Total: 916,910 Year: 4,167/9,624 Month: 1,038/974 Week: 365/286 Day: 8/13 Hour: 1/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Christopher Bohar's Debate Challenge
Percy
Member
Posts: 22505
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 4.9


Message 60 of 191 (21776)
11-07-2002 9:10 AM
Reply to: Message 59 by Fred Williams
11-06-2002 7:34 PM


Fred, might I suggest that, independent of who is at fault in the exchange between you and Budikka at your site, that issues of fairness and objectivity can't help but be called into question when the same individual is both debater and moderator. Whether or not Budikka is bitter, his frustration is certainly understandable, and though I can't condone his overly adversarial approach I believe that exchanges conducted in more neutral territory might bear less bitter and more nourishing fruit.
--Ted

This message is a reply to:
 Message 59 by Fred Williams, posted 11-06-2002 7:34 PM Fred Williams has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 67 by Fred Williams, posted 11-08-2002 5:30 PM Percy has replied

Percy
Member
Posts: 22505
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 4.9


Message 72 of 191 (21968)
11-09-2002 9:10 AM
Reply to: Message 67 by Fred Williams
11-08-2002 5:30 PM


Hi Fred!
Saw your mention of this site in your guestbook - thanks!
I'm not questioning your site's policies or their enforcement. Lord knows we share the same difficulties. But Budikka evidently has an urgent desire to debate with you, and to avoid issues of fairness and objectivity that debate cannot take place in your guestbook. I know Budikka came to your site, but websites like ours are open places. All us website guys like traffic, but some visitors entail more overhead than others, and at times I'm sure we all feel like paraphrasing Bogie and saying, "Of all the evo/creo joints in all the world, he walks into mine."
With regard to your website's guestbook, you can assume the guidelines will be violated from time to time, but if you're both contributor and editor then you can't avoid the fairness/objectivity issue. This isn't your fault, and it isn't something you have to fix or even should fix, but it's a reality nonetheless.
I think a good canned response to entries in your guestbook that tend toward the inflammatory would be something along the lines of, "Thank you very much for visiting this site and for your energetic advocacy of the evolutionist position." If the entry is from someone who's a blowhard hothead then it speaks for itself, and so an even better response is none at all. Of course, this is my style, not yours, but the point I'm trying to make is the same one you make yourself when you say in your guestbook, "Please try to avoid using this guest book as a forum for debate..."
--Percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 67 by Fred Williams, posted 11-08-2002 5:30 PM Fred Williams has not replied

Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024