DEBATE CLUB!

Hey, do you want a controlled environment to discuss things, and be assured there won't be anyone attacking you? The debate club is a space to learn more about how to discuss and participate in a conversation. We'll learn about proper tools together, and spread our good tactics together <3 We can potentially turn discussion civilized and call out bad tactics! 

The debate club will consist of resources, mock debates, questions, some challenges? Some games even? 

If you're very extra interested in interjecting discussions and directly calling out bad tactics, you should consider a referee role (Def unofficial and comes with a dumb sticker i made)

What can a referee be? 

The term was inspired by last flop topic.

What if we had a live-time 'moderator' to correct people and encourage people to phrase stuff better? A referee could be a person with an interest to better a discussion. I could give resources, link to some videos, encourage Referees to get the theory of debating/discussing. 

In return, the Referees could be people who could see the risk of escalation before anyone gets muted. A live-time referee could avoid dogpiling (the group attack of someone), techniques to belittle someone, or other harmful tactics! 

Referees could ask constructive questions such as:

"Oh, what did you mean by that?"

"Could you elaborate a bit?" (if no one else asks and their post is not very constructive?

Imagine if Referees could extinguish a fire before it happens?

A referee should be:

• Neutral
• - Calm and collected 
• - Observant 
• - Good or passionate about communication
• - Patient 
• - Active listener
• - more? 

I am no messaiah, and I will state it again. I've grown more and more interested in developing a solution for people feeling unsafe. I want to try to fix a problem that occurs BEFORE the mute, TO etc: The discussion in itself. 

Moderators can moderate, ofc, but a Referee would have a more active role in 'setting people straight' and encourage better communication between people when the parties can't do it themselves.

And, for everyone: I've developed a little resource which can help - a handbook guide for discussions. It's like a little resource from my knowledge, and I still need to provide sources but I'll fix - Anyways, I'm no PH.D student.. here we go:

THE HANDBOOK RESOURCE THING IS HERE, IN PDF  

THIS IS DYNAMIC AND THINGS MAY GET ADDED OVER TIME BUT yolo

also this isn't a suggestion for gsm to add this role, but more as an voluntary thing. If anyone's interested in becoming a Referee with me - hit me up or join the club