C
Catherine_Grant
Guest
This forum has some flourishing debates going on. Some of the forum members were working together with me, through a lot of personal effort on their parts, to find the right values which allowed free exchange of thoughts but restricted the personal, snide, sarcastic, off-topic, outlandish and other attacks which used to define these debates and hindered their development.
We all agreed that, this being a discussion forum, there is no reason debates cannot continue fruitfully with differences of opinion and that these differences are precisely why the conversations should continue charitably.
The debate guidelines were so successful that many new people came to the debate threads using them, some signing up to participate and several spontaneously remarked on the charity shown. As some of the new people posted outside the guidelines, the thread would slide back to personal attacks. Introducing the new poster to the guidelines allowed fruitful conversation to continue. Because of the success of these guidelines, I am posting them for everyone to reference when debating in Eastern Catholicism. This will be the shared culture of debate here in Eastern Catholicism.
Please remember that there are many people lurking who are judging your position and all those who are in your communion by your behavior alone. It does not matter what anyone else says; you should be a model of charitable dialogue. If someone else is not, please do not respond in kind. Let me know and I’ll handle it as necessary.
Think of yourself as a robot. Objection comes in, you process it through your flowchart, you choose the right response, then a factual and non-emotional objection and/or response goes out with encyclopedia-like neutrality. If that isn’t what comes out, you edit before hitting submit until it does. If you can’t edit enough to get there, you don’t respond.
I’ll give wide leeway in on-topic debates but will provide no leeway in discussing each other. With everyone being clear on these accepted style guidelines, I expect that we will see the forum grow in charity and size. As it grows, please don’t use the guidelines to bash a poster over the head. Gently point them out and welcome them into the EC debate culture. If you need my help, ask. If the guidelines aren’t working or need some modification, let me know. If you have any difficulties or questions, feel free to write me and I’ll help however I can.
May God Bless You Abundantly,
Catherine Grant
Eastern Catholicism Moderator
We all agreed that, this being a discussion forum, there is no reason debates cannot continue fruitfully with differences of opinion and that these differences are precisely why the conversations should continue charitably.
The debate guidelines were so successful that many new people came to the debate threads using them, some signing up to participate and several spontaneously remarked on the charity shown. As some of the new people posted outside the guidelines, the thread would slide back to personal attacks. Introducing the new poster to the guidelines allowed fruitful conversation to continue. Because of the success of these guidelines, I am posting them for everyone to reference when debating in Eastern Catholicism. This will be the shared culture of debate here in Eastern Catholicism.
Please remember that there are many people lurking who are judging your position and all those who are in your communion by your behavior alone. It does not matter what anyone else says; you should be a model of charitable dialogue. If someone else is not, please do not respond in kind. Let me know and I’ll handle it as necessary.
Think of yourself as a robot. Objection comes in, you process it through your flowchart, you choose the right response, then a factual and non-emotional objection and/or response goes out with encyclopedia-like neutrality. If that isn’t what comes out, you edit before hitting submit until it does. If you can’t edit enough to get there, you don’t respond.
I’ll give wide leeway in on-topic debates but will provide no leeway in discussing each other. With everyone being clear on these accepted style guidelines, I expect that we will see the forum grow in charity and size. As it grows, please don’t use the guidelines to bash a poster over the head. Gently point them out and welcome them into the EC debate culture. If you need my help, ask. If the guidelines aren’t working or need some modification, let me know. If you have any difficulties or questions, feel free to write me and I’ll help however I can.
May God Bless You Abundantly,
Catherine Grant
Eastern Catholicism Moderator
This should benefit us all.
), but the wording comes across as asking posters to be completely cold and unemotional, devoid of passion (as in excitement or enthusiasm) for the subject at hand. Otherwise…great stuff!!!