How to view and participate in debates

Viewing debates#

Users can view debates by going to the Debates index and clicking on any question of interest.

Clicking on the question takes you to the page for that debate.

The Debate summary appears on the left. Users can click on any post in the Debates summary to see more detail about it.

An unstructured Discussion area, which is attached to the post that is open, appears on the right side of the screen

Users can participate in debates in two ways

• Adding new posts to the Debate summary (left side of page)
• Adding comments to the Discussion about a post (right side of page)

Adding new posts to Debate summary#

The Debate summary appears on the left side of the Debates page.

New posts in a Debate summary are created in two ways:

• User enters new post and then a moderator reviews the post,
• Moderator identify new issue that has generated interest in the unstructured Discussion and choose to add it to the Debate summary.

New posts of 4 types can be added:

• New issue
  Issues take the form of important questions for which several possible positions can be proposed.
• New position
  For each issue, members of the community can propose various potential positions.
• New pro
  For each position, members of the community can propose arguments for (pros).
• New con
  For each position, members of the community can also propose arguments arguments against (cons).

Members of the community can also vote for or against positions by clicking check mark.

Adding comments to the Discussion about a post#

An unstructured discussion area, where users can add comments about any post in the Debate summary, appears on the right side of the screen on the Debates page.

You can add a comment by scrolling to the bottom of the discussion and entering text in the box that appears under "Add your comment here:"

Once you have finished typing you comment, click the "Add" button that appears in the lower right corner of the text box.