Welcome, again, to ElevateDebate.com!  Today I would like to discuss the most basic aspects of how to use the website.

The Goal

Elevate Debate is all about creating debates, posting arguments (Yes, No, and rebuttals) to those debates, and voting on the debate arguments.  This way, the best arguments on both sides of the debate (Yes and No), together with their best rebuttals, will be sorted to the top of the page.  That way, anyone wanting to really understand an issue—by examining both sides—can look to the top of the debate to find a good summary of the two sides of the issue.

The Process

Debates on ElevateDebate.com are created by registered users.  At the time I am writing this (9/17/2024), signing up for an account on the website is free, and we hope to keep it that way.

Creating a debate:  To start a debate, first sign into the website.  Select the Start a Debate button (in the home page “hamburger” menu for mobile users, on the home page for desktop users).

In the “Topic” box, where it says “Enter debate question,” put the question you want people to debate.  It must be phrased as a yes-or-no question, because (currently) the website is set up for only Yes or No answers.  For example, you could ask “Should rabbits be kept as pets?”  If the question you want to ask has two answers other than Yes and No, then adjust the question to make it yes-or-no.  For example, if you want people to argue about creamy vs. crunchy peanut butter, you could ask, “Is creamy peanut butter better than crunchy?” so that in effect, selecting ‘Yes’ is posting in favor of creamy, and selecting ‘No’ is posting in favor of crunchy.

Next, select a category from those available (users cannot create categories, but they can create tags; see below).

In the Description box, provide a description of the background of the debate and the ground rules for the debate, or whatever else you want people to know at the start of the debate.  The background of the debate would be for clarifying what the question is about.  The ground rules would be for saying what kinds of arguments you are ruling out.  For example, maybe in an argument about what the United States Constitution means in a particular article, you might want to tell users that in their arguments they should not appeal to the constitutions of other countries.

Upload an image if you would like.  Select or create one or more tags for the debate.  A tag, sometimes called a “keyword,” is a term (word or phrase) that the question relates closely to.  The purpose of tags is to help the user know what the debate question is about in just a few words.  Select Done, and the debate will be posted.

Posting arguments to a debate:  After reading a debate question someone has posted, you may wish to respond to it, and so engage in the debate.  If you want to give a Yes response to the question, then select the ‘Yes’ button (the green button with a plus sign), and then provide your argument, and select Submit.  Similarly, to add a No response to the question, select the ‘No’ button (the red button with a plus sign), provide your argument, and Submit.  You can’t just say yes or no; you are required to provide an argument.  And if you want, you may post several Yes arguments and several No arguments to the same debate question.

After a Yes or No argument has been posted, you may upvote it or downvote it by selecting the appropriate button.  If there are several arguments, then maybe you want to upvote some and downvote others.  The arguments will then sort themselves, so that the better arguments will move toward the top of the list.  (You may have to refresh the page for this to happen.)  You are free to up- or downvote posts on both sides of the argument—because, after all, if your answer is Yes, then even though you apparently disagree with the ‘No’ arguments, you may still have an opinion of which ‘No’ arguments are stronger than the others, so go ahead and vote on those as well.

Posting rebuttals to Yes or No arguments:  After another user (or it could be you) has posted a Yes or No argument, you may wish to respond to that argument with a rebuttal.  To do so, select the “Add Rebuttal” button under the ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ post, provide your reasoning, and Submit.

But let’s stop and talk about rebuttals for a moment.  First of all, a rebuttal is not simply a comment about the ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ post being responded to.  A rebuttal has to be a negative comment (not negative in the sense of being a mean comment, but a comment against the post it is responding to).  Second, a rebuttal does not argue that the opposite side of the debate is better—that is, a rebuttal of a Yes doesn’t argue in favor of No, and a rebuttal of No doesn’t argue in favor of Yes.  Instead, a rebuttal must simply provide a reason to say that the reasoning in the Yes argument (or the No argument) is somehow faulty.  You could rebut a Yes argument because there’s something wrong with the argument even if you believe that ‘Yes’ is the correct answer to the question.

As an example of a rebuttal, Suppose the debate question is, “Should children be allowed to vote?”  Suppose as well that there is a ‘Yes’ argument saying, “Yes, because laws affect them as well as adults.”  Then the rebuttal should not say, “Great comment!” because rebuttals must be negative.  (If you like the post, then don’t say so; just vote it up!)  Also the rebuttal should not say, “No, because it would be inconvenient to get children to register,” because that is a contrary argument—a ‘No’ argument—and should be placed on the other side of the page; it does not even address how the ‘Yes’ response is faulty (which a rebuttal must say it is).  But if the rebuttal said, “You are failing to take into account that children can’t be relied on to choose wisely,” then that could be considered an actual rebuttal of the Yes argument.

As with Yes and No arguments, Rebuttals may also be upvoted or downvoted, in order to compare them with other rebuttals of the same argument.  Because of the rebuttal voting, when the highest-voted Yes and No arguments sort to the top of the page, you can see which of their rebuttals are best as well.

 Blogs

Registered users are also able to create blog posts.  One use of a blog post could be first to talk about a subject and then to link to several debates that relate to that subject.  For example, a user could make a list of alleged facts to check regarding a recent world event, and then link to individual debates that discuss each alleged fact.

Admin Blog

The purpose of the Admin Blog is for the administrators of the website to post information for users about the website and to suggest how to debate well.  Read it as much or as little as you like.

Happy debating!

Apollos the Administrator