Y Answers debate forum?

Yes, it would be nice indeed. Forums are a very good way of keeping discussions coherent, and can result in organized databases with plenty of information for those who honestly want to know more about any subject.

Unfortunately, the forums provided by Yahoo (at least the ones at Yahoo Next) are not the best I've seen as debate/discussion platforms, in terms of usability. And even if YA could link to different debate forums, I imagine that they would insist on their own products.

Or the users could agree to meet at a given forum (outside YA) to continue these "conversations" (but I don't think the Staff would like such links, which would be outside their control).

The problem is that while YA is good for several types of questions, there are some that escape the simple format and demand more complex interactions between askers and answerers. And of course, those are the ones we're most interested in!

On the Evolution-Creation issue: A few days ago a fellow user invited me to The Panda's Thumb. I haven't been there yet, but I'll be checking it out.

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Update: It's true that such forums exist. But your suggestion of linking this site to specific forums for further discussion is original, I believe. As I've already said, we could agree to "meet" at one of those forums, but that would be outside YA. An internal thing would be more comfortable.

Have you considered posting this idea at the forum (link at the upper right corner)? There are more chances of some Team member reading and responding there... just to know if it's possible :-)

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Update2: New idea! Have you checked today's blog from the Team? It's possible to link specific YA categories to YahooGroups. What about starting specific groups for these discussions? Email lists work almost as well as forums, and all messages are archived. What do you think?

Today's blog:

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/y_answrs_team?p=3703#com...

Evolution Debate Forum

I am in agreement with Calimecita. There has been an ongoing need to they layperson community for those who are indeed sincere about learning more about evolution.

I am all for an open forum, but there are so many out there already with all the information needed, that I think we just need to get the word out to the ones that already exist. Possibly even copy/paste standard "sources" to go to for information or even a "must read" page on a website that is put in the sources section.

NuroProf - "Many evolutionists don't know the main arguments against evolution or for creation either..."

I very much disagree with this statement. Evolutionist know every single claim made by creationist AND Itelligent Design proponents... so well in fact that some of the websites dedicated to evolution have a part of their site that list every single creationist claim...and a rebuttal for each individual one!

Evolutionist have argued most of the same arguments for over 150 years against creationist. And despite the overwelming evidence they choose to ignore it.

The other problem is, people don't know when they are being bullsh!tted. People first need to understand debating, and all the logical fallicies associated with it.

I do have my own website. I am allowed two databases, and if everyone would agree to send the questions there, I could put up a forum where this can be debated. But I will not tolerate any name calling, or any type of rude behaviour.

Just let me know by either sending me an email or something.

If it is decided to find an already existing forum for debates then might I recommend the following:

answers and debate have different functions and meaning.

they would have to start up another forum called debate.yahoo.com

i can imagine it being awesomely successful!

then when debates draw to a close, a link could be posted to the relevant answers in answers.yahoo.com

posting links to answers is my pet issue with this forum. at the start, i asked a whole lot of similar questions around the issue of circumcising male babies. i cut and pasted the links to each preceding question into the new one i was formulating, so people could follow the process of clarification. this required an extra bit of work that i'm sure could be streamlined with some feature like a list of questions you have previously asked that are related to the title of the question you are formulating, just like comes up generally for the whole of yahoo answers when you make the title. then you could select (maybe tick boxes?) the questions that relate to the one you're asking so people can more easily gain a broader perspective and more information on what, specifically, you have asked about the question.

this can be done in a more roundabout way by searching yahoo answers and looking through the answerer's list of questions, but i think this is important enough to add it as a feature, and would enhance the yahoo answers experience.

like this:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=10060515050...

i often do this in answers that inspire me to ask new questions, so what should be done is adding a button called 'ask a related question'. then all the relevant links would be added there.

click on the link i've started this up as a question.

wil

While I would relish the opportunity for debate for debate's sake, debate wouldn't change anything actual. There would always be the same argument repeated over and over without permanent resolution; that's the way of internet forums. Take any question of faith and you'll find adherents (religious or otherwise) won't need a reason; therefore debate would solve nothing. Further, allowing debates where one can actually respond to other posts would become much too confusing and confrontational; see how it gets already here on Y!answers?

Great idea, but it seems it is not working ... maybe this is not the appropriate way to have a debate. Anyway there is a guy who make the question : why still are apes around? .. the evolution never implies the extinction of the animals, and the circumstances have to be the same to have the same result, but you can see the human evolution if you study the humans lots of years ago, their physical characteristics were different

I'm not sure it would work with this formula.

Chatrooms would be the place to do this kind of thing.

Yahoo answers is kind of weird in this respect. Is it realtime or not?

Sure you have to be online to participate, but the interaction is not like a conversation. Besides you can only answer a question once, or you could edit your answer over and over.

Chatrooms would be a better place for a debate. Easier to keep track of who says what at what time.

But give it a go. I'm in if you can find a way to announce it so i would know you were doing this.

It's not a bad idea, but such forums already exist. It would be cool to have them categorized though, and a single log in for all of them.

There are other general purpose forums out there, like sciforums, and there are tons of interest specific forums, like talkorigins for the creation/evolution "debate".

There's an interesting book written by a Georgetown University professor. The book is called "The Argument Culture." It explains what you are saying.

Yes I have had smiular thoughts...I am often attracted to enter a debate on some of the questions as opposed to just setting forth my argument/answer/viewpoint.

I dito what you have said.