Serendipity35

Do you think of social media sites, such as Twitter, as a place for debate? Yes, I know that people argue about things on Twitter and Facebook, but is that what you would consider to be "debate?"

There is a fairly new start-up that has been around for about a year and wants to offer you a place for more civilized debate or discussion than the current angry "discussion" on social media.

The site is Kialo (Esperanto for “reason”) and hopes to prohibit the shouting, rudeness or irrationality that is currently part of the Trumpian Twitterverse that has evolved.

Some have called Kialo an "Internet Unicorn" and "The Utopian Fantasy of Rational Debate On the Web."

You can just read the discussions on topics of the day, and you can take part as a debater.  You may even be designated as a moderator. It is not for commenting on others posts.

It's a nice idea, but I don't see it becoming a huge site on the scale of Facebook or Twitter. I don't think people who are on social media really want debate. They want to say how they feel and they want others to agree with them (as in getting a "Like" for what they have said). And there is a smaller percentage of those people who actually want to argue with strangers. 

And argument is not exactly debate - and many arguments are not a civil "set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong." They are the other kind of argument - when people have opposite views and express it in a a heated or angry way. Did we learn nothing from Monty Python?

I have read that some teachers and professors are using private areas of Kialo for class discussions and exercises in critical thinking and reasoning.

For everyday debaters and for schools and universities, access is free. The site does not carry ads. They say they do not sell data.

Kialo uses the term “claim” rather than "argument" and contributors sometimes not only make a claim but also post counterpoints to their own claim. Of course, a good debater does need to know both sides in order to debate well.