Nameless Debates
Where your ideas matter, not your name or the size of your personality
Attention reader: if you have a short attention span, there is a sparknotes version. If not, read on!
On the internet, there is no shortage of communities for which the central conceptual theme is the free exchange of ideas and opinions, but few spaces manage to truly embody the ideal. The vast majority of them are plagued by trolling, immature behaviour and contrarian foolishness, and in those rare instances when you manage to find a moment of peace from these pests, you end up engaging in a debate which ends with both participants feeling frustrated by the conduct of the other. Even the better spaces available fail to achieve an effective balance between social harmony and intellectual rigour, and ego-driven personalities often obstruct progress with melodramatic and performative antics. What we need is a community which has a clear vision of the ideal and which embodies it, a space which values the quality of the ideas — in addition to the arguments and evidence advanced to substantiate them — above and beyond that of names and personalities. What we need is an environment in which the concept of debate can yet be redeemed.
Fortunately, there already exists such a space and it is a rare gem indeed, as it not only manifests the ideal, but it exemplifies it in such a way that there is literally no space like it, either on the internet or off it. It’s a debate server on the infamous social media platform Discord, and it is definitely the best debate server on the entire platform, even though there are many competitors, a few of which have larger populations and therefore higher base levels of activity. ND however is very special among those servers which are similar in nature, as it offers not only a variety of premium features which you can find nowhere else, but also a strong culture which results in an environment that is uniquely equipped to empower and facilitate the free expression of speech and consequently to provide the ideal platform for the progressive development of ideas. If you have good ideas and interesting opinions, and wish to test your mettle against our finest, then ND is definitely the space for you.
Nameless Debates is a discord community which is oriented around the idea of dialectics and a search for what is true through discussions and debates with those with whom we disagree. It is a playground for ideas and a garden of Eden perfect for the flower which is the potentiation of the intellect. Our community offers participants a chance to hone their minds and sharpen their tongues, and our ranking system is designed with the facilitation of this goal in mind; thus, despite its superficial façade of competition, it is in fact geared towards co-operation at its core. One of the principal reasons which makes ND stand out among the rest is the unique vision which the owner has for the space, a vision which has at its core the ethic of the dialogue*.
This vision of the community is what is directly responsible for the exemplary culture which exists within ND, a culture which ensures that the vast majority of conversations that occur within the bounds of the space are at least productive, if not always completely polite. The conduct of the regular members of the server sets a noble precedent for the normal tone of engagements, and this serves to create the culture to which new members have to adjust themselves. Thus, if the server tends to select for members who engage seriously and sincerely during their discussions of alternative perspectives, the atmosphere of the space becomes uniquely conducive to the honest exploration of the issues and an earnest effort to resolve the problems which present themselves during analysis. The quality of the conversations which occur within the server are reflected back through the perspectives of our individual members by way of our 50-odd stellar reviews which can be found on Disboard, reviews which average out at 4.8 stars.
Of course, ND is a community which is hosted on the immensely popular and regularly updated platform called Discord, an excellent framework for social media which permits the creation of original spaces that cluster around popular topics, hobbies and media. These individual servers allow the creation of custom text and voice channels according to the requirements of the community, and there are a number of excellent features (not least among which is their support for custom emojis) which make Discord such a stable and worthwhile foundation upon which to build a social space. ND has taken advantage of the native features of Discord to provide users with a variety of novel functionality which one cannot find anywhere else on Discord, not to mention our innovative implementation of more standard aspects of discord servers such as the emojis and stickers. Not only does ND have the best emojis and stickers of any server on Discord, but it also features a lot of custom emojis and stickers which have been made by members of our own space!
Our server has an annual newsletter (although we are a little behind on the most recent edition) which helps to keep our members up to date with all the major happenings and changes within the space, including upcoming events and the queue of uploads for our YouTube channel. Speaking of our YouTube channel, this is another element of our community which, although a relatively common practice for Discord servers, constitutes an impressive collection of excellent conversations which stands above the majority of its competitors both in terms of the quality of the content as well as the professionalism of the video editing. We not only have these recordings available on the Nameless Debates Radio YouTube channel, but a more data-efficient version can be accessed in podcast form on Spotify. If you are hanging out within the space hoping to listen to a good conversation but nothing is happening, we even have a custom radio bot which streams ND content 24/7 so that there’s always something to listen to! In future, it will be possible to invite this bot to other servers as well.
ND has an attractive aesthetic and a wide variety of channels while managing to avoid a feeling of channel bloat, and those channels are intelligently disambiguated so as to optimally facilitate productive discourse. We have three general/main channels, two of which are gated according to rank — the most prestigious channel requires at least a rank of platinum in order for a member to be able to type comments/posts there, while the middle channel only requires a rank of silver. We also have an unrestricted general channel where everyone can participate, as well as a channel specific to serious discussion, a channel for sources, and a couple of channels for memes. There is a 1v1 channel for those times when you don’t want anyone else to be able to interrupt you (a bot enforces this), in addition to a special channel for religious debates so that they aren’t constantly clogging up the main channels. We even have a channel on the fringe of town exclusively for the posting of pictures of bugs and other insects!
The ranks on the server are based on the ranks in League of Legends, beginning with the rank of Wood and progressing up through bronze -> silver -> gold -> platinum -> diamond -> master -> grandmaster. Ranks are based on evaluations of debate competency, and all changes in ranking must pass through a democratic process once the rank is above a certain minimum threshold (silver). For those who impress our core membership, there are numerous opportunities for advancement within the space — opportunities which are not limited to rank. There may even be special pathways made available for individuals who have unique gifts and wish to give back to the community. What is important is that all members try their best to try their best, and what happens from there, happens from there.
To comment further on the exceptional aesthetic that the space has, it is organized as if it were a small city, with the primary channels in a category called downtown, most of the voice channels in either the tavern or the radio station category, events held in an ‘events cinema’ set of channels and supplementary channels contained within a category called ‘suburbs’. ND also has a wide selection of roles that you can use to nominate positions you believe in or would be willing to debate; when there is a lull in conversation, these are frequently consulted by fellow members as a way to jumpstart an interesting conversation — simply find a position you disagree with and let loose! These roles cover all manner of philosophical, political and ideological positions, so that there’s something for everyone!
ND has a very friendly community, a dedicated team of staff and a pair of reasonable and intelligent owners, all of whom work together to make ND an interesting and challenging space to participate in. We have a transparent moderation process with built in checks and balances including both the hierarchy of staff, who get a direct say in how the space is managed, as well as the server council, where regular members are able to give their say and influence, albeit indirectly, what direction the server moves in. Despite being friendly, ND does not take part in the widespread online phenomenon of civility politics, wherein being rude in any context is regarded as antisocial and thereby discouraged — this is a brand of political correctness which we cannot abide by, as it stifles authentic and honest self-expression. We consider that it is better to allow the ‘nastiness’ to exist on the surface and to deal with it on that level, rather than forcing it below where it becomes part of an underground current that manifests itself primarily through passive aggression and shadow snark. In other words, civility politics utterly fails to eliminate the nastiness, it merely forces it to wear the clothes of niceness — something which makes it significantly harder to effectively moderate.
All in all, ND is the best of the best when it comes to online debate spaces, and I think I would be right to say that most of its members agree wholeheartedly — that’s why they keep coming back week after week, after all. If you’ve been feeling bored lately, and you want to find a new place to explore and engage with novel and interesting people, then ND is definitely for you. It is a large community filled with competent people, but it is nonetheless welcoming to newcomers of all skill levels, whether you have a PhD or never even finished high school — as long as you make a genuine attempt to defend the positions and opinions you put forward, you will be valued within our community, regardless of how favourably we regard your ideas or your character. Come see!
If what you’ve read resonated with you, come check out the server, and join us in broadening our minds; you might even be featured in one of our Youtube videos — if you’ve got what it takes…
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Thanks for your time, we hope to see you there!
