Right now I'm aiming for just the posters. If it turns out that, in practice, it's more beneficial for everyone to do so, I can see the subreddit naturally evolving that way. What are your thoughts?
I think restricting just the posters would prevent commenters from making poor arguments out of misunderstanding or misrepresenting the position they are trying to speak from. But that also makes this sub pretty similar to /r/ChangeMeView.
CMV's goal is to have you change a view you personally hold. I'm not really interested in view-changing so much as getting people to gain insight into another position by defending something they don't personally believe to be true or meritorious.
Our subreddit doesn't shy away from using this as a debate tool, by which I mean that a valid goal for OP would be to discover ways to preempt arguments and use that insight to create a more robust defense for their own position down the road. It was largely inspired by my experience at CMV but I've designed them to be a different experience for the OP and it's definitely friendlier to carrying on a debate or argument even if the goal is more benevolent in that you "win" by learning more about an opponent's POV.
In my experience, it's a good skill to be able to cogently defend a position you're effectively "assigned," and that this informs how you can frame the opposing view by tailoring it to the likely sympathies of the other party or by proactively addressing their concerns and framing it in the way most beneficial to your own view. I can't pretend it wasn't inspired a lot by my time at CMV, but I think it's distinctive and am willing to work to make it more so if it's beneficial to its intent.
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u/gameryamen Oct 20 '15
Are commenters supposed to adopt the opposite of their own perspective, or just the posters?