How judging works
Every debate is scored out of 100 across four dimensions, then conduct penalties are subtracted. You are judged on how well you argued — never on whether the judge agrees with your position.
Clash and refutation — 35 points
The heaviest dimension, because arguing past each other is the failure this exists to fix. Do you attack the load-bearing parts of their case, or only easy ones? When challenged, do you answer the actual challenge or change the subject? Points your opponent raised that you never engaged with at all cost you significantly here.
Argument quality — 30 points
Is each claim backed by reasoning, or just asserted? Are you consistent with yourself across the debate? Reasoning fallacies — false dichotomy, slippery slope, circular reasoning — are penalised.
Evidence handling — 20 points
This only activates when someone explicitly disputes a specific factual claim. The disputed claim is then checked. If it was false and the challenger caught it, the challenger gains and the claimant loses. If it held up, the reverse. If nobody disputes a fact all debate, both sides get the neutral half and it changes nothing.
Presentation — 15 points
Clarity, structure, professionalism. Deliberately the smallest dimension — at most 5 of these points reflect how you sound. Being articulate does not beat being right.
Conduct — deductions only
Subtracted after the 100, never added. Personal attacks 5–10. Strawmanning 5–10. Inventing evidence 15–20, harsher because it is dishonest rather than mistaken. Sustained talking-over 5–15— ordinary open-mic overlap is expected and is not penalised. Capped at 30 total, so one bad moment cannot erase a good debate.
Judged, or not
Whoever posts the claim decides
Judged — a winner is declared, you both see each other’s score, and your ratings change. Not judged — no winner, no rating change, and you each see only your own score. The board says which before you accept.
The second exists because being told you lost an argument is a strange thing to hear from a machine. You did not lose because you were wrong; you lost because you explained yourself less clearly. That is worth knowing, but it is not the same as being beaten, and not every debate needs a verdict attached.
Score
The average of your last few debates
Every debate you finish produces a score out of 100 — judged or not. Your score is the average of your most recent 5.
It is a measure of how well you have been arguing lately, not of whether you have been winning. It moves whether or not anyone beat you, it does not care who you faced, and a rolling window means a good run shows up quickly and a bad night does not follow you around.
Score and rating measure different things
Score is about you: how clearly and rigorously you made your case. Rating is about results: who you beat and who beat you, across judged debates only.
You can have a high score and a modest rating — arguing well and losing to people who argue better. The leaderboard ranks by score by default, and by rating if you ask it to.
Rating
Winning always gains
How much depends on the gap between you. Beat someone rated far above you and you gain a lot; beat someone far below and you gain very little. Losing works the same in reverse. Scores within 3 points count as a draw.
Your first debates count more
For your first 15 rated debates your rating moves roughly twice as fast, so it finds your real level quickly. Everyone starts at 1200.
When a debate doesn't count
A debate must run at least 60% of its scheduled length and both sides must actually speak. Debates that are one-sided to the point of being staged, or that never engage the claim, are voided. A void changes nobody’s rating — it is not a penalty.
Leaving early is a forfeit and counts as a loss. If you both want to stop, use Offer to end here — an agreed ending is judged normally and costs neither of you anything extra.
Lengths
3, 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes. The poster chooses.
Tiers
Privacy
What happens to your debate
Your audio is transcribed so it can be judged. Transcripts are kept for 30 days and then deleted, and recordings are deleted within 48 hours. Neither is ever shown to anyone, including your opponent. What is public is the result: the claim, who you debated, both scores, and the date.