April 21, 2006

Blogfight! - Interactive Blog League

Thoughts rumble and create their own wave momentum. There are some very very deep commentary at some of my favorite blog sites. Rigorous Intuition has a running debate on every post with regulars that have developed a community character. I look forward to eventhorizen spin on the latest post - just to see how the nits get worked out of the post is a delight of logic.

Being an evaluator, i am always looking for new test scoring methods. Inventing new games requires differing approaches and scores can be adjusted to weight in favor of desired outcomes. The scoring system that i think best expresses the aesthetics of performance is ice skatings judges with cards on a 10 point must system. Immediate feedback - visual satisfaction - specific criteria in different skill classes and several different complementary events.

I challenge the bloggosphere to help refine my format for Blogfight! - a bloggodebate where a topic and time is set, and a series of criteria can be used for entrants to have fair arguments on areas of political policy. My thought would be to have a 12 team league, with 7 seats in play for each team. The topic can be posted with seven sub-questions - one for each chair. The teams have a week to fill their chair with a person that presents a position essay - the type a Strike-the-Root site might publish. All teams must be then able to argue pro or con side to any specific question.

Everybody not officially on a team becomes a public judge - and the contest sides for each of the seven new more specific questions is drawn at game-time from a random bowl for all team. The two players drawn from the pool of twelve get 10 minutes to blog their pro/con answer to the question and the public scores the event. The 10 non-chosen team bloggers become the cross-exam panel and for the next hour or two - seven freelance blogs - questions and comments.

After the debate - public is polled again - score is the difference in movement of opinion from before and after the debate. The seven debates can go on for another period of time with repolling, until the question is decided. When a supermajority of the bloggosphere has decided a debate is resolved, we can go with the givens and get on to other debates until new information can be brought forward.

I believe we must systematically comb the knowledge base for errors and correct the mechanisms that have allowed integrity to become a battleground, rather than a given. This may be a way where we can retire some things that might not come up for debate because they are too low on the radar screen. I like keeping track of things and collecting statistical data - if i can't be the next commissioner of baseball, then perhaps i can serve as commissioner of Blogfight!

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