Cross Examination

A few of my debate friends and I are starting a team video debate soon, and we want it to sort of mimic pubic forum style. Would it be possible to add a cross examination feature for in between rounds?

Nerd Politico: Hey, good to see you again. I've actually been thinking about cross examination recently...

I've never done cross examination in a RL debate. I have an idea for how to mimic it (though it would have to be in between each round and probably disabled for 4-way debates). I have a few questions though:

> How would you, as a public forum debater, think it's best to mimic it?

And some general rules questions assuming I stick with the code implementation that's in my head...

> Who gets to ask the questions? Is it the person who just spoke or the person about to speak?
> Is it really between every round or are some rounds skipped? Should it be skipped for reply rounds?
> Are CX rounds normally longer or shorter than regular rounds in terms of time?
> How many questions would generally be fair to ask?

admin: In terms of video debates, I'd prefer some sort of platform for us both to be in the video. The questions are asked by whoever asks them. There is no real order there, but standard ethics is to not ask more than 2 or 3 questions in a row (though usually the other debater is quick enough to interject). I guess for text, it would have to be a temporary chat box or something. If it is a team debate (like it is in pf), first speakers from both sides state their case for 4 minutes, and then crossfire is 3 minutes between the speakers. And then second speakers from each team state their 4 minute rebuttal, and then there is a three minute crossfire between the two of them. And then the first speakers go again for two minutes, and then there is a three minute long "grand crossfire," where all four people in the debate speak. After that, the second speaker from each team makes their final speech, and then it's done.

I have no idea what reply rounds are.

Nerd Politico: That's actually a good question.

Nerd Politico: A reply round is a round after the main debating rounds have concluded with half as much time and the speaking order reversed, typically used for summaries and such.

A streaming video system with both of you is looking unlikely to be coming up soon. That ties in to live debates which are basically in a early stage of code at this point. It will happen eventually but I wouldn't hold my breath.

The chat box concept is akin to what I was developing, which is basically a shoutbox usable by all the involved debaters after each round (to mimic certain styles like pf, some debaters would probably have to exclude themselves). My current thinking is that I'll leave this active for the same length of time that a regular debate round is active, since there are time zone differences and such as otherwise it might be unfair. Give or take 1 minute that seems fairly consistent with pf.

Interesting that there's no crossfire right at the end of the debate.

admin: Crossfire?

Pinkie: Cross examination I mean

admin: Oh, NZ thing?

Pinkie: No, just messed up. We don't have anything of the sort in NZ. Closest we get is points of information, which are questions that may be asked at any time, but the other speaker gets a chance to refuse to answer before they know what the question is.

admin: I do to types of debate and we have points of information too.

Pinkie: Which one is it? World schools?

admin: What do you mean?

Pinkie: Which style do you do that has points of information?

admin: Parliamentary.

Pinkie: American or British parliamentary (2 teams or 4?)

admin: 2 teams of 2.

Pinkie: So American then.

I've never seen the point in American parliamentary TBH. Seems like a more boring version of World Schools to me (2 teams of 3 with replies).

admin: Lol, my club doesn't do British.

Pinkie: Is there actually a reason why America absolutely HAS to do things their own way? I mean, why don't they use the styles that the rest of the world also uses? And then wonder why they perform so poorly in international competitions?

admin: I didn't set it up that way Lars...