Mon
Live7–9pm
The People's Debate · you are the judge
Who won? You decide.
TL;DRA public-judged debate league: recorded, streamed, and scored by the people, not one judge.
In Search of Better Debates™
Bring debate back — and bring it forward. Most debate hands the verdict to one judge in one chair. Invert it. Record the debate, stream it here, and let the people score it — two sides, one room, and the only jury that can't be bought: everybody who watched.
Sign up to debate
📋 This is a sign-up, not a sign-on. The league is aspirational — we're trying to host recorded, public-judged debates in The McKendry Debate™ format, Mon · Wed · Fri, 7–9pm, with a Saturday marquee. Nothing's running yet, and no commitment is made by signing up. You're raising your hand so you're first in line the moment the debates are actually possible.
Everything's subject to debate — the topics, the format, even the nights. What's not up for debate: webcams are required to debate live (see The Camera Rule — suit optional; the curator's bringing a sweet jacket, you don't have to). Want in?
✉️ Pledge by email
Tell us your first name, whether you want to debate · judge · watch, and which nights. No account needed — just an email. No commitment until the league is live.
Hold office? There's a chair with your name on it, and it doesn't wait for the league: Truth or Dare — answer on the record, or take the chair live. Any elected official, party-blind, city council to the Oval. Me v. the world.
One judge can be wrong. A room that actually watched is a lot harder to fool.
The format & the week
Two sides take the floor on a real question, in The McKendry Debate™ format (1-on-1, Lincoln-Douglas lineage) — recorded and live-streamed here, 7–9pm. Then the verdict goes to you: who won, who lost. The curator takes the floor himself to start, and seeds debaters until debate camp is real.
Tentative, audience permitting — start small, earn the crowd. No debates on Sunday — that's for football and the Lord. The house puts itself on trial Saturday nights instead: 🔥 Roast the Site, Saturdays 8pm, weekly.
The lineage — credited. The house format grew from Lincoln-Douglas and from MIFA, the Michigan Interscholastic Forensics Association (Public Forum, Policy, Legislative; PF/Policy are two-person events) — full credit as the foundation. The house's own clock is The McKendry Debate™ — 10·5·5·10 (10-min constructive · 5 cross-ex · 5 rebuttal · 10 prep), then the public votes. Topics & resolutions announced each week. See the full format → · the live clock ⏱
The rules
The public is the judge. Not one chair — the whole room. You watched; you score it.
Voting runs 48 hours, then closes. Each week's windows shut Sunday.
Don't vote if you didn't watch the debate. A verdict from someone who didn't see it isn't a verdict — it's noise.
No suits. You don't need the costume to debate — you need to know how to debate. Come as you are; the only dress code here is honesty.
Clean streams. No copyrighted music in the background — it gets a debate muted or pulled off the platform. Original, licensed, or silence only.
Known, not anonymous — you sign in to debate and to vote. The game is anonymous; the debate isn't, and that's the feature, not the bug. To debate in a republic you have to be known — so debaters log in, and so do jurors: to cast a vote you register. A name behind the argument and behind the ballot is the accountability the whole thing runs on — it's also what keeps the count honest (one human, one vote; no stuffing the box). The game is free, forever — it's just a data point to be scored, no name required. Stepping up to score, judge, or debate is where you give something up: your anonymity. You have to be willing to sacrifice something — that's the price of the accountable seat, and it's worth it.
First names only. No last names, no titles, no credentials to wave around — just a person and an argument. Known to the room, not exposed to the world: last names and titles come off for doxing protection. It levels the floor and it guards your name. Your name's yours; guard it.
13+ to watch. Real debate, real people — language may happen. Parents, that's your call to make, and at least we said so up front. (The site's age gate is honest about it.)
No lying — house rule #1. That includes the count. A result you can't trust is worse than no result.
📏 You must be this old to debate
13+ — sorry, I didn't make the rules. (okay, I made the rules. still: 13+. ;)
The Camera Rule
Play is wide open — anyone, anywhere, free, no camera, as anonymous as you like. That never changes. But to debate me in real time, you come on camera. Here's the honest why: when I debate, I put my face, my name, and my whole self on the line, live, no hiding — I'm only asking the same back. Real-time debate is a close, human thing: two people, eye to eye, accountable in the moment. Anonymity is fine for play; debate is face to face. Not willing to be seen? You're still welcome at every table — just not across from me, live.
It isn't gatekeeping. It's the oldest courtesy there is: I'll show you mine if you show me yours. A debate is a handshake before it's an argument.
The open door: press, interviewers, and anyone I've invited to the table — come as you are, camera or not. If you've got something worth the table's time, reach out; that door stays wide. The machine paints; only humans can score — and only humans, face to face, can really debate.
A resolution to chew on
What a topic looks like — and the first one's on the house, straight off the research desk:
Resolved: requiring a law degree to sit in judgment is gatekeeping, not quality control.
Aff: the JD is a money-gate — law school is expensive, and eight states already let non-lawyers judge. The credential isn't the qualification.
Neg: judging the law takes real legal training; competence is how you protect the people in the room. A gate can also be a standard.
Two real sides, no obvious winner — which is exactly what makes it a debate, not a dunk. You'll judge it.
🦁 and one just for fun · a fan theory, unproven
Resolved: the Detroit Lions don't win a Super Bowl until they play on real grass.
Aff: natural grass means fewer non-contact injuries deep into January — the players' union has pushed for it for years. A healthier roster in the cold months is a real edge.
Neg: rings are roster, coaching, and luck — the surface is noise. Plenty of champions hoisted it on turf.
Labeled honestly: a theory, unproven — the Lions have never won on any surface, so there's nothing to prove cause yet. The curator's opinion, put to the room. 🦁
Why it isn't live yet — on purpose
A public vote is only worth something if it can't be stuffed. Bots, ballot-box-stuffing, ten votes from one person — that turns "who won" into a lie, and lying is the one thing this house won't do. So the voting engine is being built to count honest (a real backend, one-human-one-vote as best as it can be enforced, the 48-hour clock) — and the league opens the day the count can be trusted, not before.
🛠 Phase one is this page — the format, on the record. Phase two is the honest engine — recorded/streamed debates + a vote that can't be rigged. We don't ship a fake ballot just to look launched. Earn it.
📼 Got old debate files? Yes — send them. Recordings, ballots, cases, an old tournament tab — if you've got debate history sitting in a drawer or a hard drive, I want it. Ship it in a format I can actually read (PDF, plain text, or a video link) to [email protected]. I'll scrub them and fold the good ones into the archives as time allows — no promise on speed, every promise on care. The record's worth keeping.
Where the house stands. The format and rules here are real and the curator's. There is no live vote yet, and no debate results are invented or implied — the public-voting + streaming engine is in build, and it ships only when the count is trustworthy, because a riggable vote would break house rule #1. The one rule holds: no lying — including about who won. Sister rooms: Why We Need Debate Brought Back, The Fallacy Wing.
Go Debate™
Warm up solo on the clock — then bring it to the room that votes.