Each time I happen to land on some sort of discussion, be it on Reddit, YouTube comments or even sometimes here on devrant, I wonder if there are ways to make debates more meaningful (sometimes I imagine that the participants of a particularly heated conversation suddenly meet physically and say the contents of their comments out loud; and it makes me laugh all by myself).
Anyway, I feel like Internet is generally not a good place for debates (at least political ones). Is it just me? Is it the fact that it doesn't take a lot of effort to write a message, or maybe that conversations are necessarily different when you don't see someone in front of you?
I've come across websites like Kialo which seem to be a good idea. Is that because the opinions written there are more structured that it looks like ideas are better conveyed? Deep thinking tonight 😄

Arguments are better maintained in text. If people need body language to support verbal communication, then sure, they may go talk in person. I don't find it useful in distant topics.

I just suck so bad trying to articulate my arguments and thoughts in a verbal debate. I am 1,000% better in writing. But I agree that online debates devolve fast. In the BeforeTimes, when blogs and social media didn’t yet exist, online forums ruled the day and debates were a lot better. Those days are gone, particularly when social media and traditional media collude to gin up fights for clicks and ratings.

The medium is less important I think.

More the general interest to have an actual debate.

The difference between reality and internet is that it's hard(er) to escape an conversation / debate in reality.

Would be fun if you could just teleport away or go on radio silence like some people do in the Internet. Violence (mention this as it comes up in nearly any discussion related to this topic) is in my opinion in both worlds present... Be it the toxic troll or the nice backstabber who talks behind ya back...

So. Reality - unavoidable. Internet - avoidable.

If you've played good old Pen and Paper / RPG or did similar stuff... You realize that it doesn't take much to imagine things and bring a seemingly boring text alive, if you just invest enough interest and care to detail.

A good storyteller is always amazing.

TLDR: a debate requires interest and in the internet interest and presence isn't what most people want. Don't like, just ignore.