Sidewalker wrote:
Hey Whiteflame, did you used to be Blackflame?
"May our differences unite to form a greater whole"
Cant say I have, but I’ve met others with that screen name. Always fun to do the yin and yang.
I'll at least speak to Ajab.
Many of you may not have known this, but he dealt with some pretty debilitating chronic pain. It was bad enough that he often had to put a lot of his life on hold because he could barely get out of bed. I have people close to me with some pretty bad issues with chronic pain, but Ajab felt so isolated by his experience with it, and it was impossible not to feel for him.
But every several months or so, he'd give me a call and we'd talk about everything. And I do mean everything - life, family, philosophy, religion, etc., and nothing was out of bounds. I don't get the impression that we agreed on everything, but we could relate to each others' positions. Nothing was combative. It may seem strange for an American Jew talking to a Pakistani Muslim to find so much common ground, but I looked forward to every conversation we had, to every distraction I could give him, and every bit of solace I could provide. Only wish I could've done more.
Wryly wrote:
Tell us why you picked your username
And are you one of those "pick one username and never change it across different sites/accounts" types or do you like to mix it up
I don't think a lot of people know it, but I'll spell it out.
I'm a pretty big fan of fantasy series, and growing up I read quite a few series that remain personal favorites. Basically, if you can name a Brian Jacques (Redwall), Garth Nix (The Old Kingdom) or Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive) book, you've found my wheelhouse.
One of the series that made me such a huge fan of long-running fantasy was The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I have mixed feelings on it now, though I still have a very soft spot for the series as a whole. One of the main symbols of an organization in the book known as the Aes Sedai is The Flame of Tar Valon, a white flame and a symbol representing an all-female group of magic users. It had its problems as a group, but I was drawn to the symbolism and, thus, whiteflame was born. The name Mandragoran, the last name of one of the lead characters, also features in a number of other accounts I've made elsewhere.
As for what I use elsewhere, this one's pretty common, but I'll occasionally throw out something different.
Hey, great to see you here! It's been a long time, but I still remember those early days on DDO fondly. I think I joined in 2014, so around the same time as you, and I've just been around ever since. To catch you up a bit, the site largely went down to spambots and inattentiveness from Juggle, we moved onto another site that was largely meant to fill the void called DebateArt that has also since gone down, and now we're here in an entirely member-run community with a lot more experimentation on design. It's a great time to come back, and regardless of how much you plan to participate, I'm glad to see you back.
I would love to see more rated debates as well! Should really get back on the debate train after the Ultrarated Tournament ends.
Hey, made it to a year and looking better all the time! Happy birthday to the site!
LancelotDuLac wrote:
Hey, sorry for the ping.
Can you guys investigate this? I suspect a situation might have occurred, or someone said something to OP.
I've messaged her about it. The long and short of it is that her experience with the site was more emotionally trying than it was worth. It's not so much an issue with trolling itself, but more the volume of said trolling compared with other site traffic. I won't get into my opinion on the matter, but I respect her decision.
Alyssa wrote:
The timeline issue isn't that big of an issue from my experience. If the window expires and you just ask for another ultrarated to vote on, it'll give you the same debate to vote on if the slot is still open. But otherwise not terrible advice.
Yup, I've done this so can confirm.
Ideally debaters are doing a good enough job in class and crystallization so that judges don't have to work that hard when making their votes, but sometimes things are just muddy.
As someone who hasn't always done the greatest job crystallizing a debate and a voter on many debates that don't have it, I'd say it's pretty ideal but also something everyone should learn to do and do well. I've seen some debates turn on a really good final round, and voters always appreciate having to do as little work as possible.
Starting to go through this. Survey looks great, thanks for the hard work Kohai!
Best new user
Obviously, this is subject to change if the members I choose had prior accounts I either don't remember or cannot identify.
Hyper - Despite only having two debates so far and limited forum posts, Hyper has really impressed me. An extremely strong debater who puts a lot of thought into the structure and substance of their argument and discussions, I would love to see more from them.
Magoroth - He's thrown himself into the Mafia scene here and I'm happy to see it. I give Mago a lot of credit for sticking through some rougher early experiences and getting some really good play in as he's continued to evolve with the site. Stepping up to debate as well is huge, especially in the Ultrarated tournament.
Helz - I think Helz has been a valuable addition to the Mafia scene for the site, bringing in a very distinct perspective on setups and metas and really challenging others on it.
Best overall user
Yeah, I'm going to nominate the team that makes this site happen.
Savant - No brainer. Dude has done so much for setting up the site to date, designed a lot of the new additions (shout out to Ultrarated debates), votes often and very well, and continues to be one of if not the best debater on the site.
Kohai - Also obvious. Again, essential for setting up so much of what we do here, always experimenting. A solid debater in his own right and one always trying to push into new territory, I have a lot of respect for his work.
Leaning - It takes a lot to step up into the mod team and regularly contribute as much as he does to decisions. I always appreciate how he thinks about this stuff. An effective debater in his own right and thorough voter, he deserves this.
Best mafia game
Ruyi Zhuan Mafia (RexFavilla)
Yeah, it was super complex and there was a tremendous amount going on, but that was part of the fun. Rex did a tremendous amount of work designing these roles and balancing the game and I think it showed in the end product. Lot of opportunities for huge swings. Always a pleasure to work with Pie on the scum team. Had to do some begging with Luna to get this win (not proud of it), but it included a rare joint Mafia and TP win with Wryly dragged into the winning set at the end.
Alien Mafia (Lunatic)
This may just be me being biased, but the strat that Mikal and I came up with to Tailor Casey's flip into a Yakuza is something I still think about. Despite us both surviving to the end, we were constantly on the edge of being lynched this game and I think it was a pretty balanced and intriguing design.
Ryan George Cinematic Universe (Savant)
I'm not going to pretend this one went well. A major mistake on Wryly's part really cost scum, and Mikal could only do so much alone. That being said, I love and have to reward this setup. All the different versions of Ryan George had me absolutely tickled, I think it was relatively balanced, and I loved going back through so many of his videos.
Alright, let's do this, though not all at once.
Debatecraft would benefit from a strict modding style as a opposed to a laissez-faire one. (Lunatic vs. Mikal)
Probably the closest debate I've judged on the site and its very first to boot, I think this was just an excellent display from both debaters covering a contentious issue. Both sides argued admirably and I really struggled to make a decision.
Should Legally Recognized Personhood be Extended to Non-Humans? (Hyper vs. Kohai)
A beautifully done opening round from Hyper set up a very intriguing debate that I think had some strong points from both sides, with Kohai pointing mainly to the logistical and legal issues that would make personhood thorny.
Resolved: That the President of the United States should be elected by the direct vote of the people. (Leaning vs. Savant)
A solid debate, Leaning set up a good case against the Electoral College and Savant came up with a creative and intriguing alternative to counter it.
Excited to have so many people interested in this! Would love to do more tournaments on the site and see more use of the Ultrarated debate system.
I've responded to your comment.
Date: 4/19/2025
Moderator: Whiteflame
yogisotho has lost their voting privileges due to repeatedly voting on debates using AI-generated RFDs.
Date: 11/17/2025
Moderator: Whiteflame
Two threads posted by RemyBrown were removed for advocating sexual violence and spam.
Edit: A third thread was removed. RemyBrown has been banned for a month, as per the results of the Code of Conduct poll.
Good point, still getting used to how this process works.
These will be my first debates on the site, looking forward to it!
Two things to add:
Whether you participate in the debates or not, please work on that quiz and submit new topics. We have added quite a few, but we could always use a broader set.
Also, voters! I will vote on those debates I can find time for even as a participant, and we’re going to need others to step up and cast votes as well.
Always going to be tough to recommend things generally. No matter how good the anime/manga is, it's always a matter of personal preference in terms of whether it will make an impact, but we've gotta start somewhere.
I echo both of the above recommendations. Vagabond is an amazing manga and Vinland Saga is an incredible anime (with what I've heard is a great manga as source material).
If I have to pick just one of each for now:
Anime: Odd Taxi. If you're a fan of Tarantino movies, the whip-smart dialogue of this series and its colorful cast of humanoid animal characters is a great fit. Blending some great comedy and crime drama with one of the best mystery plots in recent anime, it was my favorite of its year and still a personal favorite overall. I do, however, recommend avoiding the follow-up movie In the Woods, which is a surprising misfire after a tightly crafted season.
Manga: Goodbye, Eri. Great for someone new to manga as it's just a one-shot (it's 208 pages, but that's still a brisk read), this is easily one of my favorite manga. The recently adapted Look Back showcased much of what makes author Tatsuki Fujimoto one of the best mangaka around, Chainsaw Man is where he really hit the mainstream, and Fire Punch is a crazy read that showcases some of his rougher edges, but for my money, Goodbye, Eri is his best work. The man does panels like you wouldn't believe, telling a story that I can't imagine could be told better in animation. There's just something mesmerizing about reading this, and don't be surprised if you just linger on a panel or two to admire all the little details in this beautiful psychological drama.
Hell yes. Sign me up for the Silent Hill creature extravaganza. Get me a Pyramid Head burger with a side of Elon McNuggets. I'll take the CRISPR with my shake.
I can't really answer your question, but I'll at least try to bound it.
We're mostly talking about parts of the human genome that aren't just transcribed into RNA, but also translated into protein. Those are going to encompass the vast majority of visible differences between people. We're also not talking about most of those, since proteins that just keep us alive or make us look human are shared across all human genomes, at least the ones that survive. So we're talking about a very small subset of protein expression, which itself is a small subset of all RNA expression, which itself encompasses is a small subset of all DNA template.
But that's also only a small part of the bigger picture. There are other things RNA molecules can do by themselves, particularly when it comes to modifying the expression of certain sequences. The ones that express proteins are called mRNAs, but there are also a variety of other non-coding RNAs that have particular functions. Then there are epigenetic markers that also affect expression of certain genes.
To answer your question directly, I don't think anyone has precisely parsed out how much of the 0.1% of the genome that differentiates individuals from one another is responsible for visual differences between us. That's made all the more difficult by the degree of variation that impacts how sequences are expressed, and that's not even including things like the lipidome that many labs are just starting to delve into.