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A duel of ideas
Argue with someone honestly.
Arguments online never end because nobody establishes shared reality first. A duel is a
step-by-step path from a heated take to a precise map of what you actually disagree about, and
nothing advances until you both ratify it.
Success is a smaller, clearer disagreement — never a winner. Integrity points are earned
for an approved steelman and for conceding a point, and never for victory. Nobody is ranked, nothing
is boosted for heat, and the whole thing has a bottom.
The pledge you sign before you argue
“Here is what would change my mind.”
You write it down at the start, in public, before you know how the argument goes. If nothing could
change your mind, you are not in a debate and the charter says so. It is the one rule that turns an
argument into an investigation.
How a duel runs
1
The charter
Both of you sign the same short agreement before a word of argument is allowed: argue the strongest version of the other side, concede what is true, and say in advance what would change your mind.
2
One tight resolution
The vague heated take becomes one sentence you both agree is the actual question. Most arguments die here, because most arguments were never about one thing.
3
Shared definitions
You agree what the words mean. Not what they should mean — what they will mean for the next hour.
4
The steelman gate
You must state your opponent's case so well that THEY approve it, or you cannot proceed. Nobody argues against a caricature here, because the caricature never gets ratified.
5
Shared facts
What you both accept as true, listed. Disputed facts go to their own sub-duel instead of derailing this one.
6
Logic, step by step
Each step is ratified before the next. You cannot leap to the conclusion and dare the other person to catch up.
7
The crux
The one thing you actually disagree about, isolated and named. That is the win condition: a SMALLER, CLEARER disagreement — never a winner.
The board right now
1 duels have been opened by
2 people.
[real] — both counted from the duel register, counted 14 September 2026, 02:19
What is inside one is private to its two debaters — a duel is published only when
both agree, and that publishing step is
not built yet. So there is
nothing to read here that we are hiding from you: there is nothing published yet, and we would
rather say that than mock up a transcript.
Under construction
Nobody to argue with yet? An AI can hold the other chair.
The site has to be worth using when you are the only person on it. So an AI seat that argues the
other side honestly — steelman gate and all, and always labelled as an AI — is part of the
design. It is not built.
What it will be →
The door
Challenge someone
Reading this hall is free and always will be. Opening a duel needs an account, because a duel
is two named people who both signed the same charter.
Join Engagement Squared →
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