The Unofficial Boards.ie Lisbon Debate Awards

johnnyq

Well folks as the debate on Lisbon draws to an end, now comes the time to relax and praise the contributors to this forum debate over the last few weeks and months.

A lot of time and effort went into the debate which will hopefully give posters an informed viewpoint at both sides of the vote.

My nominees are...
Most Passionate Yes Campaigner - sink (by a country mile)
Most Reasoned Yes Campaigner - Scofflaw/Ixtlan

Most Passionate No Campaigner - Turgon (and Rb on After Hours)
Most Reasoned No Campaigner - Democrates

Contributor you'd most like to share a pint with - sink
Biggest Disappointment - lack of female contributors:D

Overall Best Contributor - Scofflaw.. for always being informed, reasonable and answering many of my questions in the debate

Honourary Mentions - dlofnep, conorirl, nesf and the minister

Dirk Gently

As always, Scofflaw cordially pwns and Democrates always makes a thread worth reading. I think this boards EU forum has proved to be one of the best resources for anyone wanting to discuss the treaty. Congrats to all involved in the debate.

The_Minister

*Bows*
I'd just like to thank God, and my manager, and especially my fans.
This is for you!
*Mwah*

Seriously though, I'd like to thank Sink and Scofflaw and Nesf, for giving such excellent and informed replies, and always putting each aspect of the treaty in the correct historical and modern political context. When canvassing in RL I often used phrases and arguements from on here to convert the masses. I have never seen such informed posting on boards.
Thank you all.

The_Minister

IRLConor

I'd like to echo what has been said before. Even the worst of the debate here has exceeded the quality of the stuff I've seen in the real world. It has forced me to examine and re-examine the treaty over and over. Thanks to all of ye, this is the most informed I've ever been going to a ballot box.

FionnMatthew

I concur. It's heartening to see such a high quality of discussion on boards.ie

I only came on last night, and it is so different from the intellectual climate over on the philosophy forum.

Call Me Jimmy

I would like to reverberate the sound of backs being slapped and mention Oscar Bravo who seemed to be contributing a lot of stuff.

I'de say boards is the unofficial home of the lisbon treaty debate. At the very least it's been interesting.

jessop1

It wasnt long ago that the mods (with the support of some of the above named awardees) were trying (in vain) to restrict the entire debate to one thread. not very conducive to open debate. Thankfully reason won out and the result has been a much more open and widely participated in discussion.

Sherifu

jessop1 wrote: »

It wasnt long ago that the mods (with the support of some of the above named awardees) were trying (in vain) to restrict the entire debate to one thread. not very conducive to open debate. Thankfully reason won out and the result has been a much more open and widely participated in discussion.

= told ya so = fail.

BMH

Scofflaw and sink for Yes, and Democrates for No.

jessop1

Sherifu wrote: »

= told ya so = fail.

not sure what ya mean there guv but from my perspective as a no voter, opening the debate to more than one thread has been a success as far as I can see, looking at the pinned poll....

Agent Smith

The_Minister wrote: »

*Bows*
I'd just like to thank God, and my manager, and especially my fans.
This is for you!
*Mwah*

Seriously though, I'd like to thank Sink and Scofflaw and Nesf, for giving such excellent and informed replies, and always putting each aspect of the treaty in the correct historical and modern political context. When canvassing in RL I often used phrases and arguements from on here to convert the masses. I have never seen such informed posting on boards.
Thank you all.

The_Minister

i second what the minister says. I have used muted points raised by the no side with people i've been canvassing.

sink

Thanks guy's it means alot. I've been on other political forums before and they don't compare to here. In most forums it is impossible to have a clear debate because the rules are lax when it comes to soapboxing and backing up your arguments with facts. For that I would like to thanks the mods specifically oscarBravo and Moriarty.

LostinBlanch

Well Jessop1 does have a point about those who favoured restricting everything to the superthread. A point others on here argued against as Lisbon was/is way too complex for people to dip into halfway and be told go back to the start of the thread and look at all the posts.

Fair play to the posters menitioned above and everyone who got involved.

Mind you I'm looking forward to 24 hours of bliss without a mention of the L word. :cool:

DeVore

I was tossing up between having a Boards Debate (something we did once a long time ago and something I want to get back to) and a forum, I cant imagine doing it on one thread.

Funny, I was looking at some other political boards today who all roundly abused us for our strictness on soapboxing and "censorship". Horses for courses but I like the way we do things here. I certainly didnt see anything to change my mind either. Congrats to the mods and also the regulars here for very level headed and mature debate.

This debate here, this clashing of claims and counter-claims led to a lot of clarity for me, the commissioner thing is a good example. Its what I have been saying until people are blue in the face with me
Its nice to see it actually in action!!

DeV.

BlitzKrieg

nice to know there's no bad blood in european politics.

A Dub in Glasgo

Looks like I missed it all, thank the consititution for allowing the vote (and subsequent debate)!

nesf

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

nice to know there's no bad blood in european politics.

The division between sides in the EU debate in this country isn't drawn along "tribal lines" like debates about our political parties. It makes a big difference imho.

oscarBravo

A quick retrospective note on the development of this forum: we temporarily restricted discussion to a single thread, because the main Politics forum was becoming overwhelmed with soapboxing duplicate threads, and links to that verdammt End of Nations tripe. We also had a problem with a tiny handful of members refusing to engage in debate, and simply repeating slogans.

When the idea of a Lisbon subforum was mooted, we (the mods) fairly quickly came around to the idea of a general and permanent EU subforum instead, with the caveat that only real debate would be allowed, insofar as possible.

I think it's been an enormous success. We've had to put in a relatively small amount of work to keep the soapboxing to a minimum, but much of the debate has been absolutely top-notch, and - to the credit of the vast majority of the posters here - I think youse could teach some of the mainstream media a thing or two.

Daftendirekt

I'd like to add my thanks to all the posters who've been debating this for what seems like a hell of a long time now. This will be the first referendum I've been eligible to vote in, and it's been majorly helpful.

And congrats to the nominees of course :pac:!

Victor Meldrew

jessop1 wrote: »

It wasnt long ago that the mods (with the support of some of the above named awardees) were trying (in vain) to restrict the entire debate to one thread. not very conducive to open debate. Thankfully reason won out and the result has been a much more open and widely participated in discussion.

Agreed,

Gobsmacked to come back here and see multiple threads on what is a very complex issue with a variety of protagonists who, individually, deserve threads.

If this level of enlightenment had been present earlier I'd have settled on "Yes" earlier and may actually have campaigned with FG on this.

It'd be nice to see this policy here for good, Boards will benefit greatly.

oscarBravo

Heh. I just followed up on a hunch, and sure enough: jessop1's two posts on this thread are the sum total of his contribution to the EU forum to date.

Make of that what you will.

Sherifu

Lol.

DeVore

This is definitely the direction I want Boards to go (and have always wanted that, since right back before it was ever even mooted as a website).

In many ways, for me (I cant speak for Cloud and the others), this is the very reason I wanted to see Boards come into existance. This is my Pompei and I am very proud of it today.

Many thanks to the mods and the contributors for your input and efforts.

DeV.

Beruthiel

I would also like to extend my thanks to everyone who posted in this forum.
I would especially like to thank Scofflaw and sink, who helped me no end in coming to my decision.

bazwaldo

Beruthiel wrote: »

I would also like to extend my thanks to everyone who posted in this forum.
I would especially like to thank Scofflaw and sink, who helped me no end in coming to my decision.

+1. The people on Questions & Answers could learn a lot from you guys. Never lost the head and answered questions with thought and honesty. There was a lot of posts to wade through, but I feel thanks to the nominated posters (Sink stands out), I have come to the right decision which I am happy with.:)

djpbarry

I'm going to be very unoriginal and just echo the sentiments of previous posters. Kudos to all those involved in this forum on both sides of the debate - I can honestly say that I have never been more informed on an issue in my life.

And fair play to johnnyq for starting this thread to acknowledge the excellent contributions that have been made.

johnnyq

Thank you djpbarry!

eoin2nc

Nothing beats a decent debate on politics, even if I was backing the losing side.

menoscemo

Despite being a passionate no supporter I would give all awards to Scofflaw for his incredible depth of knowledge on all aspects of EU Treaties.
Excellent work sir.

Honourable mention to Democrates.

brianthebard

i'd echo comments praising the mods,its always a hard job but especially on a topic that raises the blood so easily for so many.modding was done with a light touch and led to great debates.well done lads.
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Rb

I have to say fair play to JohnnyQ, definitely the best voice on the No side overall.

Tar.Aldarion

Scofflaw and Sink had lovely posts begorra.

nesf

Rb wrote: »

I have to say fair play to JohnnyQ, definitely the best voice on the No side overall.

It was Democrates for me.

Scofflaw

I haven't said anything on this thread because (a) I'm blushing, and (b) I genuinely would like to thank everybody for making the debates here both intense and interesting. The point has been made before that the level of debate here far outstripped the level of debate in the media - and for that I think both the posters and the mods deserve congratulations.

On the No side I (particularly) thought both Democrates and Turgon were excellent posters.

very cordially,
Scofflaw

ircoha

Scofflaw wrote: »

I haven't said anything on this thread because (a) I'm blushing, and (b) I genuinely would like to thank everybody for making the debates here both intense and interesting. The point has been made before that the level of debate here far outstripped the level of debate in the media - and for that I think both the posters and the mods deserve congratulations.

On the No side I (particularly) thought both Democrates and Turgon were excellent posters.

very cordially,
Scofflaw

I created a separate post yday on the item in bold.

It got dumped out to sys/feedback or somthing like that:o

I think a great job was done.

turgon

I would like to thank JohnnyQ for mentioning me, but in fairness I would say he deserves it more - there were definitely times I was in a hole and he pulled me out.

Now that the debate is over, I want to say thanks to all. I also want to apologize for my own posts where I was not altogether diplomatic (and where I was probably annoying). I'm sure I will tame with time!!

Contrats to the mods as well and to all the users, because I have no doubt that debate on boards was more productive that anywhere else (and Ive seen the sort of "debate" that goes on in a) The Forum on Europe and b) Poltics.ie).

turgon

Oh and special mentions to sink and to Scofflaw.