In most debates, most of the "disagreements" actually arise because one side or another (or both) fails to clearly define the terms they are using. This is a continuing and profound problem on BZP that I run into often; and often I find myself needing to repeat myself over and over as new debate topics pop up with members posting in them that missed the last topic. Gets tedious, so here's a basic dictionary of the debate terms most important to Bionicle debates on BZPower! [Note: I maxed out this blog entry! XD This will instead serve as a link to a topic, thusly. Please post comments in the topic instead of here, until it dies.]

I'll also include some common logical fallacies and the like frequently used on BZP, and a few terms that I came up with myself that describe some common tendencies we have here. Of course, this is nowhere near complete, but it does cover most of what is important. Any formal definitions I provide are from Dictionary.com and thus are easily verifiable by anyone who doubts me. Other links are to Wikipedia--note of course that this content could be edited/vandalized after I link to it, so keep that in mind when following those links.

Each opening word(s) to be defined are bolded and blued. Key phrases or words within the definition are bolded so you can avoid sifting through the longer explanations if you wish. And when one defined word is mentioned in another's definition, the word is blued.

Also note, some erroneous quotes here are from a certain BZP member, and are used with permission--the member has since realized the mistakes made in them--the quotes are not to be taken as disparagement of any member, but rather examples of very common mistakes made by many, many members of BZP. I'll leave it up to that member to decide if he wants to identify himself or not.

Keep in mind that the point of this blog entry is not to stifle debate or complaining, but to help BZPers improve the quality of their criticism of Bionicle--so that it can be 1) constructive, 2) useful, and 3) logical and reasonable. I'll be linking to this often, I expect, in future debates, rather than repeat these definitions over and over. Feel free to link to it for the same reasons.

Basics

Problematic Cliches and Fallacies

My Terms

Hope this is useful!