How should debaters be incentivized? Maybe we could have the audience vote for “did person X present position Y very clearly / strongly / ideally?”. Every one can vote on each X and Y separately, but people who say they agree with X both before and after the debate get more weight or prominence in judging whether either debater did a good job at presenting X; and the person who was there to present X can still be lauded if they do a good job at that, even if they actually switch sides halfway through the debate. In theory.
How should debaters be incentivized? Maybe we could have the audience vote for “did person X present position Y very clearly / strongly / ideally?”. Every one can vote on each X and Y separately, but people who say they agree with X both before and after the debate get more weight or prominence in judging whether either debater did a good job at presenting X; and the person who was there to present X can still be lauded if they do a good job at that, even if they actually switch sides halfway through the debate. In theory.