April 26, 2018
Do aff solvency advocates say what debaters say they say? And if they don't, is that bad? We need better topic wording because without it, theory and topicality abound and negs get free rein with abusive counterplans.
April 5, 2018
Bob offers a reductio ad absurdum-style objection to recent explanations of truth-testing, which have the unfortunate consequence of eliminating most theory debate as traditionally practiced.
April 1, 2018
It is a melancholy object to those who who walk through the halls of the University of Kentucky, when they see the rooms, the floors, and doorways, crowded with debaters refusing to disclose their cases, followed by three, four, or six debaters importuning every passenger for citations. To remedy these and many other inequities, I offer for public consideration the TOC Disclosure Prison.
March 21, 2018
Status quo treatment of cheating, bullying, and harassment is murky, sparks conflict, and wrongs debaters (both accused and accusers). Tournaments should put their preferences in writing, specify penalties and procedures, and clearly demarcate roles for enforcing them.
February 23, 2018
This edition of "10 Things" by Bob Overing features Harvard, the good Samaritan paradox, Success Academy, Dartmouth's 1983 teams, and more!
January 19, 2018
Bob argues that "object fiat" is a conceptually confusing and misleading term. It may be that "object fiat" just refers to counterplans that we don't like.
January 12, 2018
Bob's holiday disclosure post series continues in 2018 with 10 things he likes and doesn't like about current disclosure practices and the LD metagame. Drawing on disclosure from Blake and CPS, Bob covers advantage counterplans, open source, how to account for theory in metagame analyses, and more!
December 22, 2017
Bob forwards a new solution to the puzzle of combo shells. To make explicit that the strength of combo/conjunctive shells often depends on the unfairness of their component parts, debater should separate each part and argue its unfairness as a separate theory argument in addition to the conjunctive claim. He calls this a "multi shell."
November 5, 2017
This season's first edition of "10 Things" by Bob Overing features the Apple Valley tournament, lots of theory, small schools, women in debate, snapchat, and lots of theory.
August 3, 2017
Bob dissects and rejects "neg abuse outweighs" and "1AR theory bad."
