About and method

Whetstone Debates is a free, public catalogue of debates that can be watched online, on any topic. Each debate has a page that says who took part and what it was about, and plays the recording through the platform's own player.

A whetstone sharpens a blade by friction. People sharpen their arguments against each other the same way.

Index only: the debate is listed with its participants, topics and a link to the recording. These records are imported in bulk and are marked as unverified until someone has checked them.

Arguments covered: the debate's arguments have been summarised with timestamps, so you can jump to the moment each one was made and see how it was answered.

Summaries are written in our own words and tied to a timestamp. A draft may be prepared with AI, but a person checks every summary against the recording before it is published. Nothing is published unchecked.

Each side is stated the way its own supporters would state it. We report what was argued; we do not say who won, guess at motives, or judge anyone's character.

A summary is never presented as a quote. When we use a speaker's exact words, they are marked as a quote, with the speaker and the timestamp.

Pages about debaters and hosts are a public record of the debates they took part in and the arguments they made. They hold nothing private.

Names taken from video titles are confirmed by a person before they appear on a public page.

We never download, copy or re-host video or audio. Recordings play through the platform's official player, and every debate page links back to the original.

When a debate has a stated proposition, we copy it as it was stated and do not rewrite it. Topic tags are suggested from titles and are refined by people over time.