"Now, before you start trolling me,"
not know what brought that on...
"There's a big difference between 'arguing' with someone, and 'debating' with them."
we does note that you claimed that there was a big difference 'tween arguing and debating, but at the same time you admits that your distinguishing the two is based on a subjective connotation of respective definitions. if the big difference is based on some subjective impression that is actually contradicted by the clear, black letter definitions of the respective words, then we is not sure how much of a guideline it provides.
we also note that even your connotative distinguishing seems to suggest that a continuum 'tween arguing and debating exists... at some point arguing can be polite enough so as to be recognized as debate, no? so, clearly there must exist some grey area 'tween the two extremes. how can there be a big difference 'tween arguing and debating if there is necessarily an obscure grey area where one will have a hard time identifying where debate stops and argument begins.
is no trolling here... is just an observation that your initial "argument" suggesting that rules clearly distinguish 'tween argument and debate is not nearly so clear as you suggest. if a obsidian mod does not like what Gromnir is saying, they can very easily see us as being argumentative. if they agree with what we says, then it is debate. most of us has seen debates on these boards that get "warm," and those is often the debates that result in the best info. the "arguing" v. "debating" thing honestly fails to give any real guideline for judging when a thread should be killed.
HA! Good Fun!