Issuepedia:Structured Debate/semantic

About
This is an experiment to see if Semantic MediaWiki can be used to mark up a structured debate in a way that moves us closer to an automated interface.

Status

 * (2011-12-09) Now writing user interface code as plug-in for w3tpl instead of trying to use templates or SMW syntax; continuing to use SMW as data-storage format.
 * (major problem) No apparent way to suppress calling a template even when there are no results. "default=" adds text if no results, does not suppress template. complexity of interface calls for PHP code, so template behavior is no longer critical
 * (minor problem) SMW's penchant for making all values (except numerically-oriented) into links to nonexistent wiki pages is annoying, but can probably be worked around. "text" and "string" types display plain text
 * Will need some way to progressively increase depth for each level of argument. Can we mix SMW output with raw HTML from w3tpl? If not, can we pass a counter and increment it inside the template? Will MW complain about template recursion? using PHP code makes this not a problem
 * Will need some way to show different icon for "pro" and "con" points. Maybe we just iterate through "pro" points, then iterate through "con" points (or vice-versa). That format seems usable and maybe even desirable. using PHP code makes this not a problem

Debate Topics

 * /2008 sacred wafer scandal