Asha Arena · a project of Foundation of Asha
Argue like texting, before ARBITER: an AI judge with no side. Fallacies named with the offending quote. Claims checked. Verdicts written into a Canon that stands until overturned. The judge grades the argument, never the position. No account, no wait: if no human takes the other podium, our house AI will, and it argues for real.
Why this exists
Every argument you have ever lost to sheer stamina ended the same way: no referee, no scorecard, no memory. The confident voice beats the careful one, the interruption beats the evidence, and everyone walks away certain they won. Online, the problem compounds: the reply-thread never rules, it just scrolls.
So we built a referee that cannot be flattered, tired out, or shouted down. ARBITER holds the floor like a court: you argue when you are ready, the way you actually argue, and rest when your case is made. It names the strawman while it is still standing. It checks the claim while the exchange is still hot. And when both sides rest, it scores the whole record against the same public rubric and writes out the ruling, steelmanning each side before it decides. Nothing is ever won by the other side leaving; the verdict alone decides.
Neutrality is the entire product. An arbiter you suspect of taking sides is worthless, so the judge's operating rules are non-negotiable and public. They are quoted below, verbatim.
The judge's law
These are not marketing lines. They are the literal operating instructions the judge runs under, every round, every verdict.
"Judge the performance, never the position. Never reward agreement with your own views on the topic. A side arguing a position you consider wrong must win if it argues better."
"Apply identical standards to both sides. Every point deduction must cite a specific quote from the transcript." No vibes. Receipts.
"Unverifiable is a legitimate fact-check verdict. Never guess or bluff a fact-check." When the judge is not sure, it says so. That honesty is the point.
"Critique arguments, never people." The judge will happily note that a strawman has its own gravitational field. It will never touch identity. Hard rule, non-configurable.
The mechanics
Two fighters, one motion, a referee that never blinks. The default is the Open format: no clocks, no turns, argue like texting and stand your ground when your case is made. For sport there are timed formats too: Blitz (three turns a side, 90 seconds or 750 characters) and Standard (four turns, 3 minutes or 1,500 characters).
Open a debate with a motion and pick your side: PRO argues for it, CON against. Issue an open challenge or call out a specific opponent.
Someone takes the other podium. The matchup card posts with both fighters' ratings and the crowd gets a prediction poll.
Open format flows like a conversation: post whenever you want, in any order, and rest when your point stands. If your opponent is losing, they have recovering to do; if your first statement was right, your work is done. Timed formats keep the classic turn discipline, strikes and all.
Fallacies named with the offending quote, fact-checks ruled supported, unsupported, false, or unverifiable. Timed rounds get graded one by one; an Open exchange is judged whole, on the strength of the total case, never on word count.
Logic and reasoning /30. Evidence and accuracy /30. Rebuttal /25. Conduct /15. A written ruling steelmans both cases before naming a winner, and a conclusive verdict writes precedent into The Canon.
Win and your rating climbs, lose and it falls; everyone starts at 1200. Settled motions stand as precedent until a challenger overturns them. The arena is court, the Canon is law, and the scoreboard has a long memory.
The ladder
Ratings are ELO, chess-style: beating a stronger debater pays more than farming weaker ones. The ranks are the same for everyone, everywhere.
Questions from the stands
The gates
The web arena is live on this site: pick a handle, stake a motion, and the judge is waiting. No account, no install. The first fighters in are setting the earliest rankings right now. Discord arenas are in final testing; Telegram and Slack follow.
Same standard as everything the Foundation ships: no fabrication, receipts on request. The judge has no side.