Penn Quarter, Washington, DC
Structured debates, moderated for signal.
A room where disagreement produces something: candid discussion, optional attribution, and audience participation that does not require anyone to identify themselves. Come argue in good faith.
Not running yet. No Penn Quarter Rules event has been held, and no date is scheduled. Everything described on this site is either working code or a stated design — and the difference between the two is written down.
The rules
Adapted from the Chatham House Rule, which exists so that people can say what they actually think and still go to work on Monday.
The ideas are public. The people are not.
The event is livestreamed. Participants use pseudonyms in the live chat and forum, and nobody appears on stage or on camera unless they choose to.
Share the ideas, not the names
Arguments travel freely. Attaching one to a person takes that person’s consent. When in doubt, it stays anonymous.
Contrarian positions are the point
No topic is off-limits, speakers defend what they assert, and the goal is truth-seeking rather than agreement.
Participate without identifying yourself
Reactions and votes run over a local mesh using temporary IDs. Speak from the floor if you want to — anonymity is the default.
None of these has been tested with an audience yet, and no stream has ever gone out. The full format.
There is nothing to show you from an event. Here is the work instead.
170 sourced entries
The reference the moderator checks claims against — BIPs, established facts, contested claims and topic briefs. Published in full, weaknesses included.
Read the corpusAn honest ledger
Which parts of this system run, which are written but have never been used, which are simulated, and which are only a design. Including what got deleted for not being true.
What is actually builtA format, in detail
How an evening is meant to run, how the room is laid out, and how contributions are scored — with the scoring weights stated rather than implied.
The formatWe live for this. No one is asked to die for it.
We measure ourselves not by the price of an asset but by the quality of an argument — and we leave every gathering with better questions than we brought.
Be there for the first one
No date is set. When one is, the people on this list hear about it first. One email to confirm you meant it, then nothing until there is something worth telling you — it is not a ticket, and it costs nothing.