So you guys wanna rumble with Allah's gang on their own turf? Fascinating. Trouble is, I've never met anyone who was encouraged to join the Devil's party through debating a murtad. If anyone has, let me know. Adversarial jousting matches are not about the exchange of error for truth, on this or any other question. They are a bloodsport out of which comes only sound and fury signifying nothing. Men are too much invested in their convictions to yield them so freely. To be wrong is not to suffer a factual deficit merely, it is not a clash of one dead man's ideas against another, but a clash of egos in a forest-shaking combat for supremacy. Your odds improve slightly with the fence-sitters, but those who frequent Muslim sites reinforced by their peers are a near impossible feat. Like any thorough-going cult member one has to draw them away from their milieu.
My odyssey from Salafi to moderate to the Shaytan's party was not arrived at by debate. It was enabled by getting some distance between the Mohammedans and me, by reading quietly on my own. Groupthink never helped anyone. That's what a crazy Englishman called Orwell said.
I think you're right in most cases in that at the end of the debate both sides simply retreat to their corners and do not exchange them. However, something that was crucial in my ability to free myself from Islam was participating in online forums, specifically Yahoo Answers. Three sections in particular-religion and spirituality, Ramadan, and Israel were my favorite haunts. At first I was there as a defender of Islam, but slowly all my old questions that I had repressed faced me once again and I found myself trying to defend the indefensible. It didn't happen as the result of one thread, debate, or conversation, but without a doubt that experience had a profound impact on me and did eventually help me realize the truth about Islam and to be strong enough to face it. Whether engaging Muslims on their own websites is comparatively more productive than other means of dialogue I can't say, but I honor muddy's efforts for trying. If someone has a more fruitful venue online with which to engage in discussion with Muslims, I hope they will post it.
Topic: Sunniforum bloodbath.