I have never seen anyone from the admin team on this forum behave in any way that would make me think they would not be fair when participating in a debate.
So the answer for me would still be a firm yes.

I never said they have. I just said it mustn't happen imo.

Of course admin should be allowed to participate in debates-its everyones right to be involved and they have as much right to voice their opinions as the next person.

However,they should not be allowed to close threads if its not going their way or perhaps verbally bully someone because they dont share their point of view or at worst case-ban members for same reasons (have seen this on another forum).Yes,sometimes debates get heated,but we're all adults and if you cannot handle critism then stay out of them.

Absolutely, Admin should be allowed to join in debate, otherwise there wouldn't be any.

I've been on other GSD forums where the admin seem to have somewhat of a clique and use it to bully other users. Thread censorship was a personal bugbear of mine, quite often contentious threads would disappear. I would prefer them to be closed if absolutely necessary, but still available to view. These places are not for me. I'm new here but so far ive not found that.