> > A strawman [...] is very different from "rhetorically exploring someone's views"
> No, it isn't.
Yes, it is.
> You are making the mistake of conflating a strawman with an argument built on a strawman as a logical fallacy.
No, I'm not. If you are exploring their views rather than yourself constructing something new and distinct from their views, you aren't making a strawman, whether or not you also, implicitly or explicitly, are arguing against their position using whatever you are exploring, which would be the strawman fallacy in the case where you were constructing a strawman.
A strawman can be used to explore their views. That is the point. It is only a fallacy if you create a strawman, then argue against it and claim to have argued against the original point. That has nothing to do with anything that occurred in your conversation.
No, it really can't. Using something meaningfully distinct to "explore" their views is the exact same logical fallacy as using something meaningfully distinct to "argue against" their views. What you are dealing with is something distinctly different than their views, whether you are "arguing against" it or merely "exploring" it.
And, even if it could, it still wouldn't be equivalent to exploring their views, so being called out for using a strawman when using a strawman -- for whatever purpose -- woudl still not be being called out for using a strawman whenever you rhetorically explore someone's views.
No, it isn't. You are making the mistake of conflating a strawman with an argument built on a strawman as a logical fallacy.