Desired debating features

Author: DebateArt.com
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#1
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Hi folks,

There have been a lot of ideas about features for debates and I'd like to have them all in one place. So if you have any ideas or suggestions, please voice them here.

My current ideas:

  • We definitely need to have some form of discouragement for forfeits
  • We need more strict separation between rated and "normal" debates
  • We need a feature to "surrender"
  • We need to handle situations when participants get banned

That's just to get started, what else do we have?




#2
Mharman
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@DebateArt.com
  • We definitely need to have some form of discouragement for forfeits
I’m not sure this would help. If people are forfeiting rounds it means something came up so they don’t have the time (in which losing the debate and the corresponding elo is a penalty enough) or it means that they outright don’t care about the debate. If it’s the latter, than they’re also not going to care about any penalty assigned to them, because these people tend not to stick around for long anyways.

I think the most important question here is: Why do some users create an account only to stop caring about it and how can we get more users to stay?

  • We need more strict separation between rated and "normal" debates
Sure. Unrated debates should probably be more tailor-made for casual debates. I don’t know how this would be done, but I like the idea here.

  • We need a feature to "surrender"
Good feature idea.

  • We need to handle situations when participants get banned
Yeah. We can’t just void debates outright and giving a free win to someone because the other user got banned isn’t great either. I will specify that I don’t think anything needs to be done if a user is banned in the middle of an unrated debate.
#3
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@DebateArt.com
How about more rewards for users who stick around to participate in more debates and more rewards for those who do well in them? 

I’m thinking stuff like username flairs, or unlocking custom profile page options.
#4
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@DebateArt.com
Lol, forfeits are fine, they are a pleasant way to secure wins against willing participants that are casual.
#5
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@RationalMadman
Lol, forfeits are fine, they are a pleasant way to secure wins against willing participants that are casual.

lol- says the man with more forfeits than any other debater by a very long shot.
#6
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what if each forfeit subtracted one point from the total benefit a debater stands accrue by winning?  So if you would go up by 6 points in rating with a win, a point is deducted for each forfeit?    Might be a difficult feature to implement, codewise.
#7
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@RationalMadman
I disagree. People see all the forfeits and don’t think much of the site. One sure fire way for people to not care is seeing other people not caring.
#8
oromagi
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I know it would be a big pain codewise but I'd really like to see an option that breaks debates down by arguments rather than rounds.  3-5 arguments with two or three rounds of back and forth.  

This would really help make written arguments more coherent for voters, without a lot of checking back to the last round to remember what was argued.  We might even consider using this division as way of voting-   Args 1 and 4 to PRO but 2, 3, and 5 to CON- con wins sort of thing.

I think in such a format I'd still like to see a space for opening and closing remarks
#9
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@Mharman
lmao, imagine it punished forfeits, oh wow less debaters bother, less voters get a chance to be lazy and get some cheap reward and less activity hits the website superficially.
#10
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@oromagi
lol- says the man with more forfeits than any other debater by a very long shot.
that only supports the stance I take. I win even if I forfeit more often than any other debater, that's actually the stat you should mention.
#11
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lol- says the man with more forfeits than any other debater by a very long shot.
that only supports the stance I take. I win even if I forfeit more often than any other debater, that's actually the stat you should mention.
quantity =/= quality 

but that makes me think we should have a # of forfeits column on the leaderboards
#12
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@oromagi
And how many debates did you contribute activity-wise in the last year?
#13
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What about a WAIVE ROUND button?
#14
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And how many debates did you contribute activity-wise in the last year?
25 by my count.  No actual debates, of course, but that activity still easily puts me in top 10% activity wise I would guess.  I'd point out I was advocating this feature even back when I was doing 2-3 debates/week
#15
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@RationalMadman
I don't like the superficial pretending-to-care activity either, but punishing potential legitimate users doesn't help turning that superficial activity into real activity. I seek to encourage these users to care, not to force them out because they don't immediately care.
#16
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@oromagi
A waive round button could be ok for the convenience of not having to type 'waive', so it depends on whether or not people find it that much of a problem that they have to type 'waive'.
#17
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This one might be a little more time consuming to implement, but a better text editor with more options for different styles of text (font, size,  color, etc.) could make organization of rounds much clearer.

Additionally, I think the max character count for RFDs should be raised.
#18
zedvictor4
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Make the minimum time to post an argument, at least two days.

One day doesn't take into account global time differences.



#19
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@zedvictor4
If someone's got time every single day, then it matters not.

If someone who clearly does not have the time still accepts, then shame on him for forfeiting, and hooray if he manages to win with forfeits.
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#20
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@Mharman
@DeprecatoryLogistician
I’m not sure this would help. If people are forfeiting rounds it means something came up so they don’t have the time (in which losing the debate and the corresponding elo is a penalty enough) or it means that they outright don’t care about the debate. If it’s the latter, than they’re also not going to care about any penalty assigned to them, because these people tend not to stick around for long anyways.

I think the most important question here is: Why do some users create an account only to stop caring about it and how can we get more users to stay?
That's a good point, thanks for bringing it up.

This one might be a little more time consuming to implement, but a better text editor with more options for different styles of text (font, size,  color, etc.) could make organization of rounds much clearer.
There's a problem with this approach: anyone with a least a bit of understanding of how it works can make font-size 200px and then it will take the page unreadable and I can't even validate that on the server... But I will look into it, maybe there's something after all.

How about more rewards for users who stick around to participate in more debates and more rewards for those who do well in them? 
Yeah, the whole rewards system will have to be implemented. Provide proper internal currency and then means to earn it and spend it.
#21
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Anything other than cash is a meaningless reward.

People outgrow sticky on stars and smiley faces.
#22
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Yeah, the whole rewards system will have to be implemented. Provide proper internal currency and then means to earn it and spend it.


Maybe like a leveling system? It'd be a challenge to implement, but taking into account votes, debate wins, and liked forum posts, you get some sort of XP points separate from ELO? There's currently no good incentive and reward for new users to vote. (no, not medals, maybe like StackExchange's reputation system).


I think debates are already extremely well-developed but the main problem is the community not voting as much as they should be (or voting really badly).

For the lack of voting, I would suggest:
  • A debate being automatically bumped up when the vote countdown reaches 1 day
  • Providing some sort of incentive (the leveling system mentioned above)
  • Better vote editor (The RFD is often exceptionally long, making the vote form's editor similar to forum post editor is highly beneficial and allows the user to actually format the RFD)
For bad voting, I would suggest:
  • Some sort of automatic filter (ML-powered?... we def can get the data required)
  • Reminding the users of the voting policy and displaying the rules for voting when they vote (helps new users to gauge what they are supposed to do)
  • Ability to edit votes (we all make mistakes)



#23
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@BearMan
  • Putting a limit on who can vote, based on the ELO.
Nah. There are good debaters that just so happens to be unlucky and you can't just bar them from voting.

#24
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@Intelligence_06
Ah ok, I'll strike that one down then.
#25
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@BearMan
I think more experience generally correlates to better voting. I think the bar of 2 debates is on the right direction. After all, it should not be the case that User_2006 is, in theory, less eligible for voting than the average newcomer.
#26
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@BearMan
Also, what is the incentive to level up?

I think coins can be given out if one wins 100 debates or votes on like 500 debates or something, or like post 10,000 forum posts, just my own opinion, feel free to disagree.
#27
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@Intelligence_06
Also, what is the incentive to level up?
Having a higher level than everybody else? Probably add some privileges to the leveling system as well. Also maybe a leaderboard.

 I think coins can be given out if one wins 100 debates or votes on like 500 debates or something, or like post 10,000 forum posts, just my own opinion, feel free to disagree.
Def.


#28
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@BearMan
Having a higher level than everybody else? Probably add some privileges to the leveling system as well. Also maybe a leaderboard.
I am afraid that RM will be the only member of the top level for months. If that is not the case, then climbing the ladder is too easy and soon people will return to their old interests seeing there is nowhere to go. Unless if we have a point system overall, such as if we win, we gain points. Votes? gain points. Forum post? gain points. etc. The top of the leaderboard is the most contributional person to the site. Tempbans deduct points and permabans reset to 0. What about this?
#29
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@BearMan
Omg Bear, welcome back!!!!
#30
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@zedvictor4
People outgrow sticky on stars and smiley faces.
tell that to fortnite and minecraft and roblox