DDO is a better debate site than Edeb8

As per the structure for this debate, in this round I will be offering rebuttal. Popularity: "It's usually argued that popularity should not be an argument for quality because the fact that something is more popular than other thing doesn't mean that it has superior quality. This is true most of the time, but in the case of debating, a good amount of debaters is necessary. " ~ PRO, 1st RoundThis was my opponent's opening paragraph in his first constructive, and I have to say, I agree with this entirely. Popularity on the internet comes and goes. How popular a debate site is does not make it a better debate site EXCEPT that it needs to be popular enough to attract enough people to debate, and good quality debaters. So the real question here is, do both sites meet these criteria? My argument is that YES they do. Think about it. If you are having a serious debate, how many of those can you have at any given time? On Edeb8, we currently have one member attempting to conduct 6 debates at the same time. He is really struggling and recently had to concede that Rugby is superior to American Football because he ran out of time! By this logic, we can assume that the total pool does not need to be thousands to sustain a membership such as the one we have there currently. Many successful debate clubs have around 10 to 15 members. Finally, there is always the option of challenging members of another online debate site - such as we are doing right now. In short, both sites have the requisite number of people to hold a debate. When it comes to quality, again, both sites have debaters with the requisite level of skill so that anyone could have a stimulating and challenging debate. The difference here is that DDO as a site attracts a huge range of people who are NOT there for debate. They are there to answer polls, play Mafia and spam forums. Edeb8 has none of these people, (although the facility IS there to play Mafia if anyone wanted to. )In short, both sites clearly have debaters of high quality. Having established that both sites meet the criteria, popularity ceases to be a factor. The Toyota Corolla is a more popular car than an Aston Martin DB9. Doesn't make it better. On Voting: Since RFD is such an important factor on Edeb8, you will find that almost every debate has very detailed and constructive feedback from the judges. A huge amount of emphasis is placed on judging on Edeb8 and I can honestly say that as a complete newbie, I am the better for it. DDO has some great judges as well. Raisor and Blade-of-Truth seem to crop up on every debate I can find on this site. They are fantastic and DDO is lucky to have them. Unfortunately DDO also attracts a huge number of bad judges. They treat the voting section as if it were a poll or opinion and often don't even read the debate. Bugs: I'll keep this brief so as to keep my word limit down. Edeb8, like DDO and every other site, has bugs. I showed my opponent's bug to the admin and niether he or I could recreate it. I challenge any judge in this debate to try and recreate it. A large number of the "bugs" my opponent has mentioned are almost certainly user error. In one of the debates he's mentioned, he even admits that it was likely his fault. (I separated the images so that I could fit it all on this page. )As far as DDO's bugs are concerned, the one I'm going with is the fact that I tried three times from two different countries to get myself verified to vote on this site and got NOTHING. The system did not work, I received no reply from the tech support. The only way I got verified was by Airmax magically waving his wand! By contrast, Edeb8's Admin fixes most bugs within hours of the initial complaint. All sites have bugs. A site with an Admin who fixes said bugs quickly and efficiently is better than a site with an Admin who never replies. Number Sources: Speaking of bugs - I have no idea why some of my sources don't work anymore. They are links to internal pages within DDO's forums and were working when I posted them. Wierd. The sources for my numbers are from both sites. In both cases I get them from the "Users" pages. I can link them here [1][2] - but be aware that these are dynamic and will almost certainly be different specific values to the ones I posted. I believe the context I posted them in makes that pretty clear. Secret Debates: My opponent tries to make the point that these have not been a successful experiment. This is not true. They are not for everyone, some people only like to debate topics they are very familiar with. Others, like myself,like to use debate as a chance to learn about new topics. In the real world, teams usually get their topic given to them. It is unusual to have a team select their own topic. This proves my point, that Edeb8 mirrors the real world of debate far closer and is therefore better FOR DEBATE. When you accept a secret topic, both sides are given a pre-determined length of time to prepare their arguments. Then they debate. It's great and it works very well. As an experiment, I used the instant chat feature, (another Edeb8 advantage) to ask Admin for the list of secret debate topics. (You can see them here: [3]) Check the time stamps and tell me this isn't a site with an approachable admin! In case you can't read that. .. As you can see, he is right on the money. Pretty good. By the way, you like the fully customisable backgrounds? Another Edeb8 plus. Easy to concentrate on a debate when you have the NZ Flag as your background. .. I guess if you feel homesick, you could always fill up the edges with advertising. .. Debate Styles:To be very clear - I 100% stand by this claim. Edeb8. com gives the user the opportunity to create and conduct a debate in a style that MOST MIRRORS REAL LIFE. While taking advantage of the features available to an online medium. This makes it the better site FOR DEBATE - which is all this resolution talks about. Check THIS out? How exciting is this? A proper British Parlimentry debate. How good is that. Edeb8 makes a debate like this possible and easy. As a site for playing Mafia, voting on a poll, voicing an opinion on Goku vs Batman, selling penis enlargement, trolling idiot 12yr olds who don't know what a debate is, DDO has it all over Edeb8. But when it comes to running a debate - Edeb8 has everything you want. Conclusion:Again, I thank my opponent for his thoughts, I thank the judges for their consideration. I look forward to our next round. Thank you. [1] DDO Numbers: . http://www.debate.org...;[2] Edeb8 Numbers: . http://www.edeb8.com...;[3] Secret topics: . http://www.edeb8.com...