DDO is a better debate site than Edeb8

In keeping with the format for this debate, I'd like open our side of the case by outlining the reasons we believe that Edeb8 is a superior site for debate than DDO. My opponent has brought up three major points in his round, which I will address directly in my next round. The Resolution: Better FOR DEBATEBefore we start, I'd like to remind us all what exactly we are debating. Everyone is here because they are, at some level, a fan of debate. We are, rather appropriately, using the medium of debate to ascertain which of two possible sites provides the best environment to host an online debate. It's entirely logical that we begin by establishing the criteria for this - what exactly constitutes the "best environment" for online debate? My intention is to present these criteria and then use them to compare Edeb8 and DDO. PEOPLE: This one is obvious. If Debate is a solo sport, then you are doing something wrong. We need people if we are going to have a good debate site. But what how many people do we need? Does more actually equal better? My contention is that in fact the quality of the people FAR outweighs the sheer numbers. - The Numbers: Edeb8 is a relatively new site and has already accumulated over 180 users. Of these there are between 18 and 30 "Active Users". This stat is dynamic and will refresh constantly. This means between 10-18% of the total member base is active. By contrast, although there are 185,714 members on DDO, the percentage of those that is actually active is abysmally low. At time of writing, only 1,237 of those had checked in in the last three days. That's slightly less than 0.7% of the total membership. - The Quality:This is an important point for my side, given that the resolution; so I'll be picking this up again later, however it's important to note the quality of the people who are members of the site. To date, almost every member of Edeb8 is there because they either want to debate, or because they are looking for debate. By contrast, DDO has numerous forum threads, such as this one [1] detailing the number of members who have joined up purely to post spam. Also, even my opponent admits that many new members are attracted to DDO , not for debate, but for the Opinions and Polls sections. - The Range:JUST LIKE DDO, Edeb8 has a wide cross section of humanity within its membership. People of different ages, genders, religions, political ideologies and nationalities are represented. It is not range we are short on, and in fact having less people total can actually be a good thing. It forces us to interact with eachother on a regular basis and discuss our differences. These often lead to some excellent debates. It is more than fair to say that Edeb8 has ENOUGH people and in fact, a good case could be made that DDO has too many people. DEBATE TOPICS: The second criteria is obvious. We need something to debate. Like DDO, Edeb8 provides the ability for any member to propose a debate on any topic. Like DDO, they can do this through a private challenge to another member or to an open challenge where anyone can accept. But UNLIKE DDO, Edeb8 actually stimulates debate by. .. - Random Topics: These are randomly generated debates, the resolution of which has been taken from a constantly updated list of actual competition resolutions. This ensures that both sides are equally arguable and the resolutions are written in such a way as to eliminate a lot of the semantic arguments. The topics are also topped up with moderated resolutions nominated from the membership. We have found that this method has been hugely successful. In almost every case, the resulting debate has been thoughtful and competitive, thanks to a well written resolution. - Secret Topics: There is perhaps no purer challenge for a debater than to challenge another to a debate where they don't even know the resolution before they start. These debates can be generated by the users or randomly by the site. Thanks to secret debates, I have found myself arguing a wide range of topics that I might never have accepted otherwise. It has been a hugely successful experiment and a lot of fun. DEBATE STYLES: The most successful site for Debate should surely be the one that gives the user the option of creating a debate in whatever style and structure suits them! This criteria alone should decide this entire debate! Edeb8's customisation is its single greatest strength. Here is just a sample:- Video debates. - Team Debates. - British Parl Debates. - Quick Debates. (Very Limited character count)- Cross Examination Rounds. An entire round of quickfire Q&A, built seamlessly into the debate! - Reply Speeches. This means nobody has to leave their last round blank! - Limited to Unlimited character counts. (UNLIMITED character counts. )- Comprehensive rules and definitions on each debate. This means the first round doesn't have to be for acceptance! Hallelujah! To be very clear - these styles are not work-arounds, these are actual options which you can set when you create your debate. - I'd love to write this in colour but DDO doesn't let me! Edeb8 does! - ClassicRobert would love to print this debate off or export it to pdf so that he can read it! DDO STILL doesn't allow this, but Edeb8 does! - You can even click a button at the bottom of a debate and have the entire thing read out to you by the computer! Try doing a rap battle on Edeb8 - it's awesome! I was not exaggerating when I said this was the most important criteria when judging which site is the better debate site. Edeb8 caters for a debate experience that most mirrors the real world, while also allowing for the technological advantages of doing so online. USABILITY: This criteria is critical to what makes a good debate site. I actually think that both sites do this reasonably well, although users are naturally going to favour the familiar. Despite this, Edeb8 does have some advantages. .. - Auto Save: I'm risking everything here typing my argument out directly into my browser. If something happens, my whole argument may be lost. Edeb8 auto saves your argument AS YOU TYPE IT. If the computer crashes during the typing - fear not! It has been saved and will appear like magic the next time you log on. Oh My God. If you are a regular user here, just dwell on that for a second. JUDGING: As my opponent has attacked this in his round, I'll speak more to this in rebuttal. Conclusion: Edeb8 mirrors real life debate far better than DDO does and is therefore a better site on which to conduct your next debate. The following are just some of the accusations against DDO: DDO is too cluttered with non-debate related stuff. [2]DDO's admin is not debate focused. [3] DDO does not have as high quality of debate [4] [1] . http://www.debate.org...[2] . http://www.debate.org...;[3] . http://www.debate.org...;[4] . http://www.debate.org...