

Ask HN: Rate my site (DebateZone) - giantfuzzypanda
http://rails.flubba.webfactional.com

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chegra84
I like the concept.

You should categorize because someone people wouldn't care about certain
issues but will fight tooth and nail for others.

Like us being entrepreneurs, we would have an opinion on "fast fail", so we
would want to get to these topics more quicker than something related to
politics or sport.

Categorising allows you to focus resources on which categories drive the most
traffic to the site.

Also, try to be more specific in seed content. Having broad topics thesis
doesn't make for good arguments. For instance "which team is better Lakers or
Celtics", may become "which team would win 2010 champion-Lakers or Celtics".
It's narrower and more focus which makes for an easier argument. Broad
categories require much wider and deeper knowledge to begin to address the
debate.

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giantfuzzypanda
Thanks, I already have categories (called "zones" to fit the name), but do you
mean add tags or something similar in addition to the broad zones?

~~~
chegra84
Nice, then make it more promient and maybe even call it categories.

People have a scanning behavior when they are looking on sites so they are
looking for certain keywords and "zone" might not be apart of it
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>

~~~
giantfuzzypanda
Thanks for that link, very interesting stuff. I increased the font size of
sidebar lists, and I might change the word to categories eventually.

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durana
With the up vote and down vote arrows, have one or the other light up when you
mouse over a specific one, instead of having both light up. It will make it
clearer which arrow you are about to click.

I like the layout of the two sided debates over the debates with more than two
sides. The two sided debates have the sides and results right in the middle at
the top of the page. On debates with more than two sides, having the sides and
results off to the right makes them easy to miss at first. The first debate I
looked at was a more than two sided debate and because of the layout, I was a
bit confused on what the sides of the debate were. It seemed like the comments
were the sides because of their placement and the up/down vote arrows.

~~~
giantfuzzypanda
Thanks for the input, I just made the quick css change. You're right about the
multi-side layout, but I couldn't really think of any other way to do it.
Actually, I think if I put all the sides above the arguments horizontally they
would be easier to compare and more visible. I'll test something like that
out.

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charlesju
My friends started a debate site a while ago, and I'll tell you what I told
them.

For an part-time and fun project this is a very cool web app. I like the
simplicity and it seems like a fun way to talk about various issues.

As a startup idea, you would do better finding an idea that doesn't revolve
strictly on creating a web community from scratch.

~~~
giantfuzzypanda
I agree, and it is a part-time project I made for fun. Now I just want to get
some users, and eventually make a few cents off of ads.

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chegra84
Oh yea have anonymous posting.

People would like to post stuff quickly without having to signup. Eventually,
they will realize that "hey I want to track what i posted", so they sign up.

~~~
giantfuzzypanda
Good idea, I'll probably add it some time this week.

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marciovm123
anonymous posts can very quickly change the atmosphere from thoughtful to
spiteful, and it makes spamming/trolling much more difficult to stop. So you
have to weigh those costs w/ the benefit of one fewer barrier to posting.

~~~
giantfuzzypanda
True, they're great for a site like 4chan. I think I'll just keep arguing for
users only for now.

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mdemare
I'd argue for the opposite, allow anonymous in the beginning (during
"bootstrap mode"), to minimize hurdles for new users, and switch to users only
when anonymous users become a nuisance.

~~~
giantfuzzypanda
Just want to let you know, that I've implemented this.

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chegra84
Allow pictures to be uploaded with your debate thesis. Sometimes a picture or
video can say more than words can.

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giantfuzzypanda
Good idea, do you mean like a picture for each side of a debate?

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chegra84
An optional picture so users can see what the division is about.

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nkabbara
I like the logo.

