The site was down for a few days after upgrading to a 2.6 Linux kernel. Hopefully I learned enough not to let that happen again. I decided not to switch to the dev version yet, so the site is running from a recent backup. I hope to get the dev release up and running in time for the US Presidential primaries.

The development site for debatepoint is getting some attention lately. If you want to download the source or talk about new features, that is the place to go. It's where all the cool people hang out...

Welcome any HDCS1300 students! Debatepoint has been my pet project for a about a year or so. I hope it can be of use to anyone wanting an outlet for some of the points being discussed in class. I'll be making a new point for each issue as the class progresses. Feel free to make any points you want too. In order to moderate, you need to create an account (login/pass is all that is required). I'm a fellow student like you, so feel free to contact me. My email address is in the About section.

I've decided not to erase all the old moderation. The result of this is 'funky' behavior when moderating old arguments. If you are wondering why the score of an argument goes down even though you moderated it up... this is the reason. The new moderation is taking effect.. no such occurance should happen on new arguments.

sorry for the inconvenience, please enjoy the lemon-soaked paper napkins while the moderation system works itself out. :)

Relevance and Irrelevance are new moderation options. If an argument is off topic, or under the wrong stance, it's best to moderate it irrelevant.

NOTE: any support or oppose moderation gives the argument relevance, so try to avoid "oppose" when it should be 'irrelevant'.

1. I've taken the cross-stance moderation out. It was too complicated.

2. Moderation now dynamically updates the scores without reloading the page. plus fancy color animations.

3. hmmm. I think all the moderation has to be deleted. There wasn't much cross-stance moderation in the first place.

There's some other changes I'll post here if I remember.

Initial work on making the web interface asynchronous. The in-stance moderation now works without page reloads.

some CSS changes too.

Added a threaded view of the arguments. looks so nice that I made it the default.
There is an option to switch back to the column listing style.

cross-stance moderation changes. It now shows the score for each of the arguments after moderation. Also, it will notify you if you have already moderated a pair of arguments.

well, they don't do anything yet, but at least they are here. new points and new arguments now have 'tag' fields so you can mark an argument or point with relevant topics. seems to be the trend nowadays, so I thought I might as well add 'em. see tags at wikipedia and spread the news. technorati too

-metric

hey

The about section now has some images and a simple explanation of the new moderation system.

I've finally gotten around to storing passwords in a manner that I can reset/email them to you in case you misplace them. Unfortunately those with a userId less that 1000022 won't be able to have their passwords emailed to them.. so quick, while no one is looking, email me and I will update the database with your info.

-metric

1. upper case html is still broken.
2. I've extended argument sorts and filters.

The big news, however, is that I've split the moderation system in two. Now moderation is composed of so called in-stance and cross-stance. in-stance is moderation of or between arguments with the same stance. ie. supportive argument vs. another supportive argument. cross-stance moderation is done between supporting and opposing arguments.

Currently, in-stance moderation is found at the bottom right of each comment. The percent is the in-stance score [-100%,100%]; use [up | down] to modify like you want.

cross-stance moderation is now the relative 'moderation' link in the debate menu between 'comments' and 'summary'.

links in arguments have changed.
Now to create a link that looks like: google (google.com), you would enter:
[[google|http://www.google.com]]

Replaced the tristance image dot with Walter Zorn's javascript vectorgraphics library: [link] . Previously I was using magickwand with php to create an image file for each stance. The upshot is less disk space/usage, and instant stance image updating.

hmm, what's new..

Obviously, now there is a news section..

There is a new moderation system. It forces a relative argument comparison when the number of arguments of a point goes above a certain level. As was before, only logged in users may moderate (only a login name and password is required). Within the debate, click on the "moderate" link just above the arguments. try it out... please?