LincolnDouglasDebate.com

Main Features

1. Competitions– Rounds (Ranked & Unranked)– Tournaments

2. Forums

3. Evidence Exchange

4. Social Network

Landing Page

• Clarify: what privileges signing up entails. What being a member does for you. What you can do freely.

Navbar

My Messages (#)Edit ProfileSign Out

Forums

Forums

AJAX updating of the most recently updated threads in the forum, and by how many seconds/hours/days/weks ago. Sorted by most recently changed.

Ability to search thread.

Each thread is numbered, for easy reference later.

AJAX updating of current thread’s most recent comments. New responses appear automatically without page refresh.

Forums

Minimize # clicks to content.

Fixed, scrollable Topics Sidebar.

Corner Icons: Add Topic

Picture + Name icons for threads.

Ability to vote up (favorite) comments, and see who else voted it up.

Highly voted comments get a special highlight (yellow, etc.)

Chat dialog shaped boxes (caret to user’s thumbnail)

Don’t forget ability to search thread

JIT loading: infinite scroll

Instead of “Topics”, is Threads. the Topic Title. Lists Topics Threads under Topic.Back arrow icon adjacent to Topic Title goes back to list of all Topics. Similar Menu,but e.g. is in bold.

Forum Dynamics

• No indented reply trees. All conversations are assumed to be in sequence.• Get notified when mentioned (@) and when following thread

• Ability to follow a thread by clicking “Follow Thread” -> receive all notifications on it.• Automatically follows if you comment on it or created it

• Ability to turn Following off in the thread settings / in notification windows of it.• link: “Unfollow” / “Unfollow this thread”

• Mentions are to be via @username• AJAX updating of current thread’s most recent comments. New topics appear at the top of the list,

and new replies appear at the bottom (if bottom viewable), without page refresh.• if bottom unviewable, shows “15 new replies. Click to show.” at top, instead (goes to bottom).

• Fixed-to-Bottom Reply Window, to allow same-window scroll-read of discussion and writing of reply.• Ability to branch tangents to prevent current topic from being derailed:

• Can Reply as new Subtopic• Prompts a Subtopic Title field• creates a new topic, tagged as a subtopic. Beginning of thread: “This topic is a subtopic

of #{parent thread title}”• First post of subtopic will appear in parent topic, labeled as “Joe Smith created a new

subtopic, #{subtopic.title}. He posted: #{subtopic.posts.first.content}”• Flag as Spam, Flag as Abuse/Inappropriate• Links are automatically hyperlinked, detected, and then given a display of descriptive info (ala FB) at

the bottom. First link only.

Exploring Forums

Topics Threads

Ala a file browser. One-page view of topics and thread titles.

Ability to add new topics and threads.

Unclicked Topic/Thread >> Explore: Trending Posts, etc.

Forum Contributions

• Vote Ups (only) on Topics & Answers• No mention of # views. Just # comments.

Forum Contributions

• Include guidelines that slide up upon clicking inside reply box, of what to encourage and discourage in post contributions.

• Include a short intro to Markup, what certain Markups will be formatted as, and how to format.

• Include custom formatting for:• cards (warrants): be able to box &

indent evidence.• arguments for/against: be able to

put a green/red shadow for for/against arguments.

• for: &&&…&&&• against: !!!...!!• cards: $$$...$$$

• HTML escape (safe) out the output.• Live-preview the output before clicking

Reply.

Evidence Exchange

Evidence ExchangeIncentives & Standards

• Incentives for people to contribute– Gain progress: get award badges & points– Gain recognition: can show up in Trending, Highly Rated, etc.– Gain social approval: Others can Like it / Favorite it

• Standardized citations– For online sources:

• Reference EasyBib.com for quick citation generation for URLs. Allow user to copy + paste MLA citations in a single line field for websites.

– Live-validate the MLA format via Javascript.– Final format will have necessary indents in mind.

– For non-online sources (books, journal articles, etc.):• Have standard citation fields: contributors, title, date, URL (opt.), etc.• Citation automatically gets MLA-styled (via easybib API)

• Standardized format– Simple format. Can merely emphasize certain parts of the text (via {{…}} )– Max char. limit (encourage to separate into separate cards if very long).

• Quality Check– Once submitted, user is shown a pop-up confirmation with preview of the card + highlighting

on. Can choose to edit it to refine it.

Evidence ExchangeFormat & Organization

• Similar to this, but better.• Short summary up top. Max 140 Characters.• Citation follows• Card follows.• URL follows. Expands to be more descriptive (ala FB)• Can favorite a card.• Allow favorite cards to be exportable to PDF.• User can toggle on/off the contributor’s highlighting of the card by clicking on “Show

Highlights”. Highlights are OFF by default.• done via sub(“{{”,’<span class=“highlight”>’) &&

sub(“}}”,”</span>”), HTML escaping, and toggle fading on $(‘.highlight’)

Evidence ExchangeNavigation

• 3-column format• Search bar.• Allow for

search-and-highlight.• Allow hashtags

Evidence ExchangeDiscussion

• Allow comment threads• Contribution Time Stamp• Comments get visibility

via Trending, News Feed (of user’s following)

Evidence ExchangeContribution

• Be easy to contribute• Corner icon at all times• Releases into a pop-up

Badges

• See what badges you’ve collected and badges you’ve yet to collect.

• Leaderboards: Name, Points, Rank

Flow Paper

Flow Paper

Flow Paper

• Allow Excel/CSV import of flows (Roo Gem)

Profiles

Profiles

For answers, comments, and questions, categorize as such.

A Comprehensive list of Badges after Activity, should display time stamp and description (no tooltip).

Recent Badges use a tooltip.

TournamentAdmin

Tournament AdminUsers

• Tournament Owner is the one who creates the tournament• Owner can add other users as Admin, who have full privileges over

tournament editing.• Admin:

– Entry & Registration– Division & Round Scheduling– Round Pairings

Tournament AdminScheduling

• Brackets = “Flights”• Allow insertion of

custom text that only tournament admin can see (e.g., ‘do not edit scheduling past XPM on day of tournament. Ask Jane Smith if you see any issues.’)

• Allow inline text info under each match (e.g., round location, flip for sides, fixed sides, etc.)

• Allow text info under each division (e.g., “Flip for Sides; Get to your Rounds!; ASAP”

• Allow HTML5 Drag & Drop of Division & Round orderings (POST)

Tournament AdminCompetitors

• See all competitors by– Per Division– Per Division Per

Round– Per Division Per

Round Per Flight– Whole List (all

divisions): Competitor | Division(s) Registered

• Clicking any competitor name shows a pop-up of competitor info:– Link to profile– Win/Loss record

Tournament AdminRounds

• Pairings:– random– power match– power protect

Tournament AdminRegistration Settings

• Allow addition of custom text fields to provide further registration info.• Allow entry limits, according to competition type (virtual, non-virtual, across

both) by– total attendees– per division– per division per school

• Allow cross-entry limits• Allow organizer to require agreement to custom terms upon registration• Allow entry deadline• Allow drop deadline (for competitor drops to a school entry)• Allow addition deadline (for competitor additions to a school entry)• Allow fees by (multiple structures allowed):

– per team– per student– per student per division

Tournament Registration

TournamentParticipation

Tournament RegistrationFeatures

• Allow different registration types:– Virtual Competition– Non-Virtual Competition

• Be able to register as an individual judge, coach, student, etc.– Only format allowable for virtual competition

• Be able to do bulk registration as a team leader– can request to add people as part of your team, which would allow you

to register them freely.• link to specific existing profiles to register them. 1-step process.• people can become part of multiple teams (e.g., if transferring schools,

judging for multiple schools, etc.)• Each team member has roles (debater, judge, coach, affiliates)

• Be able to change registrations online (acc. to deadlines)

Tournament RoundsTechnical Difficulties

• In the off-chance that the round experiences technical difficulties, the round can be completely redone / parts of it can be completely redone.– Although if one debater is able to redo their speech, then the other

debater must be able to redo their speech previous as well. Then both must be timed accordingly.

– Then the round must be recorded as having technical difficulties, and the judge must indicate to what degree the technical difficulties may have made their decision difficult, meaning that it will be weighed less.

• If this happens in outrounds (crap), a decision must still be made.– The loss would not be counted highly

TournamentScheduling

Tournament Scheduling

• Be able to print off Tournament Schedule in Print PDF Format