Feature Release

So this one brings a couple of changes:

Most obviously, tournaments are a thing now. Three different types of tournaments are supported with a variety of custom settings. Tournaments can be run either manually or automatically.

There's a new homepage for non-logged in users. A bunch of other changes have been made to make edeb8 more attractive to casual visitors, and the ability to customize the site has been highlighted more.

A number of internal changes have been made due to the spam complaint. Few bugs fixed here and there.

Finally, old notifications and chat messages are now deleted.

Note that there will be an official edeb8 tournament every so often on this new platform, the badge for which was unveiled a while ago

admin: The black infobox looks cool, It looked really slick, and that style might do well in other areas.

What's up with the background? This is a debating site, and I do not know what that is reflective of.

admin: Also tournaments are really cool.

I was not expecting that as a feature.

Crow: Which background? You did notice that it's a slideshow right?

admin: No, but that makes it more essential for one good solitary background.

The last one wasn't that good, but it was better than the one before. The scenic backgrounds make no sense, and are taking a step back.

I do really like that black infobox thingy though.

Crow: There's only one scenic background... ? Are you sure you looked at it carefully?

admin: In general I suppose I should add in something to make it more obvious that the images/text change.

Just want to say that this update is really refreshing to see.

The tournament feature if advertised correctly could be incredibly successful. I know the people on DDO love running tournaments.

Some feedback would be to add descriptions of options like on the "creating debate" page.

Crow: Thanks. I also want to add notifications for tournaments, private tournaments, and auto-setup tournaments with preset topics, as goals.

@admin

I am using this thread to make a request so I do not cover up your announcement.

I think it would be a great idea if there were more utility sub forums just for practicality. For example, advertising debate topics and publicly requesting judgements. The Edeb8 subforum and community are great, but two more utillity forums that broke up site related topics would be great.

If that could happen though, I would also prefer it if some of the lesser subforums got removed. Have games and creative stuff merged with other at the very least.

@admin

Another request, but related to the update.

I just noticed how the slideshow changes. The other two slides are good, because they show people debating. The scenic slide should be like that, especially since it is the default.

Crow: Dude there's 4 other slides.

admin: For me, the default slide is a scenic shot of an orange skyline, then two pictures of people before it cycles back.

The same exact cycle went that way three times.

Anyways, my point here is that the first slide should not be a scenic orange skyline. I do not even think that should be in the slideshow. I don't even think the homepage should be a slideshow, but rather one set page.

Crow: What are the text headings on the slides you can see?

admin: No text headings.

Crow: ... ?

You said there's a black box with some text right? So surely you must see that.

The first line of that is set apart and bolded. That's what I mean.

Does the text not change when the slides change?

Also are you using some weird browser plugin or something?

admin: I am using regular chrome.

It seems to be working now. Before it was cycling three times between the same slides, with each next slide happening 60 seconds or so apart. There was no changing text.

Seeing it now, I like the slideshow even less. The scenic view, monks, and guy sitting on a chair talking are out of place.

Crow: Maybe it didn't load correctly for you. I know your particular set up has had random issues like these before.

The shots are a shot of some clouds, Buddhist monks debating in traditional Buddhist format (Buddhism has probably the world's oldest continuous debate tradition), a shot taken during the finals of a public oratory competition, an audience shot of a university debate event, and a photo of an actual university level debate during which a guy is doing a classic "point of information" gesture while a girl looks on. Each of these pics was chosen to connect with the text.

I think the Buddhist tradition is a good homage for the site because it very clearly relates to our global focus and unity in open discourse. There's a guy sitting on a chair in the background of two of the slides (POI pose and audience shot), but I'm pretty sure both of them are directly connected to debate. The scenic view is a high-level overview ... I could broadly understand why you feel this doesn't fit, but honestly I've come to the conclusion nothing really visually represents edeb8 very well as a real-life analogy in a broad sense.

admin: Do not use an analogy.

If the other three all relate to speaking or debating events, then that is a enough representation for a debating site.

The scenic view and monks are really out of place, especially as the first two slides in the slideshow. It is another example of the sites confusing message.