DebateThis: The Pages Part One

Okay...



Here is a rundown of what a new user would see at every aspect of DebateThis. This includes the outer shells to the inner-workings. Ranging from the media's homepage to a spesific Arena battle.



I hope this just doesnt complicate things further. Anyone who is making mockups please read and comment where you see fit.

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The Media Homepage
Best Example: mlive.com


-Whatever media outlet or organization we decide to go with should be a hub-based multi-informational sattelite for news or a major local conglomerate featuring serveral outlets.



-mLive is a great example of what a new, expereinced or non DebateThis user would see at a particiapting new org website. They generally feature a pool of news from each induvidual outlet's site, creating a swarm of content (all of which... debatatable).



-The DebateThis section of the site will be featured prominantly at the top of the site in a flashy link with the logo morphing into something cool.



-It will be teased like "find out more" or "argue on today's top news events." Hopefully the news org will be excited about it so there will be no quams about teasing a link to another page within their website.



-This tease and link should be cool, hip, flashy and slightly mysterious. This will require some serious work on whatever we pick for the icon, color scheme, widget, etc.



DebateThis Home
Best Example: Mix of YouTube.com, CNN.com, & Digg.com

-Clicking on that intitial link within the website will take a new user to the DebateThis homepage.



+The top displays 10 day's top stories and headlines from the media outlets website.



+Top left corner features the option to log in with a DebateThis user name or "Register for DebateThis!" Being a new user, the ladder option is avaiable. Their is also the option to "logout".



+The Far Left Column features a number of links and options for the Debate this user:



1) "My DebateSpace": The DebateThis user's personal profile and networking homepage.

2) "DebateRank": A database/ladder of every single DebateThis user ranked in order based on the induvidual's accumlualted points.

3) "TheMasters": A page that features the very best of the DebateThis community. Profiles on up to 10 of these members as well as their personal thoughts and linked DebateSpaces.

4) "Arena Search": Wade through induvidual arenas to find a got spot to jump into a debate.

5) "Links": Relevant links to resources (news, debating or otherwise) found not contained through DebateThis.

6) "Help": A listing of laws and rules for the DebateThis community. A listing of standards, practices and policies. A Q&A for new users.

7) "About DebateThis": How was it started? Why was it started? What is it? etc.



+The center of the page is a 25 list of the hottest arenas currently featuring debates. This is based & calculated on volume and the number of high-ranking users within the debate. Think Digg.com spesifically here. Clicking on each link will take the user directly to those debates.



+The Right side of the page is a scrolling flash-based column featuring the community's top 100 debaters and their accumulated points. This is basically a scoreboard. The column slowly fades 10 users at a time in and out until it recycles the list at the end.



Example:

1) Chavez- 1,234,453

2) The Shadow- 1,121,233

3) Bluedawg- 1,111,421

4) ILuvDebating- 953,854

5) I M RIGHT- 914, 235

etc.



fade out- then fade in...



11) MSUFan- 764,324

12)

etc.



+The bottom features a link to the weeks featured top point earner. Here he is given a forum to say whatever he wants about anything. This could be an informative rant or a well writen story and accompanying video clip of his dog Sandy.




Logging In/Signing up
If you are already a DebateThis user, logging in is as easy as any login place. There's a bar for the user name and a bar for the user's password. Type both correctly, and your in!

If you are a new user, you are prompted to go through a sign up process. Basically a repleca of any place you've been required to sign up with before. Prompting you to type in Date of birth, contact info, email, etc.



DebateRank
Best Example: RPG Battle Ladder

A huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge ladder database of every current user. Each user has a slight column of information. From left to right: Rank - Username - Status - # of Points - Time elapsed since last post - Link to last post - DebateSpace



Example:
861) Spartan21/Veteran/561,235 DebatePoints/3 hours since last post/"Clinton has no chance"/DebateSpace/
862) VoteorDie!/Veteran/545,176 DebatePoints/2 days since last post/"Iraqi Pullout"/DebateSpace/



TheMasters
Best Example: Blogtoplist.com

Huge picture/flash-based links of the very best debaters. These may be people who have trancened the game entirely and are now moderators, leaders or educators. Links to each DebateSpace, blog, rants, etc.


ArenaSearch
Best Example: Google.com

Type in something relevant to the areana you're looking for and the search function will come up with anything matching that criteria.


Links
Best Example: NABJ.com Resources

Fairly self explanitory. Places like Dictionary.com and wikipedia to help with knowledge of issues.


Help
Best Example: YouTube.com Help Center

List of topics and answers to questions. Q & A. Practices & policies. User Agreements. etc. YouTube's is nicely arranged.


About DebateThis
Best Example: About Pandora

Just a quick summary of what the mission and the site is about. Again, pretty self-explanitory.



DebateSpace
Best Example: Facebook.com profile

The DebateSpace page, moddeled losely on any Facebook profile, features user conact information, quick rants, posted YouTube videos and a running log of all Arena Posts.

+Top- Username (on top of) Status (on top of) Rank (on top of) Points

+Left column- All the options from the DebateThis homepage including "Cuztomize", "Spend Debate Points" and "Privacy Settings"

"Customize": Arranging anything about your DebateSpace. Limited, of course, by the number of points accumluated. New users will have to stick with the color scheme and format. Advanced users can change the basic layout, color scheme, add personal flare, backgrounds, music, stickers, widgets, etc.

"Spend Debate Points": EVERYTHING in the world of DebateThis hinges on the number of Debate points accumluated through debating. This link takes you to a page that allows the user to purchase more options based on the rank and amount of points the user has accumulated.

Here the user can buy new colors for his DebateSpace or add more room to type during Arena Debates. Some point-based milestones are automatic when a user moves up in rank, such as the ability to post audio or video. Points are cumlulative and never diminish from purchases.

"Privacy Settings": limit contact information and what other users can see, etc.

+Center- Picture of User, Concact Info, Advnaced User: more pictures, videos, audio, Advanced User: Favorite Widgets, Advnaced User: Multimedia Diary, Adcanced User: RantSpace.

+Bottom Right (where the "wall" would be): Running log (blog format) of everything posted in the arenas.

Any DebateThis Widgeted Article
Best Example: StateNews Article

This is any regular article with the "DebateThis!" widget at the bottom. Clicking on that icon takes the user directly to that article's spesific arena site.

If the reader is not a DebateThis user, the reader will be prompted to sign in or register. This reader will still be able to see the discussion but will not be able to participate.

A normal comment section, common on most news websites will be REMOVED in place of the DebateThis widget.

Example of An Arena Page
Best Example: ???
A mix between a standard forum site, Youtube.com, Digg.com, Pandora's slick design and use of flash, and the comment section from a random news article

I'm thinking TheArena might be entirely flash-based. I don't know if that is at all possible, but I see it in sort of this cool... graphical tree with multiple branches for each discussion and the actual article in the middle.

It is very very hard for me to conceptualize. But it is done in a way that is so immediately appealing and unique that a viewer is awed. This is the ANTI COMMENT SECTION.

This has to be the most graphically original and appealing part of DebateThis. The use of minimal touches, flash, slick design and arrangement should be optimal. I just dont know how. It in no way will look like a comment section.

+Top- Name of Article/Arena (on top of) number of views (on top of) number of posts (on top of) Optional "HOT Topic" icon.

+Center- running lists of posts (arranged in a cool way): Title of post (on top of) RateTheDebate (on top of) This post's rating (on top of) the post's actual content (whether it be text, audio or video) (on top of) By USERNAME (next to) User's Rank - status - fame

+Bottom- Link back to original article.

+Left Column- all options found on original DebateThis homepage.

+Right Colum- Flash-based scrolling list of hottest arenas (on top of) Flash-based scrolling list of top users.

RateTheDebate: A new user will only be able to vote two ways. "Positive" or "Negative". These options will have cooler, demographic-based names. Since the user is new, his voter strength wont carry as much weight. Therefore a "negative" vote may carry 0 points while a "positive" vote may award the posting user 10 points. That's it.

An advanced user will have more options. This may range in 5 variables from "Very Negative" to "Very Positive" (of course these descriptions will be replaced by something cooler or may just be a simple 5-point star system).

Since this user's opininion carries more weight, the negative votes may subtract up to -10 or -20 points while the very positive votes may award up to 30 to 50 points and the middle may either award no points or offer 5 point swings.

Master users have even more options. They have the abilitly to liberally dole out or subtract points at will and may move more freely between posts (less restrictions on frequency of voting, etc). They also have the ability to leave breif comments, suggestions or CONSTRUCTIVE crticism. These are proven and trusted users. Having this kind of power is rare and comes with great responsibilty.

Senior users are basically moderators. They can edit and remove posts/video/audio/ratings/comments at will but carry no weight to the voting process wahtsoever.

**Points are also awarded for the frequency of posting. Any post that has no comment after a spesific amount of time is awarded a 2-point particiaption bonus. But if a new user were to give it a negative rating, this would 0-out that bonus.
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So I hope that wasnt too confusing. Leave comments for clarification or if I left anything out. Please start making mockups when you see fit. Add other stuff if you think it works. Tell me why we should take it out if it doesnt. Feel free to run with it.

Also, I didnt spellcheck and I wrote fast. Sorry.

Thanks.