tyrone's Blog

Below is an update of our mission statement. Remember that Debatable is still a progressive forum, and we would love the support of all.

Mission Statement

Debatable is a forum aimed at providing its users with debatable material (hence the name) and a safe environment to do so. At Debatable, we are committed to providing this service free of charge, and with complete justice. Although access to the forum is allowed without membership, to post, participate in polls or comment, membership must be approved by an administrator.

We encourage members and non-members to invite their friends to join in, though be aware that if we suspect that somebody is not abiding by this mission statement, we have the power to ban them from accessing this forum. Similarly, we may choose to reject somebody's application for membership, though this would only happen with perfectly plausible reasoning.

This forum is aimed at achieving a maximum level of usability, so that its users may post or comment upon ideas that truly interest them. We have carefully chosen topics which we hope will cater for the broader range of ideas, and in terms of current news and reports, please feel free to access The Debatable Journal. We are proud to welcome people to our popular 'Back Quad' (name deriven from Debatable's popular predecessor), which hopefully attracts people of all sorts, with variable ideas and opinions.

Debatable's foundations lie on a solid democratic base. We encourage discussion on each administrative as well as non-administrative decision, and strongly value input from our members. Such a political stance allows optimal freedom of speech, as well as a general sense of community effort and responsibility. Elections, or votes, are held for most major decisions (i.e. theme, the expulsion of a member, an addition to the administrative staff, etc.); however for minor decisions (i.e. minor theme changes, the destruction of a certain post/comment, etc.), we will simply welcome feedback, and if there is a majority of negative feedback, then it is most likely that we will undo our actions (if at all possible).

As a democracy that works to serve the people, we respect people's rights and opinions, and whether they choose to use their rights. Thus, all votes and elections are voluntary, as well as strictly private. Although such a vote/election is voluntary, we strongly encourage all members to participate in electoral process unless they have good reason not to.

Finally, we bid you well in visiting this forum, and hope that your needs are met and that the experience is as enriching as it promises to be. A range of services have been provided for your use. Enjoy!
(Sorry Jeremy, I couldn't be bothered waiting, plus I asked you plenty of times. Please add and subtract whatever you feel necessary. Please don;t take advantage of that last statement)

Last updated on 12 July, 2008

Etiquette

On many forums and blogs, the end arrives due to a lack of respect shown for one member by another. This is unnacceptable. At Debatable, we would like everybody to be civil to one another. There may be cases where somebody disagrees with you, ignores what you're saying or is generally not very nice, but you must not directly insult them. Any such circumstances should be reported to an administrator, who will then decide on what action to take.
We are not attempting to oppress any member of Debatable, and we acknowledge that freedom of speech is of the essence at a place like this, but please, just try to keep some modicum of politeness on this forum.

Last updated on 13 July, 2008

General Plan

The purpose of this plan is to briefly outline the general aims of this forum. These aims have been designed so that they are beneficial to all members.

Firstly, we would like to state that all democratic processes currently in process will remain in process, and that henceforth, no major changes will be made to the mission statement without a majority in a vote.

The following are aims which we have devised, and which we are hoping to have completed by the first day of November (being 1 November)

(1) Acquire a total of 25 members or more (Currently, we possess 12 members, which is 12/25 of our aim. To complete this aim, we will need to have acquired at least 13 new members by the proposed date.)

(2) Acquire a total of 200 topics or more (Currently, we possess 60 (at the publishing of this topic), which is 3/10 of our aim. To complete this aim, we will need to have acquired at least 140 new topics by the proposed date.)

(3) Acquire a ratio of posts to comments of 1:5, or greater (as in, 1:6) (Currently, the ratio is approximately 1:6, which satisfies the aim.

The above aims are those which were put forward to the members and non-members of Debatable, and were accepted without debate.

Last updated on 12 July, 2008

Advertisement Plan

This particular plan focuses on the expansion of Debatable, and its advertisement. The following strategies are those which have been discussed by active participants in the Debatable community, and will be loosely enforced.

(1) Each member is strongly encouraged to invite at least three other people to Debatable. (This will be supported by a further action plan regarding a rewards system.)

(2) Each member is strongly encouraged to actively post on other forums(related or unrelated), and to include Debatable's address in his or her signature or at the bottom of a particular post. We recognise that in some cases this will be impractical, and will likely result in you being expelled from the forum and labelled a 'tosser'. If this is likely to happen, you may consider yourself temporarily exempt from this suggestion.

(3) Each member is strongly encouraged to read all articles related to advertisement on the Lefora Support Forum, and use these tips to expand his or her influence over the Lefora community.

This is a short list of advised initiatives, and we acknowledge that there may be a plethora of other successful techniques. However, the above tips were decided upon by the Debatable community, though mainly by Tyrone, and are hereby recognised(by us at least) as the key elements of our advertisement action plan.

Last updated on 07 July, 2008

Coming soon! Technology Plan, and perhaps the Rewards System