Starting a new debate on EDEB8.com

While the multitude of options available on EDEB8.com when starting a new debate may seem daunting for a beginner, they are really very simple to understand.

The Topic refers to what you are arguing about. In some parts of the world, it may also be referred to as a moot or a resolution. For example, if you are arguing about whether Sudan should invade South Sudan, the topic might be "That Sudan should invade South Sudan". You don't have to start your topic with "that" if you don't want to. Make sure you choose a topic that can be argued either for or against.

If you like, you can leave the topic field blank. Once debaters have been found to do the debate, but before prep time (if any) begins, a random topic from our current selection of topics will be used. This is known as a "secret topic" debate.

For the Type you have two options. An individual debate will have you debating on your own against other individual members. A team debate is done with teams. Each team will need to put forward one debater for each round that the debate has, or forfeit. Before the debate, the requisite number of debaters from each participating team need to agree to do it, or the debate is dropped, so make sure you have the support of your team before starting one.

A text debate is like a speech given in a real-world debate, except that this speech is typed instead of given. In a video debate, each round instead of typing a speech, you record a video of you giving the speech. Other than this, the two work the same.

The Limit/round is an optional limit you can place on the length of time or number of characters each debater has to make their arguments in each round. For example, in a video debate with a limit of 6 minutes, you can only post a video up to 6 minutes per round.

Sides refers to how many debaters or teams are involved with the debate. 2 is normal for most debates, but some styles use four (such as British Parliamentary).

Speeches/side for individual debates refers to how many rounds you will be expected to post something. In team debates each speaker only posts once (excepting leader's replies), but this instead refers to how many speakers each team is expected to field.

Replies are a feature of many debating styles, where after the main speeches of the debate, the speaking order is reversed and each side makes another speech of half the length to summarize the debate. In team debates with more than one speaker per side, the reply cannot be delivered by the last speaker from each side.

You can choose to have a debate not count towards your ELO score by unchecking the box labelled rated. This may be a good idea for less serious debaters.

Autoforfeit means that if you miss a round in a debate, you forfeit that debate entirely (a forfeit occurs when you fail to post your round within the allotted time, not when a debater may concede the debate). In a 4-way debate, teams that forfeit first are ranked lower than those that may forfeit later. In a 2-way debate the debate ends when one side forfeits, while in a 4-way debate the half ends when one team of that half forfeits (this rule is skipped if the forfeit happens during a reply speech). In such an event in a 4-way, voters still vote on which of the remaining teams won.

Time to post refers to how long you have in each round to post your argument. For example, if you need 2 days to get up your round from when it begins, set the time to post to 2 days.

Prep time is additional time before the debate for all sides to research the topic and construct their case. It is most useful for secret topic debates, although it is always available as an option.

Voting time refers to how long voters have to cast their votes on who has won the debate. Make sure this is long enough to get a wide range of opinions in about your debate.

If you like, you can specify the other participants in your debate by entering their usernames or team names. You can also specify what position they take on the topic (using British Parliamentary labels for 4-way debates). The position determines speaking order. Alternatively, you can leave places open, which will be filled by interested parties in an open challenge. You can specify a minimum and maximum rating for potential opponents as well. If you leave positions open, the positions will be randomized from among those still available.

When you have finished filling out the parameters for the debate, click "Start Debate" to let the fun begin.

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