How have we done the past couple months?

[brubaie]

Hi everyone!

I wanted to post to seek inquiry about how we can continue to improve Debate Central.

We have received some encouraging data. The website had 40% more visits in September than August. We had over 110% more page views, visitors viewed twice as many pages per visit and our direct traffic jumped almost 80% (Source: Google Analytics).

We've hosted two workshops, spoken to hundreds of students, done dozens of case critiques, published several in-depth articles featuring some of debate's best thinkers as well as topic analyses, offered tons of free evidence and topical website links and recorded dozens of debates (posting forthcoming, please pardon my technical difficulties).

However, we know we have a lot left to do. There's an ocean between where our current offerings are and where we would like them to be.

For starters, our Topic Resources attracted over 1,000 links. I look forward to greatly bolstering this area of the website in response to demand. Do the visitors of these resources have any feedback about what kind of information would be most useful? I would be happy to produce or round up whatever is needed to help!

I could also do a much better job of offering *analysis* instead of just posting links. I've enjoyed reading all the articles but I realize that the topics don't always jump off the page. However, I'm convinced that if more readers knew why the Tiangong-1 launch mattered, more would follow along for more active links.

Do people have other ideas about major improvements? We really are happy to implement whatever improvements are requested.

[CodyArmstrong]

Despite the lack of user camaraderie that it had a few years ago(obviously not something y'all have control over), this is easily the best I have seen Debate-Central do. I know that for me at least, the posting of links by you has increased the quality of my evidence exponentially and greatly shortened the amount of time cutting cards now takes. I think an analysis of certain links could help a lot more, even if it was a, "this card would be especially helpful if you are trying to run this type of argument," so that all skill levels knows where to file them and not just cut it and put it in the "miscellaneous" folder on their computer. I really appreciate the work that you are putting into it Brian and am extremely grateful for the links that you post. Keep up the great work.

[brubaie]

Thanks Cody! I'm really glad that you've gotten a lot out of the links and I completely agree with the need to offer more explanation and analysis along with links.

User comraderie is definitely something we'd like to foster as well, though we've had a difficult time attracting consistent posters. That's why I'm really glad folks like you and Liana are so vocal! I'll keep working towards the goal of ensuring that the group of active users keeps growing.

I appreciate all the kind words and hope the website can be even more useful for you in the future! :)

[sulandio]

Setbacks are temporary as long as you don’t give up.