Show HN: Debatable – Reddit with Results | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Debatable – Reddit with Results

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36 pointsrobcorn17 comments

I'm interested to see how it evolves!

I've been a big fan of ChangeMyView(https://www.changemyview.co/) and Intelligence Squared (https://www.youtube.com/user/iqsquared) and this seems like potentially a great combination of both!

I think polling people before the debate to get the "initial odds" and then after to see how the consensus has shifted and combining that with some sort of score like CMW does would go a long way to advance the gamification!

Big fan of Intelligence Squared but haven't seen ChangeMyView before, thanks for sharing.

Regarding the polling suggestion, that's actually how it works! Clearly need to work on the messaging a bit, to make that more apparent. There's an initial poll and then you're asked if you've changed your mind after a minute of reading the arguments.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions.

I've had something like this idea for a long time and I have a feeling it's one of those ideas in the idea-o-sphere that lots of people have that is either impossible to implement or get traction on(I have a feeling the latter). Maybe it's because people don't want to see someone win an argument, they just want to vocalize their opinions as loudly as possible?

Anyways, what is your strategic advantage? How do you imagine debatable progressing? Could it ever be as big as one of the social media networks, or at least a well known niche? Are there competitors who've done something similar?

Great questions! All consumer apps have a hard time getting traction. We're taking an iterative approach here.

The strategic advantage here is focus. Just like there's only one Wordle, or the front cover of NYTimes, per day, we're creating artificial scarcity by focusing peoples attention on just one debate at the day.

I would consider this a success if people start asking themselves, "hey, have you heard the debate of the day?"

In terms of how big this could get, keeping an open mind and seeing how folks use the site.

Some existing alternatives

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Should_animal_testing_be_leg...

https://idebate.org/debatabase/environment-animals-philosoph...

What's the difference vs a reddit poll?

Haven't seen these before thanks for sharing.

It's different from a reddit poll in two ways:

1) Artificial scarcity - like Wordle or a NYTimes cover photo, there's only one per day. This focuses attention to one topic at a time.

2) Before/after polling. The audience is polled initially and then asked if they've changed their mind after a while reading arguments. The winner is the debate that changes the most minds.

Hey HN!

My name is Rob and I built Debatable. Very excited to launch on HN, will be here to answer any questions :)

Interesting idea. I agree with above users in that a better comment management system could be created to make debates more clear. I could see this being used within corporations to debate ideas.

Great suggestions. Think there's definitely a few ways to manage comments better. Any specific suggestions in mind?

And +1 to using this in corporations. The hope is that the tool is generic enough for all kinds of use cases!

Would you be able to comment on a debate that is “archived”? Let’s say if you had an opinion?

Good question! Archived debates are considered complete so you can't vote or comment...but you can always re-suggest the topic if you feel there's more to talk about.

Interesting… It would be great if you could see how users voted as you read through comments

Thanks for the suggestion! That's something we have in the pipeline for post-MVP

Debate of the Day: "Is YC still a good deal?"

I'm curious how this one turns out.

Thanks for checking it out. Thought that debate topic was appropriate for launching on HN :)

Is the vote before/after supposed to be a way to determine the winner?

Exactly. This differentiates the product from other platforms like Twitter/Reddit where you can ask polls.

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