https://github.com/samvanemelen/debato
Hello and welcome to my blog for this exciting blog post.
The debate is a never-ending thing for humans. There will always be a topic that brings up a debate. This is a common occurrence with football fans. You see them debating about who is the real GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. This sort of argument does not end in time and eventually turns into a heated argument. At the long run, the debate topic is lost as both sets of participants would have diverted from the main topic. After hours of debating, you will realize that there is nothing gained and all the discussions are just a waste of valuable time.
That is what Debato aims to rectify.
Debato is an online platform built for online debates. Debato is built on the Steem blockchain which means that meaningful discussions and contributions have the chance to be rewarded. Debato looks to reduce situations where opinions on certain topic lead to irrelevant arguments. The platform is well-structured and contains amazing features that give a new look to debates.
Since Debato is built on the Steem blockchain, it is a requirement that you have a steemit account. You can signup and wait for your account activation or login if you already have an account with steemit. You will be redirected to steemconnect where you need to input your details in order to gain access to Debato.
Logging in to Debato will display the latest discussions available to contribute to. The discussions are presented in a grid format. Each of these discussions is presented in a card format where you can see the discussion title, the creation day, and the number of interactions made with the discussion.
One interesting feature I love about this card format is that you don’t have to open the discussion before you see how many arguments are for or against the discussion. The green bar indicates those that support the discussion which is the PRO and the red bar indicates those that are against the discussion which is the CON. This is a new feature that was just implemented not up to 3 weeks.
There are other navigation options there where you can see the Trending discussion and the hot discussion. You also have the ability to view discussions peculiar to a particular topic by clicking one of the tags displayed above the cards or using the search bar to find your preferred topic.
You can see that the interface is very easy to understand. It summarizes everything to expect in a discussion. Now, let’s move to contribute to an ongoing discussion.
Contributing to a discussion is very easy. Clicking on any of the discussions cards will display the discussion title, poster information, few information about the discussion, and then the PROs and CONs.
The PRO is for those who are in support of the discussion while the CON is for those who are against it and have a different view from the Author own.
The current PROs statement and also the CONs statement are displayed side by side. The view is well organized and you can easily view users opinion and also add your statement to the discussion.
In a bid to prevent irrelevant statements that do not have any benefit or importance to the ongoing discussion, Debato limits the statement entry to only 300 characters. This is the part I love in Debato and why it is different from other debates platforms out there. This means that only concise statements with facts are wanted. You can see that Debato is an awesome platform.
Well, it may be sad news for many who would want to express themselves extensively. Don’t be sad, there is some good news. You can leave those long stories and explanations under any statement of your choice as comments.
Only the statements will show under the discussion. The comments will then be viewable once the statements are clicked. The comments have no word limit meaning you have the opportunity to express yourself. There is an upvote button beside the discussion, statement, and the comments which enable users to be rewarded for their participation.
Let’s look at creating your own discussion.
You can do this by clicking your profile image which will display the start discussion. Starting a discussion is easy. It is just like creating a steemit post. You are required to input the Discussion title, then provide more information about the topic. You can also add an image via the image URL text field. This URL can be gotten from frontends like steemit, busy. You just need to upload the image there and copy the URL and paste on Debato.
The next thing is to select the tags related to your discussion and publish. The tags will make it possible for other users to find your discussion.
There are other interesting features on Debato and one of them is the ability to set your upvote weight. You can set the default weight that will be used to vote discussions on Debato.
You can also access your Debato profile. This will show your created discussions, arguments, and your steemit wallet. You can see the number of discussions you have created. In my case, I have created just one. You can also see the number of arguments you have made. The wallet shows your coins balance plus the steempower you have. You also have the opportunity to claim rewards, transfer, power up, and power down. The user reputation, followings, followers, and voting power can also be seen.
You can see that Debato is one great platform. These features are also present when viewing on a mobile device.
Debato is a great platform that is looking to change users debating behavior. It looks to cut away unnecessary arguments that do not add value to the topic or the users by providing a well-structured way of presenting arguments. The fact that you can also earn from discussing means Debato is way ahead of others. It is devoid of advertisements which mean users are assured with the knowledge that they are not tracked. The platform still undergoes development which means there is much more to come from Debato.
