As for the actual debating though, there leaves much to be desired.
When people argue, they simply do not put their statement out there to take its stand. They interact with the opposing arguments, and pick their points apart. What you have is simply an aggregate of a bunch of individual opinions, with no real debate going on. Responding to someone in this interface is extremely difficult, so no discussion is going to happen.
Maybe take a look into threading replies?
Your Threading Replies idea is one that has been requested many times and will be implemented soon - actually we just wrote a post about it http://barklesapp.tumblr.com
To go into more depth here: Threaded replies will allow both sides to interact - so if you are on the Bark side you can still reply to a response on the Bite side - vice versa.
My thought exactly. Integrate better with twitter. You're hopeless trying to build a platform of your own.
When we first started working on this we considered an "add-on" platform to the likes of Twitter/Facebook - but decided we wanted our own system from the get-go. There was no real data-set to explain why, only the fact that we can control every part of the User Experience that way.
The obvious downfall to creating another Social Network is the challenge of building a userbase - but with the natural virality of debating we feel we have a strong chance to bring friends of friends into Barkles.
Thanks for your honesty :)
Also, look into some sort of comment sanitization technique, the very first argument I saw come up was "penis penis penis" and not far below it simply "wtf".
This is a website that relies on user participation and right now you're not offering too much to your users.
I have seen many layouts of the same/similar concept and this is one that worked well for us. I think the layout closest to what you refer to is represented very well by Twosides.co (please correct me if I am wrong).
The comment sanitization is always going to be a hot topic as any opinion is valid - and if we start removing that opinion it could cause problems (moderation is something we are still considering).
Although "penis, penis, penis" has little to do with Coffee (http://barkl.es/uJaCAk) they may or may not be making a valid opinion (depending on your opinion of their opinion).
But in all seriousness, we will work out ways over time to combat irrelevant/improper Responses/Dogfights the right way without limiting open opinion from users.
"This is a website that relies on user participation and right now you're not offering too much to your users." - I'm not really sure I feel your sentiment on this as by 'currently' allowing ANY opinions aren't we offering more?
- Diesel
For a new user, why not start with the popular tab as the default on the stream page until they get followers/follow people?
This comes up a often and there are a lot of for and against opinions for both scenarios. The main reason we have chosen to keep the Dogfights tab first is due to the long term value of that tab itself - based on our minimal, but varied research.
If we were to show the Popular/Active tabs first many users may fail to see the value/point in connecting with their friends and chasing other users.
It's probably a hot topic ripe for debate (lol) but just to get the point across - imagine if Twitter/Facebook were to show the "Active" tab first from people who aren't your friends. For me and many others it would be a constant stream of noise from people you may not know nor be interested in following - which would then force a user to keep switching tabs back to the people I follow.
We have chosen to set a user up for the future, rather than appeal to their instant gratification of a stream of active noise. We will be reworking the model in future to connect users to friends initially and also showing Dogfights on the front page without being logged in - hopefully this will help that 'empty' feeling.
This is purely the decision we have come to and is not the only way to go about it. It's just what we feel works best for our long term users.
Thanks for asking!
Once the traffic gets going, it might be nice to see some of the featured dogfights. Would be interesting to see whether a good percentage of the "dogfights" could be nonpolitical as well as political.
I'm actually suprised so far that of the 100+ Dogfights created, very few have been about politics.
Essentially a daily topic was posted, and people could disagree or agree.
Hope your site does well.
Due to posing a question on Nooges first you still have a strong model and all you really need is a design lift - keep going with it too!
