Before we get into the community, I just want to point out that the website is poorly set up, and it will constantly give you errors when you try to access pages. The debates section is inactive, and most of the "debates" are young members holding ridiculous contests (e.g. TV Character vs TV Character, best joke, etc) and troll debates (e.g. Vi_spex and crap like "morality= survival truth"), rather than serious discussion such as religion or politics. Even then, in what is meant to be serious discussion, people will troll you if they don't like what you're discussing and votebomb you because they want their friend to win a debate, and also there have also been many instances of noob sniping in the very few serious debates (when a skilled debater challenges a noob knowing they will win it.), with new debaters flooding in from the Polls and Opinions sections. The moderation team is both strict and biased. The head moderator Airmax holds a list of favorites and refuses to ban them if they break the rules. Most of those are people who voted for him before the whole Prexit drama, and this includes active bullies and trolls such as YYW and Imabench. Voting moderator whiteflame has a dictatorial voting policy, and his strict moderation has been abused to the point in which it has hurt debate quality, since people would rather win by reporting votes than with arguments, and alot of the votes he takes down are serious votes and I rarely see him taking down actual votebombs. Atleast PetersSmith takes her moderation seriously. Most of the activity on the site comes from the forums section. Important forums such as Philosophy lack activity, and it's usually the same exact group of people in more active serious forums. The most active threads are usually playful threads such as mafia games or "last comment wins!", and many users have accounts purely to spend their time in these forums. They might as well make this a redirect to mafiascum.net at this point. I will give an extra star for the few serious people left. In other words, the minimum amount of stars. I would never use this website if you wish to have serious discussion. There are many alternatives to debate.org which exist, and if you want a serious forum to discuss serious topics, then try out one. DebateIsland is a personal favorite. On an unrelated note, I wouldn't be suprised if "kibbelt C." is just one of their staff members writing a false review. And on another note, have you noticed that most of the positive reviews are from years ago? Exactly. This website was one an excellent debating forum, and now it's basically a bunch of kids lying about their age and teenagers spamming and discussing unimportant bullcrap.
This website is basically Sodahead, just stay away.
This is a silly site for mainly whinny teenagers who complain if you question their dishonest debating techniques, e.g., plagiarism. Plagiarism and others forms of debate cheating are rampant; but, the member/voters are too immature and uneducated to care. And, DDO does not moderate or judge the debates, it is left completely up to the voting members. So, almost anything goes, and it goes unchecked.
DDOs software does block most common swear words, as long as they are in English. However, if you want to upload a picture in a debate that has profanity on it, e.g., I throw my hands up in the air sometimes Saying AYOOO Iam a $#*!ing Turtle that is OK, which was done by Mikal in a recent debate. Airmax1227 response when this was reported was that it wasnt that important, which I am sure the owners of DDO would not agree with.
http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/*******/I+m+A+$#*!ing+Turtle/
Most debates are won by in-group/friend bias, i. E., if you have the most friends, you will win most debates.
Censorship is high, mainly by Airmax1227, the head moderator or the head member of DDOs Gestapo. He was elected twice as site president and owes many favors to those who elected him. He will take sides with those members in all disputes. He will defend his favorites, e.g., Thett3, YYW, Subutai, Sargon, etc. even if they are wrong. Airmax1227 does not enforce the rules he creates uniformly. It is really a joke. His rulings are final; there is no appeal.
Ninety percent of the debates are silly debates (e.g., Rap battles, best super heroes, best Yo Mama Joke, etc.) by teenagers or younger.
The average number of voters/judges on these debates is two members; the median number of voters is one, and usually no one votes on the debates, mainly because they are silly debates. Many of these debates where no members vote are debates done by members who have no friends at the site, so nobody votes for them. Again, most debates are won by the debaters that have the most friends.
Fifty-six percent of the members that join dont fill out their profiles with their ages.
DDO claims to have 148,101 members, but have only had 37,935 debates in 5 years. And, many members do from 10 to 22 debates or more per month. Probably less that 200 of those 148,101 members are active members that debate on a regular basis. Those that do participate most frequently are teenagers.
Most of those 148,101 members are inactive members, but DDO does not publish those numbers. DDO does not purge inactive members, e.g., my wife joined 8 months ago and never posted anything. DDO does not purge inactive members because it needs to prove to it advertisers and potential advertisers that it has a high volume of members so they will continue to advertise or become advertisers. The amount of advertising at DDO is problematic and a joke. Again, DDO is not devoted to debating and having fairly judged debates.
Dont bother joining this site, you will be disappointed, unless you are an immature teenager.
Counter VBing that annoying person.