Support Notice
The User Guide is currently undergoing major re-construction, which we are aiming to complete by the end of April 2026. In the meantime please email support@debate.report
Thank you for your patience, and your ongoing interest in debate.report. We are aiming to build a world-class debate platform, and to encourage many more people to engage in meaningful debate. The platform essentially turns debating into a fun and enjoyable game for the participants, and which helps participants and the audience alike to develop and sharpen their critical-thinking skills and to come to an informed position on the important issues of the day.
the Debate Report Team, March 2026
Overview of the Debate Dashboard
The dashboard is the back-end of the system and allows moderators and debaters to manage their content, create new debates, etc. See below for details.
Dashboard Header
THe head contains a number of indicators, set to green if no action required or red if action is required. Click on an indicator to jump to the appropriate part of the dashboard to review and take the necessary action.
Chat Comments
A logged-in user can comment on a statement or on another comment. This feature is available in the debate chamber itself (in the details panel). A moderator can view all the comments on their debates in this section of the dashboard. Comments should be reviewed and approved or rejected. Any rejected (or deleted) comments will not be displayed in the chamber. All approved comments, as well as comments not yet reviewed, will appear in the chamber.
Comments are scanned for personal data, so-called 'hate speech', and for profanity and any breaches will show up in the Alerts and Flags section of the dashboard.
Your Votes
This is simply a list of the votes you have made on any debate. There is nothing to do in this section. Clicking on a vote will take you to the debate itself.
Alerts and Flags
Scan Alerts
All textual content is scanned for personal data leaks, hate speech and for profanity, and any potential breaches will be listed in the Scan Alerts section. Moderators should review these and decide to either accept them (i.e. the scan is a false-positive), or mask the content (true-positive). The mask shows up in the chamber as " MASKED CONTENT", replacing the text that failed the scan test. If your content gets masked and you wish to appeal you can contact Support via the usual channels. An automated appeals workflow is on the roadmap.
Flags
Anyone can tag a statement in the chamber if they believe it might contravene any policy, regulation, or code of decency. All flagged should then be reviewed by the moderator and either accepted or masked. If your content gets a mask you can edit it and submit for re-scanning, delete it, or appeal to the Support team.
Invitations
Moderators can create their own private forums, and debaters can create one forum for their 'family' (maximum 6 members). Use the invitations area to create an invitation link which you can share with anyone you wish to join your forum. Invitees can review your forum and decide to accept or reject the invitation.
Join Requests
A debater can request to join a private forum. Moderators review such requests in this area of the dashboard and can choose to admin or deny the request.
Start a Debate
To start a new debate resolution in any forum other than a family forum you need to have the Moderator role. Complete the required fields (title, forum, subject area, description) and click the CREATE RESOLUTION button.
Once created, the resolution will appear in the debate chamber and anyone with a debater or moderator role can create arguments for and against it.
Debates remain open until manually closed by the moderator (in Your Debates). Once a debate is closed it will still be visible but no more debating or voting will take place unless it is subseqently re-opened by the moderator.
AI Arg Generator
THe AI argument generator allows a moderator to select a debate resolution and have AI generate a set of 4 pro and con claims for it, along with evidence and warrants. There may also be a few rebuttals generated. The generated arguments can then be reviewed, edited in the dashboard, and then selected arguments transferred to the chamber. If you transfer only some of the generated arguments the rest can be transferred at a later time.
This is a powerful tool for moderators to get the debate started. Don't overdo it though. The idea is to get the community thinking and participating, not really to create artificial debates for people to vote on. Do use, but sparingly - to get your debates going!
Your Debates
This section simply lists all the debates you have ever started and allows you to click to go to it in the chamber,
Debate Forums
Most debates will go into the Public Forum, all public debates should go there. Moderators can create one or more private forums which are only accessible to people they admin. Private forums are either visible in the chamber (in which case people can request to join), or not visible (in which case the moderator has to invite people).
Most forums will be type 'general'. However people with the Debater role can create on forum of type 'family' and invite up to 5 other participants. This is a very useful feature designed to encourage debate within a family unit (or perhaps a small group of friends).
Last Statement
Click to return to the chamber, showing the most recently accessed debate.