6 ms·

Show HN: Ballotter, an Online Video Debating Platform for Our Discussions

30 points by grif-fin 10y ago

grif-fin 10y ago
We have created Ballotter as an online (live/recorded) video debating platform to bring the discussions worth sharing on an online stage. Ballotter has just came online and is at the beta stage. We hope to gather a collection of amazing debates and people who want their voice heard with spectators voting and sharing. Couple of questions for HN: - What is your take on Ballotter? - Any suggestions on the product? - Any suggestions on user gathering?
- fillskills 10y ago
  I was thinking about the same idea but for coming up with more interesting political candidates. The current candidate pipeline is stagnant. Could this be repurposed as a competition + publicizing platform for political candidates. From local to National level. The biggest hindrance is validating up/down votes in my use case.
  - grif-fin 10y ago
    True, Ballotter very much matches the political debating scene but it is whatever users make it to be. To narrow it down to political area we would need to know many politicians to provide the content. We do not know any politicians willing to debate live yet.
Vinkekatten 10y ago
"An error has occured" Error message: "error: Is the gateway down?" - It's down but the reload button had a nice, blue color - Maybe do a little more load testing? - Don't be down.
- grif-fin 10y ago
  Fixed.
gmgarrison 10y ago
Don't require WebRTC on the landing page. Apple browsers don't support it but I can't imagine you want to prevent those people from even learning about your product.
- grif-fin 10y ago
  You are right, by using WebRTC we are ignoring Safari users. Since this is a prototype we are looking forward to get majority browser users involved (Safari is around %3.5).
  - alphabettsy 10y ago
    Doesn't work on iOS 10 either, so it seems 3.5% is very low.
    - grif-fin 10y ago
      You are right when taking into account the mobile users safari is way more than 3.5%. As I said currently we are not targeting mobile users. We think a specific app would be required which having it on both iOS and Android requires resources. Do you think the current MVP shows the potential of the idea?
      - alphabettsy 10y ago
        I use HN with an RSS reader on my iOS devices so I wasn't able to check it out.
alistproducer2 10y ago
I had literally the same idea. I had actually started researching webrtc. the tech looked a little fragile so I decided not to go forward. I hope you can work out your kinks and get it running, because I would be interested in giving it a go. It's like trying out my idea without putting in any of the work!
- grif-fin 10y ago
  Webrtc is growing and improving everyday! We are aware of the current issue. Will resolve and update this comment. Out of interest how would you have done your idea differently?
  - alistproducer2 10y ago
    I felt like webrtc is pretty much the only option as a desktop client. I hope you get it fixed soon. Also is your code OSS?
    - grif-fin 10y ago
      It is fixed for desktop. Mobile may face issues due to network difference but a new version for mobile is a possibility if debates come through :) It is not OSS yet. May go OSS later though.
      - alistproducer2 10y ago
        I'm sorry to hear it's closed source. Open sourcing it could go a long way to helping get the word out. I'll check it out.
keyboardhitter 10y ago
Small typo on the loading screen, "If it's taking to long" should use 'too'
- grif-fin 10y ago
  Thanks, will fix it.
oneshoe 10y ago
Hello. I really like this idea and just watched a debate and did enjoy it. I do like the idea of it of aggregated and real time feedback from the viewers however, My only suggestion is to make the cheers and jeers a little less intrusive. I'm just not that interested in the peanut gallery and, (for me) it interferes with the fluidity of the very short time frame people have to talk. Great work though - I'm very interested to see how this does.
- grif-fin 10y ago
  Fantastic. The sample is prerecorded. Any new debate will have the cheer and boo with much lower volume.
xolb 10y ago
In the end of the debate, it would be interesting to show the score of each participant.
- grif-fin 10y ago
  The number next to thumbs ups indicates the votes each debater has got from the spectators.
greatNespresso 10y ago
Looks promising BUT I'm on mobile and it does not show the video.
- grif-fin 10y ago
  We are aware of the issues on mobile. We think an app would be required which we will launch if more debates are made via Desktop users as we think they are the major users. What do you think?
  - greatNespresso 10y ago
    Sounds perfect !
jamespitts 10y ago
The big suggestion I have for your team is to structure live sessions with television-like scheduling. Early-on, a live experience web site does not have enough usage to generate a good time for users. I learned this while running rapt.fm, a live web platform for freestyle rapping. Have a calendar and use twitter or other means to announce upcoming events to concentrate the attention of users. Create well-promoted "prime time" slots, later add in regular programming, and overall make it clear to the users that all other times are "down times" and not likely to have a lot of debates going on.
- notheguyouthink 10y ago
  (not OP of course) This is a really excellent idea, thank you. I've never thought of arbitrarily creating scheduling as a way of improving engagement, as previously the thought of old fashioned "tv show scheduling" would make me very uneasy - with that said, low population makes it much harder not to have events/etc. This seems like a big boon for an active community site. Interesting!
zalmoxis 10y ago
Great MVP! You might want to look for supporting https://www.temasys.io/plugin/ https://www.temasys.io/plugin/ for Safari and IE, though rumour has it that Apple is planning to support WebRTC. Also honored to see that you're enabling Redux DevTools Extension, so we can look inside the processes there.

30 points by grif-fin 10y ago

We have created Ballotter as an online (live/recorded) video debating platform to bring the discussions worth sharing on an online stage. Ballotter has just came online and is at the beta stage. We hope to gather a collection of amazing debates and people who want their voice heard with spectators voting and sharing. Couple of questions for HN: - What is your take on Ballotter? - Any suggestions on the product? - Any suggestions on user gathering?

fillskills 10y ago
I was thinking about the same idea but for coming up with more interesting political candidates. The current candidate pipeline is stagnant. Could this be repurposed as a competition + publicizing platform for political candidates. From local to National level. The biggest hindrance is validating up/down votes in my use case.
- grif-fin 10y ago
  True, Ballotter very much matches the political debating scene but it is whatever users make it to be. To narrow it down to political area we would need to know many politicians to provide the content. We do not know any politicians willing to debate live yet.

Vinkekatten 10y ago

"An error has occured" Error message: "error: Is the gateway down?" - It's down but the reload button had a nice, blue color - Maybe do a little more load testing? - Don't be down.

grif-fin 10y ago
Fixed.

gmgarrison 10y ago

Don't require WebRTC on the landing page. Apple browsers don't support it but I can't imagine you want to prevent those people from even learning about your product.

grif-fin 10y ago
You are right, by using WebRTC we are ignoring Safari users. Since this is a prototype we are looking forward to get majority browser users involved (Safari is around %3.5).
- alphabettsy 10y ago
  Doesn't work on iOS 10 either, so it seems 3.5% is very low.
  - grif-fin 10y ago
    You are right when taking into account the mobile users safari is way more than 3.5%. As I said currently we are not targeting mobile users. We think a specific app would be required which having it on both iOS and Android requires resources. Do you think the current MVP shows the potential of the idea?
    - alphabettsy 10y ago
      I use HN with an RSS reader on my iOS devices so I wasn't able to check it out.

alistproducer2 10y ago

I had literally the same idea. I had actually started researching webrtc. the tech looked a little fragile so I decided not to go forward. I hope you can work out your kinks and get it running, because I would be interested in giving it a go. It's like trying out my idea without putting in any of the work!

grif-fin 10y ago
Webrtc is growing and improving everyday! We are aware of the current issue. Will resolve and update this comment. Out of interest how would you have done your idea differently?
- alistproducer2 10y ago
  I felt like webrtc is pretty much the only option as a desktop client. I hope you get it fixed soon. Also is your code OSS?
  - grif-fin 10y ago
    It is fixed for desktop. Mobile may face issues due to network difference but a new version for mobile is a possibility if debates come through :) It is not OSS yet. May go OSS later though.
    - alistproducer2 10y ago
      I'm sorry to hear it's closed source. Open sourcing it could go a long way to helping get the word out. I'll check it out.

keyboardhitter 10y ago

Small typo on the loading screen, "If it's taking to long" should use 'too'

grif-fin 10y ago
Thanks, will fix it.

oneshoe 10y ago

Hello. I really like this idea and just watched a debate and did enjoy it. I do like the idea of it of aggregated and real time feedback from the viewers however, My only suggestion is to make the cheers and jeers a little less intrusive. I'm just not that interested in the peanut gallery and, (for me) it interferes with the fluidity of the very short time frame people have to talk. Great work though - I'm very interested to see how this does.

grif-fin 10y ago
Fantastic. The sample is prerecorded. Any new debate will have the cheer and boo with much lower volume.

xolb 10y ago

In the end of the debate, it would be interesting to show the score of each participant.

grif-fin 10y ago
The number next to thumbs ups indicates the votes each debater has got from the spectators.

greatNespresso 10y ago

Looks promising BUT I'm on mobile and it does not show the video.

grif-fin 10y ago
We are aware of the issues on mobile. We think an app would be required which we will launch if more debates are made via Desktop users as we think they are the major users. What do you think?
- greatNespresso 10y ago
  Sounds perfect !

jamespitts 10y ago

The big suggestion I have for your team is to structure live sessions with television-like scheduling. Early-on, a live experience web site does not have enough usage to generate a good time for users. I learned this while running rapt.fm, a live web platform for freestyle rapping. Have a calendar and use twitter or other means to announce upcoming events to concentrate the attention of users. Create well-promoted "prime time" slots, later add in regular programming, and overall make it clear to the users that all other times are "down times" and not likely to have a lot of debates going on.

notheguyouthink 10y ago
(not OP of course) This is a really excellent idea, thank you. I've never thought of arbitrarily creating scheduling as a way of improving engagement, as previously the thought of old fashioned "tv show scheduling" would make me very uneasy - with that said, low population makes it much harder not to have events/etc. This seems like a big boon for an active community site. Interesting!

zalmoxis 10y ago

Great MVP! You might want to look for supporting https://www.temasys.io/plugin/ https://www.temasys.io/plugin/ for Safari and IE, though rumour has it that Apple is planning to support WebRTC. Also honored to see that you're enabling Redux DevTools Extension, so we can look inside the processes there.