I’m going to be closing the “syndicate” functionality earlier than expected so this is a heads-up to anyone out there still using this feature on their sites. You can currently syndicate any argument in the database by including some javascript/RSS available on each argument page.
Example:
http://www.spacedebate.org/argument/syndicate/2697/
I was very excited about the possibilities for this feature but found it difficult to implement on a lot of sites so I’m working on a new version that doesn’t require RSS or javascript. If you’re using these links on your site, the links will still work but the method to call them will change. I’ll post here when I have the new version in place.
Every few months or so, I’ve been generating a complete dump of all the arguments and their quotes as a favor to the debate community. If you’re interested in reading through the entire database (currently around 343 pages), this is what you need. This update is long-overdue, I’ve been working to incorporate all of the submitted edits and new material following the Chinese ASAT test and lost track of how long it has been since the last update. The file adds another 100+ pages to the previous version with a total of 148 arguments and 681 cards. You can download it in PDF and MS-Word here:
http://www.spacedebate.org/backfile
Does anyone actually read this stuff? Apparently Congress does ;) The Congressionally sanctioned “U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission” released a report a mere two days after the Chinese ASAT test was announced. Its an excellent collection of quotes describing the Chinese ASAT program from Chinese and American sources and it was referred to several times in Congress. I just noticed a couple of days ago that they borrowed three pages of cards — tags and all — from the old “China is a Space Power Threat” argument and organized them into a 12-point frontline for their report.
Pillsbury, Michael P. “An Assessment of China’s Anti-Satellite and Space Warfare Programs, Policies and Doctrines.” . Washington, D.C.: U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, January 19, 2007. [ See pages 15-19 ]
Sweet! I hope they read them really, really fast.
The site is back online now, in more ways than one. It was down this weekend for a planned server migration but the transfer was more arduous than expected. However, the (painfully long) process was helpful in identifying inefficiencies so the site is leaner and more robust than before.
I’m also ‘back online’ after neglecting this project for the past couple of weeks to meet some deadlines at work. I’ve got a backlog of patches and updates that I’m working through now and will post shortly on some new features. Thanks to everyone who wrote with words of encouragement during this downtime, let me know what you think of the next phase.