Debate Discords: A Staple of Our Community
For many across the natural circuit, the extents of finding their prep are far from home-grown block files or the open case list. “Debate discords,” featuring thousands of participants, offer opportunities to trade prep, find research papers, and keep a finger on the pulse of topic prep. Discord is a communication and networking platform which allows for instant messaging, chat functionality, voice calls, and sending media and files.
A fast flow of information is critical to having strong topic knowledge. With topics in Public Forum constantly changing, not to mention the slippery landscape of twisting arguments in Lincoln Douglas and Policy, understanding new developments in the circuit can help a debater maintain their competitive edge. Servers are especially important for debaters that may be geographically isolated from debate hotspots, as they allow rural debaters to take a role in a national community and interact with their peers. These interactions shape the activity; Discord “channels” often talk about deep elimination rounds at prestigious tournaments or valuable perspectives on topics.
Public Discord servers feature thousands of students who are willing to help one another, trade prep, and talk about the circuit. Each Discord server features “channels,” which are forums for discussion. Common channels include announcements, general discussion, evidence sharing, and practice debate rooms through Discord’s voice chat functionality. Many servers are also run by nonprofit organizations, who advertise free volunteering opportunities, lectures, and tournaments.
These servers also act as avenues for the enterprising debater. For example, the Public Forum Discord, a vibrant community of approximately 6,000 debaters, organizes a monthly “prep-drive”. Prep drives are honor-system agreements open to anyone who agrees to share 15-20 pages of prep for the current topic. Each contribution is then pooled together in a spreadsheet, and meticulously checked for accountability by all debaters.
For debaters looking to gain experience by scrimmaging, finding a judge and a team is often a logistically difficult undertaking. Instead of practice rounding the same people, a Discord server can allow you to constantly find new people to mock debate, even on older topics!
Below are some details of exemplary discord servers:
Outreach Debate (Eloquence Academy partner organization)
linked to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that runs a summer camp, publishes rounds on their YouTube channel, and distributes free debate resources
channels have lecture slides, topic-related evidence, etc.
generally more focused on debate events than speech
Equality in Forensics (Eloquence Academy partner organization)
linked to another 501(c)(3) nonprofit that runs summer camps and is actively expanding to incorporate branches and school boards
channels have vibrant discussion and equal representation from almost all speech and debate events
fun-oriented; lots of activities that the nonprofit hosts, such as movie nights
Debate
strong commitment to resource sharing; unique “debate library” channel where members actively upload research papers that they find
members post notes from prominent debate camps across the country
more inclusive to Lincoln Douglas and Policy, rather than being Public Forum focused
For those who are interested in starting their own debate servers, know that it is easy to do so. Some tips (not a complete list by any means) to get the ball rolling:
Make sure that your Discord server is addressing some niche in the debate space. Doing so will incentivize more people to join.
ex: a debate server for midwestern debaters, or for competitors on your local policy circuit
Let other debaters know! Coordinate with leaders/moderators of prominent servers to ask if they can post an invite to your server in their own follower section.
Organize activities and events with your newfound server members. Use features such as @everyone tag in your announcement channel to send notifications.
Written by Arnav Maheshwari from West Windsor, New Jersey. Arnav was a Program Instructor and is passionate about introducing positive change in small-school debate.
