Right now, on debate craft, we have 2 systems for elo: Rated and ultrarated
Rated currently doesnt reward voting at all. It also doesnt reward quality effort. Someone who loses a debate will lose elo even if he put in a lot of effort in debate, he gets punished. And someone who placed a lot of effort to vote doesnt get any benefit in elo.
So, to put it simply:
Reward incentive for voting in "rated debates" is basically non-existent.
People who put in a lot of effort in debate, but lose, get punished and it becomes difficult to recover from loss.
there are no elo rewards for participation in a debate.
Ultrarated didnt solve the problem, because elo still only rewards wins in debate. Someone can cast many good votes in ultrarated, only to find it to be of no any elo gain, and losing debate places person lower on leaderboard irrelevant of quality of votes person gave or effort put in. System only rewards debate victory in elo, not quality of votes.
Current ultrarated was shown to be very slow, and rated was shown to make users quit the site, because once person starts losing elo, it becomes more difficult to recover it, and person feels punished for participating in a debate.
NEW Elo system - "Advnaced Elo Debate"
What I propose is not removing rated or ultrarated, or changing them. Just leave them intact for now.
What I propose is introducing a 3rd elo rating system, so when people choose "debate type", there is "advanced elo debate" among options.
What is advanced elo debate system?
It is a system designed to reward both quality and activity. Winner in debate would get most elo. But loser in debate would get elo as well. And people who vote on debate would get elo as well by voting.
Elo distribution looks like this:
Winner - 100% of Elo
Voter - 60% of elo
Loser - 40% of elo
So lets say that gained elo is 10.
Winner gets 10 elo.
Each voter gets 6 elo.
Loser gets 4 elo.
Why this system works? Because once people compete in it, debate leaderboard looks like this:
On top of leaderboard, you will naturally have people with most wins and most votes. So to be on top of leaderboard, you must not only win a lot, but also vote a lot, to be on top of leaderboard.
Behind them, there will be people who win a lot, but dont vote a lot.
Behind those, there will be people who lose a lot, but vote a lot.
Behind those, there will be people who lose a lot and dont vote a lot.
Behind those, will be people with very little activity.
Behind those, will be people with almost no activity.
this elo system creates a hierarchy where both activity and quality matters. And inactive debaters who are inactive voters end up on bottom of leaderboard eventually even if they are on top now, while active debaters and active voters who also win a lot and provide quality end up on top of leaderboard.
this elo system forces activity to keep elo ranking, while rewarding quality and activity the most.
this elo system also rewards voting. People have more reason to vote good vote on a debate because their own elo benefits from it.
this elo system rewards participation as well. People have more reason to participate more because their elo gets rewarded a bit by participating instead of being punished for participation.
this elo system is a proposed experiment. Similar elo systems exist on Modern day debate discord where more activity means you rank up more.
the proposition is to simply add a 3rd elo system. those who want ultrarated can still do ultrarated. those who want rated can still do rated. Nothing changes there. Elo in rated and ultrarated is unaffected. Users just get a 3rd option of elo system, "advanced elo", and in this elo system, people gain elo for all acceptable votes they cast on any debate in "advanced elo debate" type, and they also gain elo for participating in debate under "advanced elo debate" type, and they get elo for winning in such debate types, obviously.
this proposed system is merely a proposed experiment. If it works, we can expand it, so that other elo systems start rewarding votes as well, or that votes on any debate in rated, ultrarated or advanced elo debate, count towards "advanced elo" rating.
this elo system is simply designed to reward "winning and voting" more than anything else, but also to reward voting. We currently lack sufficient rewards for votes. A lot of debates wait too long for votes. A lot of debates end up without votes, and that works against site's activity. Quality votes currently dont carry any elo rewards, and elo rewards are only gained when winning a debate, not when casting a quality vote.
Our site needs plenty of voters as much as it needs debaters, for any elo system to work in the first place.
Its time to start rewarding voters for their votes, with rewards which matter.
Someone else suggested paying voters to vote, and that is a somewhat working idea, assuming owner can afford that. If we payed 1$ to people per vote, sure, we would suddenly get a lot of users on site who seek to earn money off this site. But that would be very difficult to afford long term, would cost thousands per month if userbase increases.