Turbogears Posts

Did some work on becontrary.com today. The front page was a little dull and had a bounce rate of 49.8% according to Google Analytics, which means that almost half of the visitors that land there don't go any further. Previously the front page just displayed a news feed and some recent arguments and comments, I change it so that the feed in the main column aggregates the content from the debates so that in addition to news, it also displays new debate topics and arguments. The result is that it the front page should contain much more interesting content that will tempt visitors to explore the site. continue reading…

I just came across a site that is remarkably similar in concept to becontrary.com, called convinceme.net. I don't think it existed when I started work on my site. Like becontrary.com, they have dual columns for arguments and voting, but it is more competitive than my debating concept, which about arguing purely for the hell of it. They also have a slicker looking design, obviously created by a real web designer rather than a coder working on it in his living room. Oh well. I guess competition isn't necessarily a bad thing!

I promised to write up a report on my experiences building becontrary.com with Python and the TurboGears framework. An earlier post explains the concept of the site, and what it is intended for. continue reading…

It is the year 2112. Telepods have been in use for a decade to instantly transport matter from one part of the universe to another. You are waiting in line with your family at a telepod station to go to Tau Ceti. In front of you in the queue you meet the inventor of the telepods. He tells you that the telepods only appear to move matter, what they actualy do is create an exact duplicate at the destination and destroy the original in the process.