From Gordon Stables,

Greetings,

I am happy to announce that thanks to the labors of Jeff Jarman, we
have rebuilt and resigned an important aspect of the CEDA website, the
forums section. These have been modeled after the successful approach
at Crossx.com and they offer us an opportunity to provide an organized
way for our community to communicate. Forums are available for
tournaments, regional issues, questions of community practice,
organizational questions and a lot more.

The forums are now active and open for anyone to sign up at
http://cedadebate.org/forum/. Registering is free and simple. This is
an organizationally sponsored opportunity for us to communicate as a
community. For too long, we have been willing to freeride on the
labors (and technology) of others, especially Phil Kerpin. Our
free-riding has left us unable to organize the discussions or exercise
concern when lines are crossed. The forum rules outside the emphasis
on free speech and open conversation with the ability to moderate
discussions.

I want to thank Phil for his years of hard work and service. His forum
will continue to be an entirely unmoderated site. Our platform today
offers a way to exchange the information that we need. Jeff and
community volunteers will help keep the site functioning the best way
possible. To that end, if you have suggestions in how to organize
forums to better serve your needs, please let us know.

For years the community resisted moving to a different platform
because of the perceived difficulties of getting everyone to move with
them. This prisoner’s dilemma should end now. Thanks to the labors of
Jon Bruschke, debateresults now sends direct emails with pairings and
tournament information. Much of what we would ‘miss’ without a public
listserv is now sent directly to coaches and students. The challenge
is to build a place for the rest of the news and discussions. We think
the CEDA forums are that place.

I am asking coaches, students, alumni and administrators to move your
traffic about our community to the forums. I will be the first to take
the plunge and announce that CEDA will begin using the forums for our
organizational traffic, in addition to using its website emails and
the CEDA-L.

Please let Jeff or I know if you have any trouble with the site. We
have tried to learn from the success of other communities and we think
this platform is long overdue. We just need your help in making this
transition possible.

Thanks
Gordon