YouthDebates
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|
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Type of site
|
Online forum |
|---|---|
| Founded | 26 June 2014 |
| Area served |
United Kingdom (June–August 2014) Worldwide (August 2014 – present) |
| Founder(s) | |
| Key people | |
| Industry | Internet |
| Website | https://www.youthdebates.org |
| Registration | Required to post |
| Users | 34,000 (May 2016) |
| Current status | Active |
YouthDebates.org (YD) is an online political organisation encouraging youth engagement and empowerment. Its forums were started in June 2014 to allow young people the chance to debate and engage in the world of politics. YD is run by young people and aims to represent the views of teenagers and young adults, understand and encourage their own interpretations of politics and promote the importance of voting, especially to young non-voters.
YouthDebates.org was launched on 26 June 2014 by Alexander Firth, with Ryan Chatt taking the role of Public Relations Director soon after the launch. Originally UK-based, since August 2014 YouthDebates.org has been serving an international audience of young people.
In April 2016,YouthDebates.org exchanged hands, and is currently operating under the ownership of Dylan Hailey.
The website was originally launched on 26 June 2014, targeted primarily at a UK audience and with a UK domain name (YouthDebate.co.uk). During August of the same year, the domain was changed to a more universal '.org' and the target audience changed to cover all English-speaking countries around the world.
On 5 October 2014, YouthDebates.org announced that 50,000 posts had been made since the launch in June that year.
YD heavily updated its forums in early October. The forum software changed from MyBB to XenForo. New forums were also introduced to accommodate a more international audience; this included more countries in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. YouthDebates reached the milestones of 100,000 posts in November, and 150,000 posts shortly after. As of April 2016, YD has accumulated over 2.7 million posts and 104,000 threads.
In the latter half of March 2015, co-founder Ryan Chatt resigned from his position, as a result of other commitments. Soon after, Ryan Campling and Joshua Waller were promoted to Roleplay Director and Human Resources Director respectively. June 2015 saw Frankie Copp promoted to the role of Public Relations Director, bringing the board of Directors to its highest level of four people. Shortly afterwards, Ryan Campling resigned as Roleplay Director, followed by the resignation of Joshua Waller in April 2016.
YD operates three social media accounts; which are used to promote the group, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. These were launched in mid 2015, and have amassed thousands of followers. The Youth Debates Facebook group changed hands, and is no longer directly affiliated with the website, though the YD still operates a Facebook page.
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