Hello Motions is a searchable online database of debating motions that I built to solve two main problems:
- No comprehensive motions database available online.
- Online motions lists are not formatted well: cannot search by topic area or Chief Adjudicator easily.
It’s the first web application I built from scratch, and I’m really proud of it. I came across lots of problems first building the version with PHP and then porting it to Laravel. On the first day of using Laravel in December, after going through the documentation for 2-3 hours and trying to follow along to no avail, I thought perhaps I wasn’t ready for it. 3 months later (I spent a day or two on the site per month), the basic functions are complete and my friends can now begin to use it.
Technologies used:
- Laravel 5
- Bootstrap
- AWS EC2 Ubuntu server
- Github private repo for source control
The best substitutes I am aware of are Tabbie2 and blogs that list motions.
- Problems with Tabbie2:
- Mainly only includes motions from Tabbie2 tournaments.
- Cannot search motions. Can only view all motions or filter by tag.
- Have to add third-party motions individually, i.e. enter tournament details for each motion, which is a pain.
- Motions are not their main focus, so it’s not clear they’ll develop that feature much. -> Cannot push for features like random motion generators quickly.
- Problems with blogs that list motions:
- Motions poorly organised: Cannot search by topic. Each search result produces the entire blog post, which may include
- You have to click around a LOT to get your motions.
- Not up-to-date or comprehensive.
(There is potential to merge or share databases with Tabbie2 later on.)