How to use the website
Welcome to TPP Debate! Below, the features you will find in this website, and how to make full use of them.
Registering in the website
Anyone can register for free! Users need to register only to be able to post content on the website; to browse content, there is no need.
Account types
There are two types of user account:
- Individual account
- Organization account
Each user of the website has a public profile, showing all his/her content: articles, events, etc. Eg: this is Leo’s profile.
The difference between Individuals and Organizations, is that Organizations can act as a “community” by having members on the website (see below).
Communities
Organizations can have members in the website, and all content from their members will also show on the Organization’s profile.
Eg: TPP Debate has a few members, on its profile page it shows content from all of them.
Users: Joining an organization
Users can join organizations in the website on the My Organizations page. Simply type the name of the organization in the input, select it from the dropdown menu, and click on Save:
Organizations: Managing their members
The organization manage each member’s status in the My Members page:
The organization can:
- Accept or reject the user as a member of the Organization. Default: accepted.
- Determine if the content posted by the member will also appear under the organization. Default: yes.
- Choose what type of member it is: staff, volunteer, student, others. Default: ‘member’.
Website content
TPP Debate encourages our community of users to upload and share information about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP).
Types of content
The following content types can be created on the website:
Quick Posts
Short and concise information, it displays directly in the content feed. Ideal for sharing multimedia, such as Youtube videos, images, PDF documents and Powerpoint presentations.
Articles
Any kind of information on the TPP
Stories
Personal experiences by people whose lives will be influenced by the TPP.
Announcements
Requests for collaboration, press releases, et.
Events
All activities related to the TPP: conferences, seminars, workshops, etc.
Links
All content types can also be added as “links”, that is, instead of having to copy/paste content from other websites, you can simply embed their link directly in this website.
This is particularly useful to:
- Generate discussions referring to content posted in another website
- Share content directly from an Organization’s website
- Add events in our Events calendar without the need to ask the authors to do it
- Etc

Link to an external webpage
Thoughts about TPP
The website allows users to express their sentiments concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, reflected on “Latest thoughts about TPP”:
For each thought about TPP, in addition to the input to express the sentiment, the user must select his/her stance: Pro TPP, Neutral, or Against TPP. Subsequently, each stance on TPP can be visually identified: Pro TPP is green, Neutral is blue, Against TPP is red. Scrolling down the list of all thoughts about TPP, it gives a visual impression of the general public sentiment:

“Latest thoughts about TPP” from all users. Pro-TPP shows in green, Neutral in blue, Against-TPP in red
Extracts of important information
Any user can extract the really important, meaningful bits of information from each post. These extracts will show in the Content feed, alleviating the need for each user to click on each single article to understand what it is about. More than 1 extract can be created per post, and any user can do it, ie its author does not need to be the author of the original post:
Content creation
The website is purely crowd-sourced: anyone can post any content on it.
Creating a new post
To create any piece of content, simply click on the “+” link on the top navigation bar, and select what type of content you would like to create:
Then fill the content in the window that opens. Each content type has its own content fields. For instance, the steps to create an article link are:
- Copy/paste the link URL
- Input the page title
- Select the categories
- Press Submit
- Voilà! The post will be online immediately!
Referencing other posts
Anyone has the ability to reply to a post with another post, such as an Article. It is possible to reply to either 1 or more posts. To do so, simply type the name of all articles you wish to reply to, and select them from the suggestions presented:
Finally, these posts will all appear interlinked on the content feed:
Adding co-authors
When creating content, users are allowed to select any number of co-authors, which will not only be displayed on the corresponding post, but also will have rights to edit the post. To add co-authors, simply type their name on the “Co-authors” input in box “Meta information”, and select them:
All co-authors will be shown on the created post:
Creating a new thought about TPP
Right on the homepage, there is a box “Your Opinion: what do you think about TPP?”:
Each user has one general thought about TPP, and 1 thought about TPP after reading an article, per each article on the website
The general opinion about TPP is unique for each user. It can be modified multiple times, allowing the user to modify their stance on the TPP following the debate, however they are not allowed more than 1 general opinion.
In addition to the general opinion, each user can post 1 opinion after reading any article. This allows each person to fully express what areas from the TPP they support and which ones they do not. Eg: a person could oppose the implementation of ISDS yet support the lowering of trade tariffs.
Extracting important information
In each post, there is a link “Extract important information”. Simply copy/paste from the original article into the textarea in the opening little window, and then press Submit:
Content modification
On the main navigation (if not visible, click on Toggle navigation button on the top navigation bar to open it on the left side) there is a link My Content. Click there to see a list of all your posts.
Editing a post
Below each entry, there is a button “Edit”, click on it to edit your post:
Editing a Thought
On the main navigation there is a link My Thoughts about TPP. Click there to see a list of all your thoughts. Below each entry, there is a button “Edit”, click on it to edit it.
Editing an Extract
On the main navigation there is a link My Extracts. Click there to see a list of all your extracts. Below each entry, there is a button “Edit”, click on it to edit it.
Content moderation
We do not modify the content posted by any user (unless it has formatting problems, on which case we fix these). However, if the content does not adhere to our content guidelines our admins will take it offline.
Flagging content as inappropriate
Users of the website are encouraged to flag any piece of content as inappropriate, and we will analyze the case and take action if needed.
Notifications
Upon logging in, users will receive notifications with the activity from their user network, which is comprised of:
- All followed users
- All members of the same organizations
Users get the following notifications:
- General notifications, such as important announcements by TPP Debate
- Actions requested from them, such as updating their profile if needed
- When they are followed by someone else, or someone from their network follows another user or joins an organization
- Anyone added a comment on, or created a post related to, the user’s post
- Anyone replied to a comment by the user
- Someone from their network creates a new post, recommends a post, adds a comment, follows another user, or joins an organization
- For Organizations: when they get a new member
Real time updates
When logged in, users will receive notifications from events happening on real time. For this, a badge announcing the new notifications wil appear:
User activity
The website has implemented several feedback mechanisms for our community of users to engage in a conversation.
Following other users
When following a user, you will receive notifications following this user’s activity, such as recommending content, posting a new article, comment, etc:
Recommending posts
Users can share their recommendations with their followers, and members of the same organizations:
Adding comments
On any post, simply click on “Write a comment” to add a comment, or “Reply” to reply to any comment. Comments allow: formatting, such as bold fonts, adding colors, etc; embedding media, such as uploading images or documents or embedding Youtube videos; @mentions, to tag a particular user on the comment; and #hashtags.

Adding comments
Voting extracts of important information
Users can vote if an extract is important or not.
Replying to a post with another post
To reply to a post with another post, at the end of it there is a link: “Add response/additional”, with all content types showing in a drop-down menu:
Upon clicking the corresponding link, such as “Article”, it will open the “Add Article” page, with the original article already pre-selected under field “In response/as an addition to” in box “Meta information”:
Contacting users, Sharing content
Users can interact with each other, all content in the website can be easily shared through different means.
@Mentions
When creating a post or adding a comment, you can mention any user, and this person will receive a notification and an email. Simply type “@” and then start typing the name of the person, and select him/her from the dropdown list:
Send a message to another user
If you need to contact any user on our website, you can do so. Simply click on the “Send message” button, type your message on the new window, and click “Send”. The user will get your message by email.
Social media, Share by email
Share on Facebook, Twitter, or by email:
Embed
All content in the website can be easily embedded on your own website:
Website features
The features below are thought for giving the users endless possibilities in exploring all the content in the website, from accessing it in different languages, to filtering, to keeping all open pages readily accessible.
#Hashtags
When creating a post or adding a comment, you can add a Twitter-like hashtag. Simply type # and the topic, and all posts/comments can be grouped by hashtag/topic. #ripessasia #websitefeatures
To see a list of all existing hashtags, simply start typing the #hashtag in your post or comment, and a list will appear:
Multiple languages
The website frame has been translated to 4 languages: English, Malay, Tamil and Chinese (due to constant website updates, the translations might not be 100% complete or accurate). To access these, the links are visible on the homepage:
Content feed
The homepage of the website is already a feed of all SSE-related content. Keep scrolling down, keep reading all content posted by all our users.
Searching, quick access to tags, users’ profiles and content
On the top navigation bar, there is a search input. Typing in allows to select the users’ profile, post or tag very quickly, or perform a search of users or content on the website:
Filter information tags, categories and others
Since when creating any post the user can select tags, categories it applies to, and other metadata, then all content can be filtered using these parameters:
Browsing history
Anytime you open any page in the website, a tab to access it again will be created. To access all open pages, click on the timer icon on the top navigation bar (with title “Toggle Browsing History”) to see all tabs. Then, clicking on each tab will take you back to that page:
Navigator
The navigator is a way to browse all content on the website, allowing the user to keep open and visible the list of posts to browse. All sections on the website can be opened in the Navigator. To use it, toggle open the navigation menu by clicking on the menu icon, on the top navigation bar, and then on each section link there is a right arrow with tooltip text “Navigate”. Simply click there, and a left panel, containing all posts for that section, will open on the left side. Clicking on each of the posts will not close the Navigator.
Side information
Each post’s meta-information shows on top of each post, and also on the Side information panel. To open it, on the top right corner of the post, there is an “Options” button, with a drop-down menu. On this menu, click on “Information”, and the Side information panel will appear from the right side.
Multiple view options
There are several ways to browse the Content feed:
- Full view
- Details (this is the default view)
- List
- Thumbnail
In addition, events and users have an additional view:
- Map
You can change the default view on the Settings: click on the right-most element on the top navigation bar, and select your preferred option:
Events calendar
All events can be visualized in a lovely Events Calendar: