improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages the topic of this article may not meet wikipedia s notability guidelines for companies and organizations . please help to establish notability by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond its mere trivial mention . if notability can not be established the article is likely to be merged redirected or deleted . find sources youthdebates news newspapers books scholar jstor free images november 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . february 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message youthdebates.org founded 26 june 2014 2 years ago 2014 06 26 area served united kingdom june august 2014 worldwide august 2014 present founder s alexander firth ryan chatt key people alexander firth frankie copp dylan hailey industry internet website https www.youthdebates.org type of site online forum 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 . 1 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 . 2 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 . 3 contents 1 history 2 popularity 2.1 demographics 3 website 3.1 forums 4 governance 5 membership 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit 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 . 4 a couple of days later ryan campling and joshua waller were promoted to roleplay director and hr director respectively . 5 june 2015 saw frankie copp promoted to the role of pr director 6 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 . 7 8 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 . 9 10 11 12 popularity edit demographics edit the majority of users are from the united kingdom aged between 13 and 25 although there are growing user bases in the united states canada ireland australia new zealand and south africa . over time the proportion of users from the uk has grown smaller with a more balanced user base developing since the move away from the . co.uk domain . there are currently sub forums dedicated to all continents and most major countries . possible plans for the future include expansion into non english speaking regions as growth and increased resources permit more possibilities . website edit forums edit the majority of user activity is focused around the forums the purpose of these being to facilitate discussion about any topic related to politics and sociology and there is also a small section dedicated to non political topics . the forums cater to an international audience with sub forums focused on all regions of the world . youthdebates.org forums in august 2014 governance edit yd is governed and led by young people . a group of young members who take on the role of moderators moderate the forums and decide on important issues . 13 as the hierarchy and the community of the organisation grew more specific roles were taken into action . for example continent forums were managed by staff originating from those regions although these regional staff roles have since been abolished with the all staff members currently operating across the whole forum . the board of trustees was also established with alex firth and ryan chatt taking a role in both management and public relations . after ryan chatt s departure frankie coop took up the role of public relations director with joshua waller becoming human resources director . membership edit membership is free and open to all and whilst yd is marketed to under 25s there is no official age restriction . membership gives users the ability to post create new topics like posts run and vote in polls create their own public profile upload resources and interact with add to the media gallery . see also edit youth politics youth voice youth empowerment references edit rebecca appleton 3 july 2014 . new online political platform launches with a mission to inspire british youth . catherine priestley 3 february 2015 . finger on the political pulse . https youthdebates.org threads changes are afoot .21787 http youthdebates.org forums threads heyryy leaves the staff team .11140 http youthdebates.org forums threads staff reshuffle and new applications .11253 post 217119 http youthdebates.org forums threads three becomes four .14510 https youthdebates.org threads i resign .16541 https youthdebates.org threads changes to the staff team .106288 youthdebates.org . retrieved 16 may 2016 . https www.facebook.com groups youthdebates fref ts https twitter.com youthdebates https www.instagram.com youthdebates https youthdebates.org threads yd staff team .106378 external links edit official website 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