I had a marvelous idea for a website that combines fairly traditional elements from web applications like bulletin boards with elements from Web2.0 sites. I mulled it over for a while, and explained it to a few people—who seemed to like the idea.
The idea is for what I call recreational debating, i.e arguing for the hell of it. A debate consists of a topic of discussion that has two clearly opposing sides, represented by two columns were users can post their arguments. Users can comment on these arguments and also rate them on a scale between -2 and +2, a scheme that Pythonistas will be familiar with. Arguments are ranked according to votes given, so the best argument for each side will naturally rise to the top.
That was over a year ago, I have been hacking away at it since then. I haven't had a great deal of time of to do it, having also written a book in that period, but I managed to deploy it last weekend. I call it BeContrary.com, because users are encouraged to post on both sides of the argument, regardless of what they believe in.
I plan on posting on my experiences creating the site (it was built with Turbogears), but for now I would really appreciate some feedback on the site itself. It has been up for a week, and I have discovered no obvious flaws (which makes me nervous)!
6 Responses to "Be difficult. Be compelling. But above all—be contrary."
RSS feeds for debates (e.g. http://www.becontrary.com/debatefeeds/rss2.0?name=telepods_of_doom) give 500 Internal error :(
But the idea is great! :)
Thanks. Fixed! :-)
Will you add OpenID support?
I would like to add OpenID support. I think there may even be a TurboGears plugin for it.
+1 on OpenID support. I almost commented on one of the debates, but didn't cause I didn't want another ID/passwd. Additionally many folks have OpenID (but don't know it) as a side result of using AIM.
Argumentieren was das Zeug hält!...
Ich beschäftige mich gerade etwas mit Python und bin dabei auf einen Blog-Eintrag gestolpert. Will McGugan hatte die Idee des "recreational debating", also des austauschens von Argumenten aus Spaß am argumentieren und hat daraus eine Webs...