Stance.io pilot is out.

What started out of frustration towards the regular discussion boards has been turned into a shiny new app. Stance.io is the simplest debating platform online. It's a fantastic tool for getting people engaged in discussion. Read on for the whole story of Stance.io.

Background

Browsing through lengthy bulletin board threads has frustrated me for some time now. The discussions are often lengthy, fussy and branch all over. In the end there's no easy way of telling what people really think. All you have is hundreds of pages full of replies of replies of replies.

Anatomy of the debates of Stance.io

Debates on Stance.io consist of the topic and the two opposite camps. In the picture above you can see the topic being "Should Vimention.com allow anonymous posting?". The opposing camps on this one are "yes" and "no". The camps can be pretty much anything: you can choose from the few pre-set ones or create your own, like "iPhone" vs. "Lumia".

Both camps have arguments which represent people's thoughts on the topic. They should answer the question "why" when a user is rooting for the certain camp. Each argument should hold only one answer for the question "why". Users can choose to second any of the existing arguments or create new ones, on both sides if they will.

Participants for each debate can be found from Twitter, mailing lists, IRC channels and websites. Just by sharing the link to your debate you'll reach firstly your own followers. As they participate, they are encouraged to share the link to their Twitter followers continuing the chain further and further.

Many benefits of using Stance.io

• Engage people to discuss hot topics.
• Spread awareness.
• Harness the power of people's social networks to reach more people.
• See a bird's-eye view on people's thoughts on the topic.
• Use the results for decision making.

Try the pilot

As already mentioned in the first paragraph, the pilot is out! You can start your first debates now at Stance.io. The app will continue improving and your feedback will be worth more than gold to me.

Stay in touch with me through LinkedIn: fi.linkedin.com/in/tomihiltunen/