2nd July 2011

CrowdFanatic Looks At Both Sides of Every Coin

crowd fanaticVancouver-based CrowdFanatic is a relatively new web site with a strong and diverse team behind its development. This somewhat unique venture is full of trolls, but unlike other sites, trolls are (mostly) welcome here, provided they follow the protocol of being a troll with some honest debating skills. One of my first concerns was about those users who often like to take their opinions too far, falling into the nasty side of trolling, but CrowdFanatics does have its own moderation system and terms of use in place.crowdfanatic map

Unlike other debate-based sites, CrowdFanatic is far more lenient than many “traditional” debate communities and as such does not have a page (or pages) full of rules. To be honest, I really don’t feel that it needs formal debate rules. As I mentioned above, there are moderators, and a well-respected community tends to police itself quite efficiently. Like the majority of societal groups, CrowdFanatic members tend to keep the debates somewhat respectful without overly quelling the passions many people feel for their topics.

Here is a full description of what CrowdFanatic is, from the company’s blog:

“We’re bringing something new to the table in social media. Have you ever wanted to stand as a Democrat and take on a group of Republicans? Have you ever wanted to fight with a group of Yankees fans and tell off a group of Red Sox supporters over a social media battlefield? Now you have the opportunity to do that.  CrowdFanatic is that arena for you to stand tall as a group and confront your opposition. Do you want to be an opinion leader? CrowdFanatic is the perfect place to promote your group’s agenda and stand out from the crowd. All the tools that you need to be heard in the online world are at your disposal on CrowdFanatic.”

The topics (known as Confrontations) open for debate are wide and varied, from the predictable sports team rivalries to the hotness (or not) of stars and celebrities. There are political and religious debates, and of course the age-old Canada vs the USA debates. Each topic has supporters and detractors (a.k.a. rivals), as does each user. There is a rating scale for said support or non-support, and it’s easy to see who are the top debaters, you just need to look at the LeaderBoard. Every debater’s profile has a plethora of information in regards to Confrontations, Groups, posts and comments. The whole idea of the site, like any debate club competition, is to use logic, common sense, facts and a smattering of passion to support your argument, thereby winning support for your opinions.Crowd Fanatics Hot Arenas

For many, such debates are a way to educate themselves (or the masses) or to expand their own understandings of any given topic – and this is particularly true for many of the topic areas on CrowdFanatic. In fact it’s very difficult to look through the site without wanting to enter into many of the arenas open for participation and put thoughts to keyboard. If you can’t find a topic that quite fits what you want to discuss, members can open new topics (or Confrontations, as they are called on CrowdFanatic) and invite debate. Every Confrontation is a sub-category of an Arena, and of course the top Arena today is full of Google+ vs Facebook discussions.

The Hot Arenas and Hot Confrontations are constantly in flux – since I took the screenshot to the right about 45 minutes ago, the top four topics have changed, with the screenshot to the left showing the current Hot Arenas. Note that the Canucks Group is still in the top four – it is the over-all top ranked group on the site. Such a passionate group, Canucks Nation. By the time you read this, the rankings will again be CrowdFanatics Hot Arenas 2different – there is never a dull moment on CrowdFanatics.

On each Arena page are listed the top discussions for the subject matter, along with the top supporter and top rival. Each Arena page also shows related topics of discussion, in case you want to branch out into other areas. Confrontations can also be found through Groups, which are another top-level category feature, and again, if you can’t find a Group that fits your area of interest, you can create a new one.

Users can even find Confrontations based on geographic location. According to the map feature on the home page (as shown in the top right image in this article), BC is an area full of Hot Confrontations. This is not surprising with many Vancouver Canucks discussions remaining consistently near the top of the popularity scale, even two weeks after the season’s final game. Oh, and yes, there are Confrontation topics in regards to the Game Seven Riot.

The CrowdFanatic team holds no topic sacred, and even took on the CBC Dragon’s Den team earlier in May, but with the network remaining mum on what transpired during the taping of Season Six, we’ll most likely have to wait until the Fall to learn more of what occurred on that Confrontational day.Crowd Fanatic Canucks Group

CrowdFanatic is not for the timid and faint of heart – if you are not able to handle criticisms of your logic, are easily offended or can’t debate in an intelligent – albeit passionate – manner, then CrowdFanatic may not be the site for you. Personally I find the site quite intriguing, although I have not taken part in any of the debates myself, I believe the CaveChild hangs out there sometimes. That boy loves to argue.

I find CrowdFanatic to be a somewhat in-depth, cross-measuring look at the global modern society, and I also find it interesting to see what lengths people will go to in order to win – or refute – an argument. At the end of the day, I do encourage you to at least visit the site and take a look around; you never know, you may just find a topic that you’ve been itching for a good argument on, and CrowdFanatic is definitely the place to do it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 at 11:30 am and is filed under Business News, Digital Products, Editorials, National News, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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