OpposingViews.com - Experts Debate Hot Topics

The newly launched debate site OpposingViews isn’t your run of the mill social discussion platform, where any ill informed person can write up nonsensical rants about foreign policy or oil prices. Rather, this site is actually run by experts, those who actually do know what they’re talking about. Only experts contribute to discussions, bringing in their own point of view, with facts and citations to back up their arguments. The other side calls out objections, pointing out flaws and making a case for their opinion. Finally, you, the reader get to vote on who you think is right; you can also add to the discussion with your own comments and thoughts. Topics run the gamut from the death penalty, and gun control, to eating meat and prescription marijuana. Debates are conveniently divided into five different categories: politics, society, health, money, and religion. Of course, OpposingViews upholds that all dialogue must be civil and courteous. You can sign up and expess yourself freely, but do so in a manner that doesn’t threaten another member.

“Opposing Views helps you uncover all sides of the issues you care about most. Here at www.opposingviews.com, experts go head-to-head on real-life concerns, debating news and events, addressing the questions that keep you up at night. We introduce the questions, the experts present their cases (and disagree with each other), and you leave ready to make well-informed decisions and take action.

Each section of www.opposingviews.com is a channel, including politics, society, health, money, and religion. Our point/counter-point format gives each expert a chance to state their information and opinions on an issue. Meanwhile, the other side objects by calling out the flaws in that information, and then states their own side. Opposing Views brings together the information on the issue, the evidence on each side and their counter-points.”

This is actually an intelligent, well designed site; it’s more of an information portal, however unlike its competitors such as Helium or About.com, the information is presented in a much more engaging and interesting way. It’s a pretty good idea, all in all.

How is this site going to avoid specious content, spam, and just plain nonsensical ranting which often plagues other sites of this nature? How are the debaters incentivized to participate on site? Who picks the debate topics?