Soapboxxer – where being opinionated builds your authority

Do you ever feel like nobody cares about your opinion or that it seems to be worthless? Are you looking for a quick and easy way to have your say on various topics? Want to build some authority and cred? Maybe Soapboxxer is for you.

Soapboxxer is devoted to discussion, debate, and disagreement. It’s pure user generated content that gets voted on and talked about by other Soapboxxer users. In some respects this site slightly resembles social news sites like Digg or Mixx but it has a different focus. It’s simple to use and it has some features that can give it that quality of addictiveness that makes websites popular.

Using Soapboxxer is as simple as stating your opinion. There are several categories for opinions:

• Politics
• News & Events
• Society & People
• Science & Tech
• Arts & Entertainment
• Sports & Leisure
• Other

Here’s a sample opinion:

You can see what the opinion is, who created the opinion, and how many comments were made on the opinion. After you cast a vote, you can observe the percentage of agree or disagree votes for the opinion.

The addictive quality of Soapboxxer comes from the quest for authority. Different activities will award you authority points. If you submit an opinion for other people to vote on, you get points. You get points for voting and commenting on other peoples opinions and you also get points when other people do the same thing for your submissions.

The voting and commenting functions of Soapboxxer are somewhat similar to Digg or Reddit, except that you aren’t sending traffic out to a third party site. Soapboxxer’s authority system resembles Mixx’s karma system, where you are rewarded based on activity. Thus, the quest for authority becomes a driving motivation for using Soapboxxer.

It’s a simple site, but it can be a fun way to kill some time. Head over there, get on your own soapbox, and see what happens with your own opinions.

Mark Dykeman broadcasts from his brain about communications, social media, and technology several times per week at Broadcasting Brain. He enjoys participating in several social media sites, including Twitter, FriendFeed and StumbleUpon.