I love this idea. It could easily reach critical mass, but you would have to be entirely independent from the candidates.

Love to see how it develops.

Good Luck.

Check out the Canadian site:
http://www.whackthepm.ca/whack.html

Good idea, and would allow people to make more informed decisions, but I don't see the business side of it and I would be worried about a mistake in the website making people vote for the wrong person.

I like the concept here, as I have also looked down the list of candidates many times and realized I just didn't know enough about all the candidates.

The issues come in finding revenue and making sure the site remains independent of any political affiliations.

I can't see the sense in taking away an individual's responsibility to evaluate the positions of their political representatives and handing this to a piece of software. The decision making process around what information should be conveyed to each voter is arguably invisible and potentially biased in itself.

No one should be told who to vote for.

Wouldn't we be better off looking for a way to empower people to make more informed voters rather than promoting ignorance and avoidance of decision making.

I think the potential is more in the aggregation and presentation of policital information rather than attempting to make a decision on behalf of the individual.

sounds like an interesting idea. if it actually executes.. but it sound like something i heard about aswell..

I like it

Maybe don't suggest who to vote for.
Keep as neutral as possible... you know how politics get messy.

]V[oogy

Good idea, Moogy. Maybe instead of saying "Vote for Candidate X" it could say "You are 80% aligned with Party A, 16% aligned with Party B, and 4% aligned with the Whig Party".

I've seen this before in 2004. I tried it, of course, to see how the Libertarians were presented. As I recall, it showed the two major candidates and then some of the possible third party candidates. The final screen was informative, in the sense that it had information on the positions of all candidates and links to their respective Web sites.

I think it's a good idea but it's been done.

Great Idea!

Keep going!

I have seen sites like this all ready. Lots of them, this site would not have a chance.

Meganiscute, I disagree that just because there are lots of similar sites, there is no room for one more. No one deserves a free and unchallenged monopoly ;-)

I like the idea. I think the strength of it would lie in having expert commentators provide the Q&A or perhaps having them comment on why certain questions are indicative of certain political leanings.

For that matter a site like this would work well for helping the non-automotively inclined to select a new vehicle. I know the features I want and I hate shopping for cars. I am completely unaware of what brands offer what features. Your quiz model could perhaps be adapted to a car selection questionnaire.

And take that to another level of generality - maybe your product is the backend of a user-customized Q&A. E.g. you could sell your product to car dealers, or to bankers, or to anyone who wants to help someone make a decision. If you could find expertise on the subject matter, that would be the way to customize the product for your various markets.

Does this make sense?

It exists in the Netherlands but thee problem is that there is always a lot of interpretation by setting up such a site and above all the possibility to influence people. Actually I think they should be forbidden.
Tommy

Vanhees has a point...

Two important points I've seen raised in the comments:

1) Sites with similar functionality currently exist
2) There is potential for fraud or user mistrust for a system like this

This leads to the follow question - how can we tackle the "fraud" issue and turn it into a differentiator from other competitors?

Jill had some good ideas around this, by introducing a high level of transparency (i.e. explanation of how each question translates into a political view) and bringing in respected 3rd party experts to bring credibility to the site. I also think that having an educational aspect to this site would be key.

If a team of committed, non-partisan entrepreneurs executed this idea properly, we could empower a new generation of voters with the confidence and understanding of how the issues they care most about correspond to the boxes they are checking on the ballot.

is this ad driven?

So, thecougar, are you more interested in developing a site about politics which uses a questionnaire to stimulate interest and develop content OR
developing a questionnaire platform which could be used in a wide variety of contexts, including politics?

I can see this going either way and I wonder which interests you more, and which is more true to your original idea.

Jill, my personal approach to sites like this is to first find a niche that will differentiate and bring in users for the initial 6-12 months, and then leveraging the technology and user base to expand into new markets. I definitely like the idea of a questionnaire platform, I can see lots of potential for all types of uses there!

Seems like a good business strategy, thecougar. Agreed that there are loads of ways to leverage.

I wonder what the actual development of this idea would entail and where the content knowledge would come from. There would be a need for content knowledge about the subject matter (politics) and about the questionnaire methodology. Oh, and I guess some IT would be needed ;-)

This seems like a very strong idea from the point of view of relatively easy commercialization and potential for growth.

i waaaayyy agree with vanhees up there