5 ms·

Show HN: Weekend project, Political Screaming Match

73 points by cykod 14y ago

brendanobrien 14y ago
+1 Twilio!
morsch 14y ago
The Chat Roulette of political debates?
- duqee 14y ago
  Hopefully with less male nudity.
  - zithtar 14y ago
    Well that's boring.
  - feriksen 14y ago
    Sooooo, no Anthony Weiner then?
duiker101 14y ago
I know, Twilio, disclaimer and everything looks ok... but still i do not feel entirely safe to give my phone number... Not that i do not trust you... but...i don't know...it feels strange, even if i use more email and mine is everywhere i am not totally ok with giving my phone around.
- betterth 14y ago
  Use a Google Voice number or something similar?
- cykod 14y ago
  I worried that might be the case - I just didn't get a chance to integrate the Twilio.JS API which would help solve that problem as it would all happen in-browser, but I wanted to see if anyone would even be interested first.
betterth 14y ago
My question: How are you going to get well rounded debate? I can see modern liberals and libertarians in good numbers in the hacker community, but are there conservatives? Specifically, are there New Right conservatives in the Tea Party vein? These are the people who have swept the House and won office around the country and are the loudest voice on the Right. The Republican candidate for office strongly supports most of their platform, making their platform arguably the most legitimate conservative view currently. And I don't understand how you're going to get any of those voices, at all.
- alaithea 14y ago
  With a name like "Political Screaming Match," do you think he's after rounded, reasoned debate? This sounds like it's mostly for some laughs. I think it's a fun idea.
- DanielStraight 14y ago
  I think there are probably more conservatives around than you realize. Assuming the number from my random searching (http://www.quora.com/Hacker-News/How-many-users-does-Hacker-News-have http://www.quora.com/Hacker-News/How-many-users-does-Hacker-...) is even the correct order of magnitude, then even if only 1% of HN is conservatives, that's over 1000 people. I think in general people tend to overestimate homogeneity (but probably fewer people than I think).
- planetguy 14y ago
  The Tea Party is a libertarian movement. Or at least, it started out as one. I'm a pragmatic libertarian, which I suppose makes me a conservative.
  - Zak 14y ago
    The tea party started out as a libertarian movement. It is no longer. In particular, support for the following positions is typical[0] of tea party politicians: Drug prohibition, interventionist foreign policy, restrictions on pornography, constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, banning homosexuals in the military, increased domestic surveillance. All of these positions are in direct conflict with libertarianism and seem typical of American conservatives prior to the formation of the tea party movement. [0] These seem to me to be typical, though I didn't conduct a survey. To help compile the list, I used http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Marco_Rubio.htm http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Marco_Rubio.htm
stfu 14y ago
I was expecting more some shouting match on who can scream his candidate's name the longest/loudest. Didn't expect that level of sophistication.
tomkin 14y ago
What I would love to see is a system that validates claims made by those involved in townhall meetings and TV debates. Nothing would please me more than to see a politician make a claim of coal only outputting X carbon, and a sidebar slide over that pulls in Wolfram|Alpha or some other empirical data with a giant FALSE. This way, they can't use showmanship to sway opinion.
- zipdog 14y ago
  You mean like if http://www.factcheck.org/about/ http://www.factcheck.org/about/ was instant?
vinhboy 14y ago
It's always weird to see someone execute on an idea I've had myself. My idea was through chat and email though. Talking on the phone is way too personal. But good luck.
iM8t 14y ago
This is crazy, but yet amazing. I'm totally gona subscribe to the RSS feed. :)
tocomment 14y ago
Could you use this same technology to create an issue page e.g., SOPA and connect voters to their politicians? Maybe people could get points from calling their politician through the site to vote on future issues? What I've described is an idea I've been kicking around for a while.
peeters 14y ago
From a user experience, it really bugs me that I can't preview the topics. I don't want to give you my phone # until I see what "debates" are available to discuss.
- mcantor 14y ago
  Agreed. Steps #1 and #2 should be reversed.
kaonashi 14y ago
I can't wait until your next app "Striking my hand repeatedly with a hammer".

73 points by cykod 14y ago

brendanobrien 14y ago

+1 Twilio!

morsch 14y ago

The Chat Roulette of political debates?

duqee 14y ago
Hopefully with less male nudity.
- zithtar 14y ago
  Well that's boring.
- feriksen 14y ago
  Sooooo, no Anthony Weiner then?

duiker101 14y ago

I know, Twilio, disclaimer and everything looks ok... but still i do not feel entirely safe to give my phone number... Not that i do not trust you... but...i don't know...it feels strange, even if i use more email and mine is everywhere i am not totally ok with giving my phone around.

betterth 14y ago
Use a Google Voice number or something similar?
cykod 14y ago
I worried that might be the case - I just didn't get a chance to integrate the Twilio.JS API which would help solve that problem as it would all happen in-browser, but I wanted to see if anyone would even be interested first.

betterth 14y ago

My question: How are you going to get well rounded debate? I can see modern liberals and libertarians in good numbers in the hacker community, but are there conservatives? Specifically, are there New Right conservatives in the Tea Party vein? These are the people who have swept the House and won office around the country and are the loudest voice on the Right. The Republican candidate for office strongly supports most of their platform, making their platform arguably the most legitimate conservative view currently. And I don't understand how you're going to get any of those voices, at all.

alaithea 14y ago
With a name like "Political Screaming Match," do you think he's after rounded, reasoned debate? This sounds like it's mostly for some laughs. I think it's a fun idea.
DanielStraight 14y ago
I think there are probably more conservatives around than you realize. Assuming the number from my random searching (http://www.quora.com/Hacker-News/How-many-users-does-Hacker-News-have http://www.quora.com/Hacker-News/How-many-users-does-Hacker-...) is even the correct order of magnitude, then even if only 1% of HN is conservatives, that's over 1000 people. I think in general people tend to overestimate homogeneity (but probably fewer people than I think).
planetguy 14y ago
The Tea Party is a libertarian movement. Or at least, it started out as one. I'm a pragmatic libertarian, which I suppose makes me a conservative.
- Zak 14y ago
  The tea party started out as a libertarian movement. It is no longer. In particular, support for the following positions is typical[0] of tea party politicians: Drug prohibition, interventionist foreign policy, restrictions on pornography, constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, banning homosexuals in the military, increased domestic surveillance. All of these positions are in direct conflict with libertarianism and seem typical of American conservatives prior to the formation of the tea party movement. [0] These seem to me to be typical, though I didn't conduct a survey. To help compile the list, I used http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Marco_Rubio.htm http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Marco_Rubio.htm

stfu 14y ago

I was expecting more some shouting match on who can scream his candidate's name the longest/loudest. Didn't expect that level of sophistication.

tomkin 14y ago

What I would love to see is a system that validates claims made by those involved in townhall meetings and TV debates. Nothing would please me more than to see a politician make a claim of coal only outputting X carbon, and a sidebar slide over that pulls in Wolfram|Alpha or some other empirical data with a giant FALSE. This way, they can't use showmanship to sway opinion.

zipdog 14y ago
You mean like if http://www.factcheck.org/about/ http://www.factcheck.org/about/ was instant?

vinhboy 14y ago

It's always weird to see someone execute on an idea I've had myself. My idea was through chat and email though. Talking on the phone is way too personal. But good luck.

iM8t 14y ago

This is crazy, but yet amazing. I'm totally gona subscribe to the RSS feed. :)

tocomment 14y ago

Could you use this same technology to create an issue page e.g., SOPA and connect voters to their politicians? Maybe people could get points from calling their politician through the site to vote on future issues? What I've described is an idea I've been kicking around for a while.

peeters 14y ago

From a user experience, it really bugs me that I can't preview the topics. I don't want to give you my phone # until I see what "debates" are available to discuss.

mcantor 14y ago
Agreed. Steps #1 and #2 should be reversed.

kaonashi 14y ago

I can't wait until your next app "Striking my hand repeatedly with a hammer".