I like this. A lot. I love discussing stuff with people, and there are VERY few people out there that can discuss/debate things without turning into an idiot.Hey guys.
Been on and off on the site for the last three or so years. Recently started kicking around an idea and realized this community may be able to give some solid advice.
The "pain" or "need" we are trying to focus on is the poor level of discourse that takes place on Social Media. If you think of your average critical thinker shaking their head at a fake news story or misleading headline a relative shared, that is the person we think we can create value for. Our idea to solve this is to create a nonfiction book club of sorts that meets and debates via an online portal. A fixed monthly cost grants you access to a copy of the book, materials we supply to enhance understanding, access to the debate portal, and (potentially) webinars or AMAs with respected individuals in the relevant field.
We have also tweaked the standard "upvote" system used by many social outlets to provide a bit more individuality when speaking with a user in our debate portal. The idea was to make it very easy to follow the flow of an argument between two individuals while retaining the ability for anyone to jump in and start a new argument with the original poster. This feature is live if you want to toy with it. You'd just need to follow through a basic sign up flow. We are not checking emails, so feel free to use a throw away if you do not want to get future updates from us.
We just rolled out the site and would love to get some feedback on the model, site, discussion systems, or anything else you have an opinion on. I hate the landing page as is and intended to rework it to either try to better communicate the pain we are solving or build it around an opt in we have created (A 20,000 word PDF that discusses how to effectively communicate with others online). Your thoughts again are welcome on any and everything you see.
Please feel free to check us out over at www.debatethegreats.com
Thanks!
I'm not sure I would pay for it though. I wouldn't want to be forced to buy the book through you. What if you became an affiliate for Amazon? What if you set up your site like this one, where there's a free area where people can get a lot of value, but people can pay to be an INSIDERS.
The type of person you're going to attract is probably going to have money, so there is probably money to be made there somehow.