About Smargue
The Idea
The idea for Smargue was born of two observations:
- Online discussion threads tend to degenerate into arguments. Whether the topic is politics or computers or sports or art, whether the original post is a simple comment or a question, there will always be disagreement and two distinct sides will emerge.
- The threaded model most discussion forums follow does not help one follow the arguments on the two sides of an issue. And one must dig through mountains of flame to find posts that are actually on topic.
Our solution is to organize our forums into two-sided "smarguments" from the start. This approach benefits forum creators--those seeking others' opinion of something will get both sides of the story; those looking to express an opinion will see who agrees with them and who doesn't, and why. It also helps casual users reading discussions on topics they don't know much about familiarize themselves with best arguments on both sides of any issue.
To cut through the clutter of off-topic opinions and flames, we allow our users to vote on each opinion. This allows the best arguments on both sides of any issue to float up to the top, while the not-so-useful stuff drops down and out of sight.
The Company
Smargue was founded in 2007 by Silicon Valley veterans. (The orange color in our color scheme is a tribute to AltaVista, the once great search company that one of our founders was involved in back in the day.) Our team includes graduates of Harvard, MIT, UCSB, and other outstanding universities, all striving to bring order to the chaotic world of online discussion.
The Users
Smargue is a general forum with discussion not limited to any particular set of topics, so go ahead and give it a try! We know that it is you, the user, who at the end of the day will decide whether Smargue succeeds in its quest or fails. Therefore we encourage you to not only use Smargue but to tell us what you think of our site. If you do not like something we are doing, we do not want to keep doing it! Let us know what you think and together we will make the web that much more useful and fun.
