Stumbling across Wepolls’ Spartan homepage doesn’t reveal the depth beneath the surface. It’s an elegantly simple list of trending polls similar to the presentation of Reddit or Digg, where the most popular items float to the surface. But unlike those social sites where videos, articles, and pictures are shared, Wepolls users ask a question to find out what people think.
It’s an incredibly simple platform that works well and surprisingly has never been attempted on this scale.
Here’s how it works. Someone has a question, then they can ask it on Wepolls in the form of a poll and add the options. That same someone can then post their poll on Reddit, or Facebook, or Twitter, or Google+, or even embed it on their own website. Other Wepollers can even add their own options and vote on them. Portability, the ability to share your poll everywhere, is one of the many things that gives Wepolls a leg up.
There are other poll and question services. PollDaddy.com lets anyone create a poll to embed on their blog, but it’s not social. Fcebook has questions, but they’re not portable, and Facebook’s content remains within its walled garden accessible only from within Facebook. With Wepolls, the people asking and answering each poll question do not need to be logged in or even be members.
Interactivity doesn’t stop there. So far people can create polls and vote on them. But they can also comment on issues they care about, up vote or down vote other people’s comments. If someone comments after you on a poll, then you get an alert via email (if you have the option selected), and in your own personal newsfeed on the site.
Friending on Wepolls works in a way that combines Facebook and Twitter. When my friend comes on Wepolls, I can follow her. By following her I get updates on the polls she creates and the comments she makes. If she follows me back then we become “wepals.” (That’s the term that Wepolls uses for friends.)
By using the site members earn points. Points are used to gain access to certain privileges, such as down voting comments. I spoke with company’s co-founder and CTO, Craig Quiter, who told me that Wepolls is planning to offer much more features as points rewards to its members in the near future.
“The site is in an advanced form of beta,” Quiter told me. “We’re constantly responding to the wants and needs of our users by implementing features that they ask for.” Wepolls, he says, has a philosophy of listening to their members. Given the recent and unpopular changes going on a Facebook, that’s refreshing to hear.
The most innovative aspect of Wepolls is the content delivery system. They call it the “poll roll.” When you vote on one question, the site guesses which question you would be interested in answering next, and automatically displays it for you. If you don’t like it, then it can be skipped. This has led me to hours of addictively taking poll after poll and having a good time while doing so. With a broad range of poll topics, you never know what will pop up next.
If you’re still reading this, check out Wepolls and see for yourself how fresh it feels and how easy it is to use.