Culture: Web
Website Antipodes   (+2, -2)  [vote for, against]
Equal time for the opposite views

It seems to me that when the republican president gives a state of the union speech, the opposing party gets to put their two cents in -- in a kind of rebuttal. Frequently newspapers permit letters from readers that also rebut editorials. Why isn't there a kind of 'opposite website' linkage or co-browser that lets you see the other side of things. For example, the opposite of HALFBAKERY.COM might be STUPID.COM. The opposite of PETA.ORG might be http://mtd.com/tasty/ (People Eating Tasty Animals). Shoot, if each of the 'antipodes' sites had a community forum, there might be some quite entertaining flame-wars instigated by a coupling of such sites.
-- pathetic, Apr 23 2002

Anti-PETA http://www.anti-peta.com
"...most of the claims they use to further their cause are not founded in reality but in some some vegan induced fog of silliness." [waugsqueke, Apr 23 2002]

"Wayback Machine" http://www.archive.org/index.html
Change in everything, even opinion, is inevitable -- rather than go active, hang on a few months and just compare and contrast today's silliness with that of the bygone days. [reensure, Apr 24 2002]

UB, I don't think pathetic is proposing to create antipodal sites if non exist, just to have a quick and easy link to them--like the converse of the common "see more sites like this one" option.

pathetic, I think this is a dam' fine idea. You visit "prop_up.bigbusiness.com" to get one side of an economic argument, and click the antipodal link to go to "helpthelittle.guy.net" and read the opposing argument. I award a croissie d'guerre.
-- Dog Ed, Apr 23 2002


I'm tempted to draw that one, UB.
-- bristolz, Apr 23 2002


I'm not getting this one. The question is, why isn't there an opposing view website for every current site in existence? I respond with another question: why should there be?

What's the antipode site for cnn.com? Or the dancing hamster? What's the point?

I think if you look around the net long enough, you'll find this is baked for those 'opinion' sites where this idea makes sense. See link to Anti-PETA... clearly baked.

Why would the opposite of Halfbakery be something 'Stupid.com'? It doesn't make sense to me that there would be an opposing variant of this place.
-- waugsqueke, Apr 23 2002


Sometimes the halfbakery is its own evil twin, you mean? (below-logo tagline, anyone?)
I don't quite understand and have never seen the word antipode used this way before, so I am having to keep reading it as 'antithesis', which I do understand.
-- sappho, Apr 23 2002


Fishbone

1. What waugs said.

2. The implicit binarism is a gross oversimplification of most opinion-spawning topics. Just because a question or problem can be stated in binary fashion does not mean that the binary expression is the only, or best, mode.

3. google, et. al.
-- quarterbaker, Apr 23 2002


Indeed, this is a very serious problem: What are opposites in the first place?

For example, are Sharon and Arafat opposite or identical? If they are identical, is the Peace Now movement their opposite? Or even then, are they not all in agreement about too many assumptions?

So where does Shulamit Aloni's RATZ, the Citizen's Rights Movement party fit in? Is there even such a thing as a distinct Palestinian problem? RATZ is the only obscure group that focuses on that merely as an extreme special case of Civil Rights abuse under the ongoing and much ignored Israeli Constitutional Crisis.

And so, does this make RATZ the true opposite?

False dilemmas are oppressive. That is why most people don't vote!

A really good information filter should reveal choices rather than obscure them.
-- AaronAgassi, Apr 23 2002


You could have one giant UN funded web site that has a list of all websites and lists other veiw points for all of them... That really is unlikely to happen though...
-- RobertKidney, Apr 23 2002



random, halfbakery