Made millions pitting people against each other, then dumped them all... way to go, Fef! WTG!

Three years down the drain, and countless contacts now forever lost. NO ADVANCE NOTICE either!

Ah Sodahead. In short, it's a conservative-leaning poll website that's the place for people will Rave, Share, and Post the same articles day in, day out. I didn't mind participating when people had posts to encourage legit political discussion, the critical thinkers are disappearing on a regular basis so the regular pollsters can participate in the addressing the following polls ad nauseum:

- Obama kills children and gives them cancer! RAVE if you loved George W Bush!
- NANCY PELOSI IS A DISGRACE! WILL REPUBLICANS TAKE OVER THE GOVERNMENT?
- Do you like String Cheese or Shredded Cheese?
- so my bf is cheeting and i wanna dump him but shuld i?

The idea that the site was ever run by liberals is a joke. Maybe they had a few overzealous liberal moderators at one point and time, but that doesn't nor shouldn't excuse the venom spewed by many of the extreme-right on the site (when it's thrown back at them, they often use it as self-justification as to how "liberals" aren't tolerant after all, like conservatives are supposed to be given a pass to be belligerent.) Ever since Adri's been relegated from posting political questions to the "Do you like String Cheese" polls, the honor of posting "news" articles has gone to a guy named Lonnie, who's not only unabashed in his conservative political bias, but doesn't bother linking articles for discussion (both Adri and the conservative-leaning Fef offered that to encourage critical thinking.)

So if you're looking for a place to go talk politics, I woulda told you to go to Sodahead in 2011, but I won't tell you to do the same today. Instead, I could only recommend the site for the following people:
- People who believe all the problems in America started January 20th, 2009 and not a second before (same goes for the people who believe that George W Bush's polices were responsible for "cheap gas" on January 19th, 2009 and not due to the horrific market collapse caused by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.)
- Those who think the definition of "liberal" is anyone who doesn't do exactly what Hannity, O'Reilly, Hume, or the rest of Murdoch Media tells them (Ron Paul and Chris Christie are also "liberal" by most "Sodaheadies" standards.)
- People who get a kick out of calling President Obama a monkey or a THUG, but act indignant when people accuse them of racism (in fact, the person bringing it up is racist because the conservatives have no idea (wink wink, nudge nudge) that monkey is a racist slur for black people.)
- People who became libertarian on January 20,2009.
- Tea Partiers who believe they're supporting legitimate libertarians (and not neoconservatives in sheep's clothing.)
- Those who need to blame liberals, progressives, socialists, and communists (but really, they're all one in the same thing by Sodahead's standards) for everything from their coffee being cold to the fact that it's raining today.

If you're not in that group and post an opinion to the contrary, be prepared for the onslaught of insults from people who say their way's the enlightened one.

Love it for the political discourse

It's nothing but a right-wing echo chamber.

I was a member of sodahead for nearly a year and if I had to rate it I would say it is ok. The site itself is set up good with alot of extras that many other blogging sites don't have but with that comes a cost: quality debate. One example of this is their 'add media' function which allows many airheads the ability to avoid strong debate by posting stupid picture responses. I do like the fact that the downrave function was eliminated though. They allow a blocking function but this option destroys any ability to engage in quality debates and also helps to skew poll results by allowing the far-right to block users they know who have dissenting political views from themselves.

The biggest problem of all you will deal with on there is the userbase itself combined with the fact that sodahead's managment leans pretty far to the right. I'm a Paul/Johnson supporting libertarian but yet I've been called all types of vile names by the far-right userbase on there. The neocon userbase on there is mentally immature and it shows for they will throw all types of political terms around that they realistically do not know the meanings of such as commie, libby, etc. The lack of ability to engage in any quality debate is the biggest downfall of this site since their userbase leans far-right with low IQ's who are quick to block any dissenting opinions and users.

Here is the quick rundown on SH:

1. The managment leans far-right so most 'hot' topics on the front page will lean very far right.
2. There is a blocking function which the majority far-right userbase uses to their full advantage to skew poll results and block dissenting opinions.
3. The far-right creates their own private groups where they communicate with each other to 'swarm' a poll result or top opinion in their favor by using massive raves.
4. There are many 'sock accounts' (illegal multiple accounts by the same user) created by the far-right to pose as other people such as a 17 year old cancer stricken girl (who happens to lean very far-right) to lash the nastiest attacks on people. This way the socks get deactivated and the neocons main account in which they hold in high regards stays intact.
5. The userbase is very far-right and ANY dissenting opinions or political leanings such as libertarian, liberal, moderate, etc gets you labled as an American hating commie. This name calling is very prevailent throughout the website.
6. The userbase is also very immature, far-right and close minded. There are a few decent people on the site but most do not want to engage in debating or hearing different opinions, they only want to hear more echo chamber rants that agree with themselves. Also, the userbase on there has very little debating ability so they tend to resort to name calling and all of the other tactics I've mentioned above. If you are not very far-right leaning you will need to be very strong to survive on there!

SodaHead.Com, Everybody's Got One; but we're not interested in yours.

The above referenced website has had a change of management within the last year or so. While often times this can be a good thing, this is one of the instances where it simply blew goats and sucked $#*!. They have eliminated blogs, the "downrave", and are now telling users that a feature for personalizing their profile page which is currently in place; is causing "too much trouble" and will be done away with. The feature? The ability to add color to text boxes and choose colors/styles for fonts.

"Big deal", you say? But wait, there's more! The have also implemented paid staffers to do what the rest of the users do for free. What do the staffers do? They "stir things up" by putting up chauvinistic, race baiting, anti-semitic, hate mongering vitriol. BUT, that's not all either! They are ALSO plagiarizing user polls and posting them as "Originals", editing users posts and polls, deactivating users who get on their wick by doing something rash like calling a spade a spade (no, no racial reference). AND you get the joy of being called a "whiner" and a "loudmouth" by the site and staff!

"Wow! That's a lot!" Yep, sure is, but it ain't all! They also are plagued by site problems, but what site isn't. BUT Sh's response to users reporting problems are, "Quit posting multiple posts on a topic. If one exists, report your problem there." and "How about you simply put up a disclaimer that you don't want to FIX the problem but simply want to COMPLAIN about it!". When reporting the numerous SPAM posts, theoretically helping the moderators and site content managers, after 4 reports you get an error message, "You have exceeded your daily number of downraves." (They got RID of downraves, remember?)

What an absolutely fantastic way to deal with the people that make your business possible!

"Shut up, don't bother us, and let us plagiarize your material and then PAY someone else to post it as their work."

So remember this, when you go traipsing around the internet; no place is as good as it claims or as free as it seems.

I can only tell you a site to avoid, not because it's not fun; but because after a user has been there almost 3 years, has over 133,000+ raves, and is the top opinion giver on the whole site; they'll decide your opinions (and you) are no longer wanted or accepted.

If ye long to return to the glorious days of 7th grade, this is NOW the site for you.

*I've also seen a poll where someone claimed they were at a certain level then dropped to a lower one because of the question they answered!

http://www.sodahead.com/fun/congratulate-me-i-reached-level-10-oh-wait/question-*******/

-------------------UPDATE----------------------

What a monumental shock. Sodahead threw all of it's faithful and loyal users out on their rear ends and closed up shop. See? Even when a site is free they can screw you.