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Wondering — After addressing the five basic human requirements for air, food, water, shelter and companionship, wondering is likely the most popular activity in the world. We often wonder about facts and life's mysteries but, more often than that, we wonder about how we fit in.   "Do people like me?"   "Where's my life going?"   "Will it always be this way?"  You name it, we wonder it.

Perspective — There are some great websites for getting facts; we are for getting reality. From life's most pressing questions ("Is our destiny pre-determined?") to what can seem the most pressing in the moment ("How do I look?"), we are there to provide the feedback.

Fast and Fun — The user experience is fluid and easy, with the pace of an exciting computer game. People love asking questions and giving their opinions. Most questions can literally be read and answered in under five seconds. Users can ask new questions in as little as one minute, and can check on answers within seconds of posting (seeing graphical and numerical responses by gender). They can also send email links to their favorite questions, post on Facebook, or tweet on Twitter.

Advertiser Friendly — Instead of ads, we have non-sequiturs. Quickly answering questions and providing their opinions, users don't mind the occasional questions from advertisers that can appear at the beginning of a set of questions (such as: "Which burger looks tastier?" and "What's your favorite carbonated drink?"). This allows our advertising non-sequitur questions to be incorporated into the main product and content, as opposed to being seen as a distraction. In contrast, many advertisers and companies attempt to lure consumers to their websites and/or to survey sites to get feedback. The problem with the bring-them-to-us approach is that most consumers are not interested in taking their time to answer a slew of questions for corporations. The smaller number of consumers, who are willing, are not necessarily representative of the market. Shorter surveys are not the answer either. If someone does go out of their way to visit a corporate site, and there are too few questions, they feel as if it wasn't worth their effort. And there's the dilemma: In either case, consumers feel as if they are wasting their time.

Partnership Friendly — Most individuals and companies that operate websites large or small, want to keep people on their own websites rather than sending them elsewhere. We help them fulfill this desire by allowing ourselves to be easily embedded into existing websites. Among other options, website operators can brand us with their own logo, write their own About text, and create exclusive categories that either replace or augment the default categories. It's mutually beneficial. We get more users; our advertisers get more eyes; and the website operators get a free and useful tool to make their sites more interesting.

Better Results — Our approach is quite different. Rather than presenting a barrage of questions, and boring consumers with a single topic or product, we present the luxury of variety. Since our users know that most of the questions are coming from people just like themselves, their experience feels much more personal than corporate. And because it is just as easy for a user to answer a question than not, advertisers are more likely to get responses from people who otherwise would have ignored them. The entire process not only yields more results than a typical survey campaign, it delivers them quickly (allowing our advertisers to be more responsive) and more cost-effectively. Last but not least, because our users are also writing their own questions, advertisers have the possibility of discovering something that might not have occurred to them to ask.

Rich Demographics — Whereas users see summary results for each of their questions, paid advertisers, on the other hand, can receive more specifics, including a spreadsheet detailing each response/respondent. Rows include demographic data about the associated respondent (i.e., gender, birth year, and regional location – contact info and real-world identification is not provided). Jack in the Box could easily discover, for example, that burgers showing more cheese are more popular in the West, as opposed to ones showing more meat being more popular in the Midwest. Advertisers can also see how each user has answered other questions, thereby giving them a richer sense of each respondent. Independent of a particular question or advertiser, this information is interesting to companies that track user trends. For example, by examining the results to someone's personal question (e.g., "Which girl do you think is prettier?"), trend-watching companies could draw conclusions as to the overall public's current preferences (e.g., "Long hair is more popular on the east coast.").

Ideal Promotional Campaigns — In addition to enjoying more detailed responses, advertisers can also create promotional campaigns with designated start and stop dates. Upon completion of a promotional question, users are asked whether they want to receive an email from the question's sponsor. Typically, these emails will include coupons or other promotional information. For instance, answering a question for McDonald's would earn the user a dollar-off coupon for a Big Mac. With or without a coupon, the email can contain links to the advertiser's website. Advertisers can also entice users into receiving emails by asking questions and then offering the answers in their emails. For example, Ford could ask, "Which Ford vehicle was ranked in the Top 5 of the Greenest Cars for 2011?" Users would see three possible answers; but if they want to discover the correct answer, they would have to accept Ford's email.

Targeted Questions — Questions are assigned categories so that people can choose particular topics of interest. Additionally, authors have the option of placing their questions into their own Private Category. Only people who have been invited into a Private Category can see its questions. The owner of a Private Category can also decide whether an invitee can initiate questions in that category as well. This allows individual users to feel a sense of community and privacy by participating within their own designated circle of friends. To reduce the time between when a question is asked and when it is answered, members of a Private Category can choose to receive email notifications. This allows people to enjoy more immediate feedback. For instance, a tween might take a picture of a dress and ask her circle of friends whether she should buy it. When her friends get their email notices, they can send their answers within moments. Corporations can receive the same advantages and can utilize this feature to create focus groups. Just as interesting, this feature can be used for live presentations (in-person or broadcast), allowing audience members to instantly answer the presenter's questions and optionally submit their own. Since Private Category participation is based on email addresses, if someone chooses to participate in a Private Category, their address is known to the Private Category's owner.

Celebrity Questions — Because of the participatory and collaborative nature of the system, our advertising is inherently viral. To add to the appeal, we have built a mechanism for celebrity questions. Celebrity questions, like those from paid sponsors, are attributed. At the top of the screen, users see a picture of the celebrity (or a logo for corporate sponsors), captioned with "_________ wants to know..." followed by the question. Celebrity advertising is ideal for show producers as well as individual celebrities. Television networks, for example, could produce their own celebrity questions tied to current episodes. Whether for a reality show, sitcom, or drama, questions could be used to both advertise shows and give users/viewers a sense of meaningful interaction. And, show producers can use the data they receive from users'/viewers' question answers.

Security — A secure confirmation process is offered for corporate and celebrity users. When a regular user asks a question, it appears as soon as she or he clicks a Submit button. When celebrities and corporations ask a question, a confirmation email, with an encrypted code, is sent to a secondary email address. Only the recipient of the email can use the encrypted code to log in and approve the question. Corporate users also have the option of specifying logons from designated IP addresses and can choose their own password encryption ciphers. These measures allow our clients to prevent unauthorized content from being published under their name.

Clean Content — We include extensive features to ensure against distribution of obscene or otherwise inappropriate images or questions. Users can easily reject individual questions for a variety of reasons, including: dullness, blatant advertising (not from one of our sponsors), meanness, redundancy and, of course, obscenity. Based on these rejections, the system determines whether to show users future questions from particular authors. Additionally, users can submit emergency rejections. When the system receives more than one such rejection, it automatically removes the question pending human review. Sponsors can also monitor questions to ensure that their company is advertising in an appropriate environment.

Quality Questions — Quality questions are encouraged via a voting system. Users can mark particular questions as favorites. Every time a user clicks the Answer Questions button, twelve questions are downloaded. Each set begins with a corporate question (which is how we ensure that paid advertisers receive air time). At the end of each set, the user is presented with his or her current stats (including: the number of questions they have answered, their bonus points for completing entire sets, the number of questions they have created, and the number of times their questions have been voted as favorites). Users can be awarded prizes for receiving the most votes for favorite questions.

The Best Technology — In addition to a cool design and rich user experience, we offer some significant technical advantages. On the device side, it uses the exact same code for its mobile apps and the website, resulting in a rich and consistent experience on all platforms. All implementations are virtually identical. Behind the scenes, we utilize cutting-edge Node-SSJS, in conjunction with MySQL, hosted on Joyent's state-of-the-art cloud computing platform, thus ensuring ample capacity at all times.

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There's not much we can say if we want to keep our secret. What we can tell you is that Destructive Comments is a place for participants to exchange intimate and significant things that have affected their lives. We are hoping that people will find it interesting, heart-warming, and helpful.

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