HOTSOUP.com was created by four Democratic strategists, three Internet entrepreneurs, two Republican strategists and one journalist. But it’s not about us …. It’s about you….
HOTSOUP finally launched today. So, my first impressions . . . First of all, they don’t have RSS feeds for anything that I saw right away. I suppose the point of the site is community involvement rather than just content, so in some sense letting people use an RSS feed instead of having to come to the site is counterproductive. But it’s probably not a good idea to travel down the “AOL Walled Garden” approach and force people to interact with you in your little playhouse.
I have to say that I’m likely to forget about a site if there’s no RSS feed. If it has a regularly updated feed, I’ll put it in my Google Reader and follow along. If not, I’ll probably forget to check back.
Another thing, and I suppose this is just my perception, is that I get this feeling of underhandedness. As if they’ve got some agenda they’re going to spring on us as soon as they reel us in. And I can’t quite explain where that comes from. Perhaps paranoia. But it seems a little artificial. As if they’re trying to make a MySpace for politics, and they’ve drafted some big names to get the first accounts and attract the people.
But this so far is all negative, and I don’t think the site is bad. And I’m sure, if they really are serious about it being community-driven, that they’ll tweak it if things don’t work. So I’ll keep an eye on it, and see how things go.