Two Syracuse University students studying in London have launched an entertainment and opinions website called Kwestioner.com. The purpose of the site is to bring you interesting and engaging stories from the worlds of news, entertainment, sports, and gaming, and to find out how you feel about them.
We got to interview Bill, the co-founder of the site, and see exactly where the Kwestioners were at!
1. What made you guys want to start this site?
One day, as we were taking the subway back to our flat, Kai was trying to decide which car to buy. While waiting for the train, he said “I wish there was some website where we could figure out which one people think is better.” And that’s where the idea came from. Basically it was just the desire to find out what other people think about a certain topic, or just a question. Because we all have a time when we wonder, “what do other people think about this?” So we thought, why not find out.
2. Any plans with the data you will get from all those polls?
As mentioned above, we’re an entertainment site, so we will use the results for something, but we just haven’t figured it out yet. After all, we launched less than two weeks ago. In addition, the beauty for this site is we can do whatever the fans want us to do. Therefore, the viewers/contributors/critics can tell us what they feel like the poll results can be used for.
3. Are you doing this for fun, or do you guys want to make the big bucks?
Kai loves doing this, whatever money he makes right now goes straight back to funding the site. It started as a class project, but now it’s turning into something more. Kai likes that it gives him something to do, but more importantly, it allows him to be creative. Maybe we will make “big bucks” one day, but for now, it’s purely for the pursuit of experience for management and leadership. Also, this is a good chance for people, at least the founders, to really learn how to work in a group, delegate responsibilities, and how to run a business. Bill is in it for the big bucks.
4. What’s your best story since you’ve been in London?
As with all great stories, we don’t remember most of this night, so there might be a few gaps. It was early in the semester, we went out with our roommate Gabe. We started at a bar called O’Neils, and jumped around a bit, but we just couldn’t find a place we wanted to stay at. So one of us suggested that we all buy a round of beers and a round of shots at each bar. Now, the area we were in, Oxford Circus, has a lot of bars. So we were each buying a lot of rounds. The specifics from there on out get a little fuzzy, but we do know we hung out with a drug dealer, tried to pimp out his brother Stuart (who we re-named “Clint”), broke several glasses, stole several glasses
(Kai remembers putting one in his pocket, he woke up with four), and overall had a great time. Closing time came around and our roommate Gabe was off “getting lucky”. We told him we were leaving (or so Kai claims) and headed out. One mile, one awkward piss break in the subway, one fall in the middle of the street, and one 45 minute speech about the intricacies of Porsche engineering later, we made it home. Gabe meanwhile, did not get lucky, stumbled drunkenly about London for two hours, got lost, and ended up making his way home in the back of a rickshaw. To this day he has not forgiven us.
Kwestioner allows users to respond to polls (usually several about each story) and view the results. We also offer you the opportunity to create your own surveys or polls and have them answered by the many visitors we anticipate to get every day. In addition to providing entertainment, Kwestioner is also desperately in need of contributers. So if you’ve ever read a story and thought, “I wonder how other people feel about this” now is your chance to find out.
