Thank you for visiting Qwanz; it is thanks to your opinions and participation that Qwanz.com may exist, create a new outlet for public debate and give you the tools to influence policy makers and the world around you.

How it works:

You, the public, and from time to time Qwanz editors, select the issues that are of interest to you or are of concern to all of us.

You may start with an idea you have and wish to express, an article that was published and about which you feel strongly, a statement that was made by a personality, etc.

Unlike other news sites, there are no "gatekeepers" or "editors" restricting what you wish to ask about, or discuss or what the public can see and hear about.

You are your own editor and free to set up any poll you wish and get the public's opinion to any thoughts, suggestions or postings you want reactions to.

That being said, any statement that is defamatory, racist, obscene or affects the private life of individuals is prohibited on the site; any illegal use of copyrighted material is also prohibited, and your use of the site is subject to the site's Terms of Use.

Once you have selected your subject matter, you create a poll using easy to use Qwanz tools, and let the public provide their thoughts on the poll by voting and even commenting.

Qwanz allows non registered and registered users to vote on a poll; It only allows one vote per registered user and also prevents in a variety of ways double voting from unregistered voters;  Once a registerted user has voted, the poll question is displayed in gray to show that it has already been voted on.

As soon as a minimum number of votes is reached, detailed statistical analysis of poll results is available; Qwanz informs you in real time of the views of others, and let's you forward those opinions to decision makers.

Poll Results and comments are visible by all, but you must be registered to leave a comment.

The site is searchable by key words and categories, with most popular questions and highest ranked polls showing up first, as they are rated and ranked by the viewing public itself.

Polls are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with five being most interesting and 1 least interesting. To rate a poll you just click on a star but you must be registered.

Search results can be sorted in different ways such as by ranking, most often viewed, or by number of votes.

Qwanz also tracks how many times visitors open a poll question to read or view it; that constitutes a "view" as opposed to a vote, where someone actually voted on that particular pole.

Your votes and responses are treated in strict confidentiality. You express your opinion without giving your identity beyond the log in name you select. Your opinions will always be treated statistically and anonymously.

Qwanz adheres to a strict set of confidentiality rules available for review under Privacy Policy.

Statistical analysis of polls is readily available to users through the use of formatted questions and answers. General poll results are available to all but detailed demographic analysis will be available only to registered users who provide their own more detailed demographics.

Registered users may at any time change or update their profile information in their My Qwanz page. The more information they complete on their profile, the more information they will see in the statistical results.

In addition, polsl can be linked polls together to create a survey. One hundred polls is the limit to the number of polls that make up a survey; any poll that is part of a survey is marked accordingly.

Some poll may even be created as Private polls while Public polls are seen by all and available to all, Private polls are polls that are not seen by the general public and are intended to be viewed by the poller's selected list of recipients.

A pass code key is created by the person setting the poll up and must be used by all those invited to view or answer the poll.

For example, this may be the case for a poll designed for friends and family, like:

I am awaiting a baby Boy, Should I name him?

Peter  [  ]

Paul    [  ]

John   [  ]
Henry [  ]

Alex    [  ]

These polls can also be used by corporations or associations that want to get information back from a selected group of customers or employees. Again, here they just select to whom the poll is sent and only the originator of the poll and those to whom the poll was sent will be able to see the poll, vote and see the answers.

Qwanz it! allows users to send the results of their opinion polls to those involved. Actually, Qwanz does not send them, the public does. Qwanz just gives them the tools to do so.

Remember decisions makers are concerned with the issues on which people voted; whether they are political or government leaders, corporate executives, academics, specialists on a particular subject or entertainment and sport personalities.

For example, in the case of corporations: Say you did a survey about services in the Airline Industry; you picked four or five industry leaders and you compared their products and services;  the results may favor or speak poorly of a particular company;

You will be able to twitter those results to a particular company by placing @ and the company name.

These companies will see the results and decide to respond or not; it is their choice;

If asked, Qwanz will give them a secured or verified access so that they may post their response.

Their response may in itself be news and a direct result of the poll you may have initiated or to which you responded. In other words, you can make the news.

Remember, companies are concerned about their public image, your reactions and your expectations; this will most likely bring them to respond and act.

An individual action or comment may not spur action but the notification that hundreds or maybe thousand of potential clients feel a certain way, will certainly do so.

From a company's point of view this is also a great benefit; Management wants to know what people think on a number of issues in which they are themselves involved: product or service acceptance, health, safety, environment, relationship with the consumer, etc. They also need an outlet to explain their strategy and to have their reasoning or approach better understood.

In the case of a public figure it works in a similar fashion; if you select someone in the arts, in entertainment or a sports favorite of yours, you just post your poll, collect the results and send them on directly from the site.

You will be able to twitter those results to a particular personality by placing @ and the personality's name.

As a courtesy to the personalities involved and to avoid spamming, Qwanz automatically restricts the sending of a particular poll result, to a particular recipient, to a maximum of once every 24 hours. We do however notify the recipient how many people have sent a particular poll finding in a day.

Here again, that personality may want to answer on Qwanz. We provide them with the tools to do so.

In this case, Qwanz goes one step further by providing users with a list of Elected Official s as well of some of the main Federal, State and Local government agencies and their contact information. 

In addition, Qwanz has secured a link to participating elected officials in the US Senate and Congress to allow the sending of poll results to individual Senators or Congressman.

Again, this is designed to avoid spamming, by only allowing the sending of a particular poll result to participating elected officials, a maximum of once every 24 hours

That way, you can choose to send the results of your poll or of a poll of interest to you, to the party involved in a particular committee or legislation. You get your voice and the voice of those who voted on the poll heard by the decision makers.

In the case of the Press, there are two ways information is likely to be returned to the Press community at large.

One is the case where an article was referred to as the premise of the poll and the poll results invalidate or confirm the articles' findings; you can then send back the results of that poll to the journalist who posted the article online or to his editor if their contact information is provided.

Another way will be for users to select the name of an editor or journalist by using Qwanz's listing of Press contacts as Qwanz also provides a list of contact for some of the major newspapers and magazines available in the United States.

Members of the Press may also want to answer on Qwanz. We provide them with the tools to do so.

If a user finds poll results that he wants to send to friends and family or if he does a poll that is really for the benefit of friends and members of his family, maybe even as a result of a private poll, he can simply do so by forwarding them on.

Use of the site is subject to the conditions outlined under Terms of Use.

To find out  more, just click Stumble; it will take you through the site on a random basis, allowing you to experience the site and get a sense of the different polls and comments currently available.