Well the most obvious benefit of installing and using rbutr is the simplicity of finally being able to get ‘more information’ whenever you are unsure about a piece of information. Not only will it save you time when you really do want to see an alternative perspective, but it could also save you from being duped through apathy – I mean, there are some articles which present really strong arguments and which are somewhat compelling, but you don’t care enough about the subject matter to spend 30 min trying to Google the subject matter or asking people who do know for more information. But if there was a single button solution to fill you in on all of the flaws of the article you are reading, then you are far more likely to educate yourself than you otherwise would be.
Another angle, and what I consider to be the biggest benefit for everyone using rbutr is the destruction of the filter bubble. Whether we mean to do it or not, we are all locked up in cages of our own belief systems. We watch, read and listen to the news sources that we like (ridiculing the ones we don’t), we choose our friends based on common interests, and now the online world continues this trend by automatically giving us more of what we already have – Google changes its search results based on what it thinks you want. Facebook filters out friends posts if it thinks you won’t like them. How are you supposed to have a well rounded world view when you only encounter confirmation bias everywhere you look?
Oh and finally – you never know when rbutr might save you (or a friend of yours) from a scam, ripoff or liar. There is nothing stopping people from writing rebuttals to ‘business propositions’…
TL;DR: What is in it for you, is knowledge. Genuine, broad knowledge, rather than one sided ‘facts’ designed to make you think one way or another.
Bloggers, Vloggers and Other Content Creators
Don’t you wish you could get everyone who reads the articles you spend all your time debunking to come and read your rebuttals? Well? Don’t you? If you aren’t connecting your rebuttals to the articles they are rbuting via rbutr, then it will never happen, because the only people who read your articles are the people who already agree with you! You need to get in front of the people who don’t know about you!
If you blog about one of the mainstream contentious subjects, then rbutr levels the playing fields with all of the other huge websites out there by making each individual article need to stand on its own two legs. Rebuttals in rbutr compete against each other regardless of their page ranks in Google and regardless of how popular the rebuttal page already is – if your article is well written and compelling, it will be voted up! And unlike other social link sharing services, your niche opinion doesn’t have to compete with LOLCats, laughing babies and sneezing pandas. You are just competing with other articles rebutting the exact page(s) your article rebuts. If the page you are rebutting happens to be an article read by a million people, and your rebuttal is the best one out there to it – wouldn’t you want all of those people to be able to use rbutr to click through to your rebuttal?
Spreading the Word….
Dear bloggers, vloggers and other content creators,
If you like the idea of rbutr, then consider telling other bloggers that you know about it. The more bloggers who use and talk about rbutr, the more people there will be using it, and the more chance there will be of your non-readers using it. Particularly if you can get the idea in front of people who have no interest or knowledge of your own niche topic – since they are the people who are most likely to need the full perspective which rbutr can provide.
So please, if you like rbutr – talk about it. Tell your readers, and tell other bloggers. When we do take rbutr to critical mass, the change is going to be significant, and one step further towards reaching the full potential of the internet…
