U4prez Candidate Rank Algorithms Helps Determine Real World Political Success.

PRLog (Press Release) – Nov 03, 2007 – U4Prez.com, the social networking site for politics, has updated its algorithm to include a new feature that helps users more accurately predict their chances for political success in the real world.  The site debuted in February as a social networking site for the politically  minded, with a chance to run in yearly virtual presidential elections.  The new feature called "CR" uses several factors to more accurately measure a candidates message, and ability to campaign.  Members of the site rate each other, and the average rating is then combined with the candidate rank to deliver the total score.  
The CR algorithm was developed after 8 months of testing on a live site.  
The feature measures how often a candidate debates, how many times he leaves comments on caucus and user platforms, the unique nature of the comments, the number of people who visit his profile, and a handful of other metrics that the site owners are keeping tight lipped about.  

"We spent months coming up with this and getting it just right." said U4prez found Eric Gurr.  "And while we want to limit attempts to exploit the algorithm, we also want to protect our investment in the time and energy needed to create a software capable of giving our members as realistic a look at their political chances as possible."

Along with Candidate Rank the site has also introduced a feature that lets candidates create their own Caucuses.  This keeps the debate focus, but also allows candidates to create a way to discuss issues among like minded politicos.  The Caucus creators can then keep the debate from becoming to rancorous.  

Site introduced caucuses do tend to become heated discussions with one candidate remarking "It's getting to be too much like Washington D.C. around here!".

The upgrade went in to affect October 29th to coincide with the 2008 presidential election contest on the site.  Any one can register to become a candidate and then participates in the virtual election.  Candidates debate issues with each other on the site, create and join caucuses, and support other candidates to increase their exposure.  Candidates can also submit press releases to their supporters, and create editorials or position papers available to the entire membership community.
To date, over 650,000 votes have been cast and more than 3000 presidential hopefuls have registered.

Each week primaries are held among the 12 topic candidates on the site.  Four Republicans, four Democrats, and four independents vie for the primary win.  At the end of the year, the candidates from each party with the most primary wins, run in the general election.  The runoffs for primary positions are picked automatically by calculating the highest scores for the previous week.  

The core of the site is social networking that's targeted to a more focused audience than some of the other big name sites.  While members ages vary from 13 to 80 years old, all are quite passionate about their politics.

With the 2008 Presidential election now well under way, the site has also exposed a widening gap between Democrats and Republicans on many issues, and a consensus on other issues that may spell trouble for some of the real candidates.  

"Lately we've seen quite a bit of apprehension about the economy from members of both the major parties." Noted Gurr. "This has led to a rather drastic increase in the number of members identifying themselves as independents.  We're also seeing hesitancy among both parties for the national candidates big ideas when it comes to dealing with the economy and in particular tax issues."
With the recent shift from national security to the economy as the  hottest topic, the one constant message seems to be, "Let's not make any drastic changes until we've weathered the storm."
Perhaps not surprisingly the latest tax increase floated by Congressman Rangel was shot down by leading Republican candidates on the site.  What was surprising was the virtual candidates who are leading Democratic party contenders were also quite hesitant to embrace a tax increase, even on the upper income earners.  

What's the lesson from the site for real candidates like Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, Rudy Giuliani an Mitt Romney?  According to Gurr, "Moderation may be the key."  Through much of the year the left leaning candidates dominated the Democrats, and the more conservative candidates dominated the Republicans.  When it came down to the on-line conventions, the moderates came out the winners.  The Independent winner was also much more moderate on tax and spend issues, but was in favor of pulling troops out of Iraq immediately, as were most of the