Well, without getting into it too deeply (you can get that on the About page), Soapbox Nation is a place for everyone to let thier opinions just go. Everyday you have to be nice, cordial, tactful to your friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Soapbox Nation is where you come to drop all that and get it off your chest!

• Posts are opinions, stories, and other thoughts a Soapbox Nation citizen has chosen to share with the nation. Anyone can post anything they'd like (in line with our Terms of Service), just try to post to the right soapbox for your topic. You can find the full description of them here.
• Shoutbacks are what the Nation has to say about your post. All citizens have the ability to shoutback to any post, and have thier voice be heard on the topic at hand. You can also quote someone's shoutback in yours, just look for the link that says "Quote this Shoutback", and click it. You have to be logged in to see this though!
• Yeahs and Boos - The popularity of topics and the reputation of users is controlled by ALL citizens of the Soapbox Nation. When you click the Thumbs-Up or Thumbs-Down icon on a post or shoutback, this directly influences the rating of it, and if it isn't an Anonymous or Pen-Named post, it will affect the citizen's reputation who posted it! You can only vote once on each post or shoutback, but if you become a Soapbox Aristocrat, you get two votes for every one!

To ensure we don't have an onslaught of spam posts for everything from "fake r0l3x" to "enhance your bedroom performance", you'll need to sign up for an account. But don't worry! It takes less than 30 seconds and it's free, plus you get to keep your anonminity.

It's absolutely free, and it will be that way forever. Soapbox Nation is ad-supported, so the best you can do to keep us afloat is click an ad here and there, and be nice to our sponsors :)
If you'd like to upgrade to the premium though, you can become a Soapbox Aristocrat, where your posts carry more weight, your cheers and boos carry more weight, AND you never see an ad, amongst other benefits.

We've already mentioned it's absolutely free, and takes less than a half-minute to create an account, so lets get down to some real reasons.
 • You can join in! - Trust us, it's a whole lot more fun when you can chime in on a discussion, or add your own posts and get peoples' opinions on what you have to say.
 • Get updates on friends & favorites - You can add friends and track what they post (only what they post non-anonymously), as well as bookmarking specific posts as favorites, and getting notified when others have something to say about it.
 • Gain a Reputation - When you post OR shout back to another citizen's post here, everyone has the ability to cheer for what you say. The more people who are on board with you, the better your reputation!
 • Secure Browsing - When you sign in, all information transmitted to and from you will be protected by SSL, the security standard used most commonly on the web for protecting your credit card information when ordering something. Now being used to ensure the IT guys at work can't snoop on your soapbox posts!
 • Dates and Times in your Time Zone - We're based in the East Coast of the USA, so by default everything will show up as that. If you're from somewhere else, it's easier when you have your own timezone displayed.

The accounts on Soapbox Nation are just a way to keep spam to a minimum, and way to share posts you wish to be public with friends. When you post, you have the option of having it credited to your account, or you have two other options.

You can use a "Pen Name", which is anything you can think of. This can be "Joe from NY", "Midnight Snacker" (hey... we're not here to judge!), or whatever you feel. Keep in mind that Pen Names will show up in black with quotes around them, instead of the normal blue links, so you can tell the difference between a registered name, and a pen name.

Thirdly, you can also post as completely anonymous. With these last two options (anonymous and pen-name), your real identity will never be divulged to anyone, and no-one will be notified of any posts OR shoutbacks you do.

Just like in every other nation, there's classes of citizens. Luckily, everyone can afford to be the upper crust in the Soapbox Nation! Being a Soapbox Aristocrat gets you more weight on all of your posts, shoutbacks, cheers, and boos, in addition to never seeing an ad on this site again! There's also other special benefits as well, but you'll have to become a Soapbox Aristocrat to find out!

If you choose to post using your registered name, you can build a reputation at the Soapbox Nation. On every post and shoutback, you'll notice a Thumbs-Up (Cheer!) and a Thumbs-Down (Boo!) near the top right of the box. When people read your posts and shoutbacks, they'll click on one of those to show they're opinion - everyone's reputation is based on the number of cheers and boos they get. You can see this number on anyone's "Passport" page.

Don't worry too much about this though - everyone only gets ONE vote per post or shoutback. Soapbox Aristocrats votes count twice as much as normal Soapbox Citizens though!

Your Soapbox Nation Passport (always available free here) holds all of your posts and shoutbacks, as well as your reputation, friends, favorite posts, and all your preferences too. You can read about more benefits in the But WHY should I sign up here? FAQ topic, but in the same amount of time it takes you to read that, you could have gotten your own passport already! All it takes is a valid email address -- Don't Worry! We won't do anything nasty like selling your email, you can read our full privacy policy if you'd like.

In order to stop automatic scripts written by people looking to cause trouble in our nation, we have implemented a quick-and-easy test to find out who's human and who's not.

In order to "solve" the CAPTCHA, simply type the words you see in the box. A computer wouldn't be able to read them, so you're all set!

If you'd like more information about it, Wikipedia has a good article on Captchas. We use the method recommended by the original creators of Captcha, Carnegie Mellon University.

"Tagging" allows others to find your posts quickly and efficently. To tag your post, add a few short words or phrases to sum it up. Try to select a short few terms that best describe what your post is about, or what you'd want people to pay the most attention to. For example, if you're writing a post about the band at your friend's birthday party (that was on a Saturday), some good tags to choose would be the band's name, "music", or "birthday". Picking "Saturday" as a tag wouldn't be as useful as your post really isn't about Saturday specifically. In the end, tagging is all up to what you feel! If you'd like more info, you can read more about it on Wikipedia's article on Tags.