Menshn (pronounced mention) is the brain child of Conservative back bencher Louise Mensch, who is well known for her almost constant tweeting.
The new service’s strap line is ‘talk on topic’ and is very much based upon the same concept as twitter, apart from a few subtle differences including: allowing 180 characters per message, as opposed to the 140 limit twitter allows. Furthermore, the topics are pre-determined, aiming to avoid spam messages which popular topics on twitter sometimes attract. Additionally, when you sign up you will automatically be given 100 subscribers so that you can join in the conversation instantly, whereas on twitter you need to build your own network.
Currently the service is only available in the United States with topics restricted around Obama, Romney and the impending US elections in general. The company hopes to roll out the service to the UK in time for the Olympic games.
By controlling topics in this way, the founders Mensch and Bozier hope to discourage the abuse that can occur on social media sites such as twitter. The service will allow anonymous membership, however users are urged to log in using Facebook which would reveal their real names in order to avoid any misuse of the system.
So far reactions to Menshn are mixed with many accusing the creators of vanity and seeking to control debate in addition to plagiarising the functionality of chat rooms and the presentation of twitter.
What do you think? Is this simply a vanity project for the MP or do you think a controlled discussion is useful- particularly in future if dentistry related issues are available to debate?