Reply #211: About this program's origin...

[BikeWriter]

The questions, answers, compatibility values and the possible outcomes (religions) were researched and assembled by Lorie Anderson, researcher and wife of Curt Anderson, the owner of Selectsmart.com, a company that produces thousands of similar "selectors," the technical industry term for quiz engines. Examples of other selectors include "Which Harry Potter Character Are You?" and "Which Presidential Candidate Best Matches Your Views?" She spent the better part of a year researching all the religions included in Belief-O-Matic. Prior to this project, she had no special religious training. For her research, she used a combination of academic, Internet and faith-based sources. When she encountered differing interpretations of a religion, she says she favored the one accepted by a majority of the religion's followers.

After the Andersons designed their selector, they consulted religious professionals for accuracy and beta-tested the quiz on Selectsmart.com. They used comments from religious professionals and quiz-takers to refine their questions and answers.

"We're now around 30,000 people a day that come to the web site," Curt Anderson said of his site's steady rise in traffic. "When we put the Belief System Selector up, there was a considerable leap (in site visitors) right then."
http://www.acfnewsource.org/religion/belief_o_matic.html