In our efforts to increase connections among the fine citizens of Cedar Rapids, Team Crunchberry has decided to integrate our efforts with a cool-as-hell new way to leverage social networks, Facebook Connect.

Facebook says Connect will enable users to:

• Seamlessly “connect” their Facebook account and information with your site
• Connect and find their friends who also use your site
• Share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook

By clicking on a button like the one above, you’ll be automagically logged in to our site!  This enables us to do some very interesting things, as I wrote about on the Crunchberry blog:

Besides lowering the mental overhead of forcing a user into signing up for yet another account, we’ll be able to play with real, established social networks. (And without expecting folks to set up a friends list on a site that none of my friends use!)

For instance, when a user makes a comment, we’ll push it to their Facebook feed. Will you be more likely to comment if you know your friends will see what you have to say? Will you be less likely to act like a jackass?

A little Face(book) to Face(book) chat

We’re betting that we can increase the quantity and quality of conversations by bringing them into to your network.  Why would I comment in a vacuum?  I want my friends to hear what I have to say.  And when they do, maybe they’ll back me up.  And since I’m being heard, maybe I’ll think twice before being a jerk.

Yay, props!  Yay, shame! It’s almost like a real world argument.  All we need now is a pitcher of beer and a table to pound on. Is there a django plugin for that??