A method for determining deliberative consensus among a plurality of opinions expressed electronically in an online discussion, the method comprising: receiving, at a computer system, user feedback data for at least a first group of users and a second group of users, wherein the user feedback data identifies a first opinion expressed in the online discussion by the first group of users and a second opinion expressed in the online discussion by the second group of users, wherein the first opinion and the second opinion relate to a topic, and the first opinion is different from the second opinion; receiving, at the computer system, comment data identifying comments posted to the online discussion in response to the first opinion and the second opinion expressed in the online discussion; identifying, by the computer system and based on reactions to the comments and the user feedback data, a critical comment from among the comments that support the second opinion, wherein the first opinion represents a majority view held by the first group and the second opinion represents a minority view in the online discussion held by the second group; transmitting, by the computer system and to a portion of computing devices associated with users of a third group, a notification with the critical comment, wherein transmitting the notification causes the critical comment to be presented on the portion of the computing devices and for the portion of the computing devices to receive responses to the critical comment from the users of the third group; the method being characterized by further comprising the steps of: receiving, by the computer system and from the portion of the computing devices, indications of the responses to the notification; determining, by the computer system and based on the indications of responses to the notification, a deliberative consensus opinion based, at least in part, on the responses to the notification regarding the critical comment from the portion of the computing devices associated with the users of the third group, wherein the deliberative consensus opinion is a numeric value associated with at least one of the first opinion and the second opinion for the topic; and transmitting, by the computer system and to at least one of the computing devices of users in the first group, the second group, and the third group, the deliberative consensus opinion of the online discussion. receiving, at a computer system, user feedback data for at least a first group of users and a second group of users, wherein the user feedback data identifies a first opinion expressed in the online discussion by the first group of users and a second opinion expressed in the online discussion by the second group of users, wherein the first opinion and the second opinion relate to a topic, and the first opinion is different from the second opinion; receiving, at the computer system, comment data identifying comments posted to the online discussion in response to the first opinion and the second opinion expressed in the online discussion; identifying, by the computer system and based on reactions to the comments and the user feedback data, a critical comment from among the comments that support the second opinion, wherein the first opinion represents a majority view held by the first group and the second opinion represents a minority view in the online discussion held by the second group; transmitting, by the computer system and to a portion of computing devices associated with users of a third group, a notification with the critical comment, wherein transmitting the notification causes the critical comment to be presented on the portion of the computing devices and for the portion of the computing devices to receive responses to the critical comment from the users of the third group; the method being characterized by further comprising the steps of: receiving, by the computer system and from the portion of the computing devices, indications of the responses to the notification; determining, by the computer system and based on the indications of responses to the notification, a deliberative consensus opinion based, at least in part, on the responses to the notification regarding the critical comment from the portion of the computing devices associated with the users of the third group, wherein the deliberative consensus opinion is a numeric value associated with at least one of the first opinion and the second opinion for the topic; and transmitting, by the computer system and to at least one of the computing devices of users in the first group, the second group, and the third group, the deliberative consensus opinion of the online discussion. receiving, by the computer system and from the portion of the computing devices, indications of the responses to the notification; determining, by the computer system and based on the indications of responses to the notification, a deliberative consensus opinion based, at least in part, on the responses to the notification regarding the critical comment from the portion of the computing devices associated with the users of the third group, wherein the deliberative consensus opinion is a numeric value associated with at least one of the first opinion and the second opinion for the topic; and transmitting, by the computer system and to at least one of the computing devices of users in the first group, the second group, and the third group, the deliberative consensus opinion of the online discussion.