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27 Jul 2010 10:01

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Politics: Unlucky Tea Partiers in Oregon unfamiliar with 4chan

A very unfortunate chain of events for the Oregon Tea Party, who shut down their Facebook page and closed off their Web site after 4chan got a hold of this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Apr 2010 20:46

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Tech: Badly-sourced tweet: Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t believe in privacy

  • Off record chat w/ Facebook employee. Me: How does Zuck feel about privacy? Response: [laughter] He doesn’t believe in it.
  • New York Times technology writer Nick Bilton • Tweeting something maybe he shouldn’t have. The tweet suggests that Mark Zuckerberg’s merely paying lip service to the idea of privacy, which is probably not something which helps his cause right now in the wake of the Open Graph push. Bilton, for his part, is facing a controversy of his own over his apparent misunderstanding of “off the record,” though in his defense, the source later said it was OK to leak the information without using their name. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Apr 2010 10:29

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Politics: The Washington Post wants to hide our mean comments

  • I like the approach because it doesn’t limit speech. Anonymous loudmouths can still shout. But ‘trusted commenters’ will be easier to hear.
  • Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander • Discussing the Post’s decision to switch to a tiered commenting system like Gawker. Why? Too many loudmouths who hate the liberal media and everything it represents. With the system, it adds a layer of trust that encourages more good comments by allowing users to promote those and leave the conspiracy theories behind. Seriously, though, they found that a lot of story sources were getting scared off because anonymous commenters were so mean. A new bride, for example, was told to get a life insurance policy for her husband because he was obese and would probably die soon. Yeah, the Post needs to fix that. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Feb 2010 13:27

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U.S.: Virginia Tech tries to gank funding from school paper over comments

  • This is not an issue of freedom of the press. The concern is not the content per se, although some of it is alarming – homophobic and racist and so forth.
  • Virginia Tech Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Spencer • Regarding the school’s push to take funding away from the school paper, The Collegiate Times, due to the fact that their site allows anonymous comments. Apparently, it breaks some stupid policy. While the paper has independence from the school, they do receive $70,000 yearly, along with free office space. In case you need a single reason why this is a bad idea, whatever the policy may be, we have a pretty good one: The paper’s excellent coverage of the school’s 2007 shooting. Student journalism needs to be protected. (hat tip Charles Apple) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink

09 Feb 2010 22:25

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Tech: Chatroulette: A great social experiment that isn’t so great

  • We remember IRC back in “the day.” Internet Relay Chat, as the nerds called it, was a dangerous place and you never knew quite what you were getting into. Warez? Porn? Malware? Some dude who pretended to be your Internet friend but was really a 50-year-old man? And Chatroulette, a webcam-plus-anonymity phenomenon starting to get mainstream attention, is the 2010 version of IRC. Which is why it’s a minor (and fairly disturbing) phenomenon that will soon be forgotten. Here’s why:
  • This is old-school Why, do you ask, is this old school? Because it takes all the adventure of the Internet, the risk and reward, and puts it on your screen. Back in 1996, this wasn’t the exception. This was the rule. This is the dangerous end of the Internet, the dark neighborhood at 2 a.m. It’s like Craigslist at its best.
  • Not Web 2.0 at all Chatroulette’s interface is simple, but ragged. It isn’t forgiving. Like HotOrNot, you get one chance to make an impression. You don’t start relationships here. You see people. Then you don’t. There’s no friendly face here. This is the opposite of social media. It’s antisocial. Just like IRC!
  • Oh, there’s nudity Perhaps the one factor which ruins Chatroulette’s chances of being anywhere near as popular as Facebook is that half the people on it are perverts. It’s not safe for work at all. Some people get a kick out of the anonymity, while others use it to be socially depraved. You’ve been warned. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Jan 2010 20:42

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Tech: Mashable’s redesign sucks. Yeah, we said it. What what?

  • They look like the establishment now. Mashable’s always had a lot of clutter in its design, due to the fact that they tended to try a lot of things and throw them on the wall and see if they worked. It’s what the site’s always been about. They did need a redesign, and we’re glad they’re trying. But we’d rather have the old design back than this slick hodgepodge that feels like absolutely nothing at all.
  • Why does it suck? The colors of this design are so quiet, so muted, so similar to Yahoo!’s longstanding mid-decade quiet tones, that it doesn’t make us feel anything. Also worth noting: The headshots, which emphasized that this was a personality-driven site, have been de-emphasized too much, creating an anonymous, generic feel.
  • Changes worth considering Mashable’s a popular site, but it could stand to be hipper (like Engadget, which just got a great redesign) or more playful (like Twitter, which drives much of the site’s traffic). It should have as much personality as the words of its jetsetting founder, Pete Cashmore. Cleaner doesn’t mean lifeless. Never forget that, kids.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 9 Comments • Permalink

09 Dec 2009 10:19

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Culture: If you tag enough places, you too can get into the NYC art scene

It’s always nice when a grafitti artist gets a chance to go legit, as the anonymous tagger BNE has. He has an art exhibit coming up in Manhattan. That rules. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

19 Sep 2009 10:36

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U.S.: Austin’s police chief: I’m going after anonymous interweb trolls

  • A lot of my people feel it is time to take these people on. They understand the damage to the organization, and quite frankly, when people are willfully misleading and lying, they are pretty much cowards anyway because they are doing so under the cloak of anonymity.
  • Austin, Tx. police chief Art Acevedo • On his department’s decision to go after trolls on the Internet. On the Internet. Dude’s playing with fire by suggesting his department might investigate or even charge anonymous posters. Doesn’t he know what anonymous can do? • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Aug 2009 11:07

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Culture, Tech: Anonymous blogger cattiness isn’t protected, a judge says

  • A blog named Skanks in NYC wrote this mean, biting statement about model Liskula Cohen: “How old is this skank? 40 something? She’s a psychotic, lying, whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank.” Cohen saw it and got mad. source
  • Cohen sued a few months ago, and on Monday, the court ruled that she was allowed to sue the anonymous blogger for defamation. And worse: Google has to reveal her identity. Yikes. This is bad precedent. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

26 Jul 2009 21:37

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Biz, Tech: AT&T plays with fire, messes with the infamous 4chan

  • Anonymous is not amused. If you don’t know what the image board 4chan is, just imagine a giant board of internet nerds who have fun being disruptive. (Like the internet should be, if you ask us.) If you don’t know what AT&T is, just imagine a giant telecommunications company who has fun making disruptions for iPhone customers. Reports came out today saying that AT&T blocked access to a number of boards on 4chan, which means that AT&T has just opened up a can of worms and might find themselves under nerd attack. Good job guys! Expect your front page to have a disturbing image on it within the next day. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink
 
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