new jersey geographer » social networking

Unmoderated communities aren’t communities.

John Reiser — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:46:29 +0000

Without a fear of social repercussions for anti-social behavior, online communities without moderation often devolve into a cesspool. Take for instance InsiderPages, a hybrid yellow pages with reviews. There are countless sites like this out there, all suffering from the fact that bizarre and often inflammatory comments may include keywords that bump the site higher in search rankings. There’s no real incentive to police the comments, which gives us gems like this:

InsiderPages users’ thoughts on the Cowtown Rodeo Flea Market.

Despite the term “flea market” the Cowtown Rodeo’s market isn’t a low place. It’s an outdoor swap meet that caters to the agrarian marketplace of Salem County. However, the first few comments on the listing are an argument over our current president’s stance on immigration. Completely irrelevant discussion, yet it remains there. NJ.com is perhaps one of the biggest offenders; leaving downright profane comments on race at the bottom of many articles. Without moderation, the comments become something else entirely; anti-social outlets for the individuals and a bump in SEO rankings for the site. A losing situation for anyone looking for unbiased information.

I’m sure not all of the sites are gaming SEO through comments; some may be simply understaffed. On the other hand, when you consider the time individuals waste in the innumerable echo chambers like this one, the mind boggles. God bless America.

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Post tags: community, Internet, new jersey, nj.com, salem county, social networking

Please Rob Me: What’s the big deal?

John Reiser — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:36:51 +0000

There’s been a flurry of posts across the web about Please Rob Me, a site that aggregates check-ins on sites like FourSquare, illustrating the fact that we’ve known all along: people are willing to release more information than they realize. Outrage follows once the fact that technology allows information to be easily aggregated and distributed is demonstrated like this. (...)
Read the rest of Please Rob Me: What’s the big deal? on my blog.

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Post tags: foursquare, GIS, Privacy, social networking

Fun with Google Latitude

John Reiser — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:04:42 +0000

Kate was tracking my progress home tonight, as I was going to pick up Thai food along the way. I manually set my location to “Thailand” and found when I got home, Kate was very confused as to where I was. Setting my location to “Thailand” actually set me as being in “Nong Chaeng,” which I assume is the closest place name to Google’s center point for Thailand.

When will Google release an API for Latitude? It should also tie into OpenSocial, like how iGoogle and Orkut do now. Google has been really great in releasing new and innovative social networking components and applications, but they need to really follow through and support their creations. Offer up an API and the community will do the rest.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Google Latitude, Location-based Services, social networking