During my search for understanding mashups I came across this article: “The Dark Side of Social Networking”. The article is essentially an interview about Brant Walker and his otherwise controversial web creations.
Creations such as Bumfinder.com, a mashup, user supported site that reported homeless people/bums locations and plugged their sightings into Google Maps and FakeYourSpace.com, a for-profit site that enabled users to post pictures of models from stock photography to beef up their friends lists on MySpace. In all honesty if you wanted to pretend you had more attractive friends I think you could easily find your own pictures and put them up for free. Neither of those sites are active anymore, mainly due to their controversial nature.
The article was found off of Digg.com and some of the comments posted about it were rather harsh. I don’t know if the people who commented truly read the article or what but another site created by Walker RottenNeighbor.com is a helpful concept in my opinion. Although deemed a tattle tail site, I personally would like to know the kinds of neighbors I would have if I moved into a particular housing or apartment community. I don’t see how the site is any less “controversial” than ApartmentRatings.com, it is a rental community site where users post about the pros and cons of living in particular apartment communities.
What are some similar sites that you have come across that may be deemed as “tattle tail” and do you find them pointless or useful?
Posted by nicosilva on May 21, 2008 at 1:40 PM
People gossip, it’s a fact of life. All because those types of people have ways to connect with others of their kind doesn’t mean that those sites are somehow shoddy or pointless. People wanted, they gave, that’s how the world works. If it’s being used, it’s useful.
A few of those really gave me a good laugh. What’s the point of Bumfinder? It’s funny, that’s what. I can’t really foresee a situation where I’d actively go and post about bum sightings, though, unless there was a person harassing others. People saw the need to make these sights, so apparently there is a demand out there. Somewhere.
Posted by jdbosley on May 21, 2008 at 5:03 PM
it is just programmableweb.com. if you want the list of mashups just go to /mashups. i thought i tagged it to you on del.icio.us at one point.