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Post by zdecent on Apr 7, 2010 20:50:47 GMT -5
So I've been taking a gander through the SPOTM for a long time now, and I've been a pogotribe member a while but I've just recently made an account, and I'll tell ya why... The projects I've seen so far are fantastic. They're inspired and brilliant, well organised and... yet... well... they're just a little bit small. Whilst I'm not saying that's a bad thing I just think the tribe is ready to think a bit bigger, since no doubt the Super Secret Project is gonna be pretty big; why not stretch our proverbial legs a lil bit? Whilst you are all free to discuss somewhat larger project ideas in this thread I have an idea I'd like you all to pick at. I propose an experiment that truly tests the progress of the internet. The internet was once a place where deceptive, inaccurate and untruthful information could be used to fool users of the internet into believing false information with relative ease. Whilst some argue that it is easier to do so now than ever before with the use of Wikipedia, YouTube and Urban Dictionary (to name a few) I would argue those same sites ensure that information is verified and edited before reaching a wider, less knowledgeable audience. Of course I could be completely wrong and being an avid internet lover I've had this discussion many a time and I really have no solid proof for or against either argument. As the experienced connoisseurs of the internet that we all are, why don't we attempt to create a harmlessly inaccurate piece of information that will be sure to spread through the internet quickly, perhaps with a bit of help, and see how long it takes for it to be declared as incorrect and stopped in it's tracks. Obviously the subject will have to be extremely obscure and on a subject the average person knows little or nothing about. I have a few ideas of my own for a concept that may work but I'm interested to know your ideas on the project as well as suggestions for what we could make it about. I think it'd be a great way to test the power of the internet. I look forward to reading all your posts and working with you in the future, whether on this project or others. Regards, Z
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Post by click3tyclick on Apr 7, 2010 20:52:01 GMT -5
What kind of information do you have in mind?
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T3CHN0B4BBL3
Moon
Self-proclaimed zombie, trying to a find cure
Posts: 162
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Post by T3CHN0B4BBL3 on Apr 7, 2010 21:08:07 GMT -5
Hmm, this oddly reminds me of Fight Club... Anyways, I'm interested in where this is going.
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Post by zdecent on Apr 7, 2010 21:13:15 GMT -5
Click3tyClick - I'd be interested to hear your own ideas before I present my own. I often find that a wider spectrum of ideas follows a minimal starting point. T3CHN0B4BBL3 - I hope I don't cause anywhere near as much destruction...
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Camoon
Star
[AWD:01020307]
Trust your pilot, respect your monkey.
Posts: 574
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Post by Camoon on Apr 7, 2010 21:24:07 GMT -5
I like the way you think. How about... we claim that there's an alien being held right now in Area 51, and that there was a recent UFO crash. We do a Roswell 2.0.
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Helmet
Star
Man Up By Womaning Down
Posts: 567
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Post by Helmet on Apr 7, 2010 21:28:00 GMT -5
Sounds like a cool idea, I'm in.
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Post by click3tyclick on Apr 7, 2010 21:41:15 GMT -5
I like the way you think. How about... we claim that there's an alien being held right now in Area 51, and that there was a recent UFO crash. We do a Roswell 2.0. Originality's awesome.
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Post by zdecent on Apr 7, 2010 23:15:36 GMT -5
Camoon Lee, I was thinking something a lil more unreal. A lot of people on the internet already think there are alien-like stuff going on in Area 51 and there's plenty of internet stuff for and against it. I'm looking for a concept that the internet has fairly little to offer information about. The point is to see how the internet works in proving our idea wrong out of nowhere!
I'm looking to use a variety of methods to make all the evidence on the internet point to a single incorrect conclusion and then watch the reaction as the truth is unveiled
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Post by Joey on Apr 7, 2010 23:17:24 GMT -5
That there are a group of people planning to save us after 2012 hidden underneath Hollywood?
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Yokailo
Star
[AWD:020307]
I like things.
Posts: 734
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Post by Yokailo on Apr 8, 2010 0:10:27 GMT -5
Dan Brown is God?
Nahh, I don't know how you would see how long it would take to disappear, though.. Unless it's something that could get into the news, but I doubt that.
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Post by Andy Glover on Apr 8, 2010 3:05:59 GMT -5
I like this idea, but I think it would be even cooler if it somehow eliminated some worldsuck.
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Post by bombmaniac on Apr 8, 2010 3:25:27 GMT -5
well...on wikipedia it will be taken down in around 5 minutes...on youtube, who honestly cares sunce YT is full of bogus information, and on urban dictionary it will either not get noticed, or edited within a day...
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RabbitWho
Star
Rebecca - How 'bout we all put or real names somewhere in our signatures or titles? [SKB:]
Posts: 808
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Post by RabbitWho on Apr 8, 2010 3:37:08 GMT -5
I don't want to be part of something like that because it's kind of impossible to reverse these things. For example how many of you think you only use 10% of your brains? Not true, you use 90-100% of your brains but someone randomly picked that number and wrote it in a book over 100 years ago and the majority of people still believe it. Neuroscience for kidsIt's much easier to get information out than to call it back. However how about we take a piece of false information like that which's already out there that and track exactly how prevalent it is on the internet vs. how easy it is to find things online to disprove it. The problem is most of the time what information we come across is random, so the chances of also randomly coming across the the antidote when you're not looking for it is quite small.
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Post by Johncoyne on Apr 8, 2010 5:26:31 GMT -5
Why are we doing something that would increase world suck? Doesn't that go against the purpose of the whole tribe?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2010 5:27:55 GMT -5
hm, I don't really see the purpose in spreading false information :/
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RabbitWho
Star
Rebecca - How 'bout we all put or real names somewhere in our signatures or titles? [SKB:]
Posts: 808
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Post by RabbitWho on Apr 8, 2010 5:40:26 GMT -5
I agree with you two, but don't you think there's a way of changing this idea to make it positive? As it is it's very Fight Club "Let's destroy the world to let them realize how crap it is" Where as we want to make the world better. But at its core it's a very doable and clever idea.
So let's find some false information that's already circulating and see if we can circulate the antidote. There's loads of stuff to choose from, the death panels of the health care bill is the first one that comes into my head. I'm not talking about arguing against it, because there are enough people doing that... maybe we can make a short sweet and interesting sentence, something short enough to go into a tweet, that we can get to go viral. Say for example we find someone who can't get health insurance in America right now because of a pre-existing condition, and next year they will be able to. And we just take their name "John Smith who has *name of condition* will be able to buy health insurance next year" and we all tweet that and spread it everywhere we can. Just an example, anything like this, some short, beautiful, positive fact.
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Post by Andy Glover on Apr 8, 2010 5:49:38 GMT -5
I like your thinking, RabbitWho. So, what little known fact should we choose to spread around?
I think maybe a bit of positivity, like:
"What you do over the course of any one day has the potential to dramatically increase your quality of life."
Thoughts?
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Post by hey light on Apr 8, 2010 6:28:43 GMT -5
This sounds interesting, but how do we track the spread of the information?
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RabbitWho
Star
Rebecca - How 'bout we all put or real names somewhere in our signatures or titles? [SKB:]
Posts: 808
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Post by RabbitWho on Apr 8, 2010 7:03:07 GMT -5
We keep track by making it an original sentence which at this moment has 0 google hits when typed in within "inverted commas" the more hits we get the more successful we are. Okay so! Why don't we make a list of possible sentences. 1. It has to be true. 2. It has to have the potential to fight worldsuck in some way 3. It has to be retweetable, as in, it has to be someone that non tribe members will see and say "That's awesome, I want to share that! Like "Skateboarding is not a Crime" but hopefully more universally significant. 4. It's great if it's the antidote to some existing piece of general ignorance, widespread lie etc. Anything else to add to the list? When we have a full list we can make a new list with a poll, and then work on getting the sentence to go viral What do yee think?
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Post by zdecent on Apr 8, 2010 9:50:43 GMT -5
I love the way this idea has evolved doods. Perhaps I was a little short sighted in my original ideas but I want to make it clear that my idea would have in no way caused world suck. In fact, the point of the experiment is to measure the usefulness of our tool: the internet, so that we can better understand it as we utilise it in our other worldsuck decreasing actions.
Conjoin & RabbitWho - Nowhere in the pogotribe values does it state the primary function of every project must be to decrease worldsuck however is does say to use our awesomeness for good and it does say to think impossibly big. Whilst I am grateful for you highlighting the errors in my (incredibly rough) plan I am not apologetic: I think the best way to go about these things is to THINK up something impossible, and then together find a way that we can DO it to a perhaps lesser degree. And I accept that there are aspects of the experiment which will not work.
Like RabbitWho says; I too believe this project, at it's core, is doable and a good starting point but I'm not sure that spreading a sentence around the web will accomplish much. The original idea was not to see how many people read it, but the time it took for the information to be deleted, removed etc. Wikipedia only knows as much as it's users and the point of the project was to pick a subject it's users know next to nothing about.
For example, if I were to tell you that the fairly unrecognised study into the nature of "pins and needles" has been ongoing for many years and that some scientists, or as they are known, Hapnicologists, have actually discovered a cure for "Hapniistosis" or as it is colloquial known; pins and needles. Information like that is pretty harmless, and if various places on the internet convey a similar message then it's possible that a discovery like that might go viral. And if a few people were not to get the news that it was a lie, it would hardly increase worldsuck. But that was just a silly example.
I've heard the 10% myth many times and I was under the impression it stemmed from an incorrect interpretation of correct information; it is true we rarely use the majority of our brain and sometimes use as little as 10% on a single task, it's highly possible someone got all those words confused and they formed a single, incorrect statement.
All your suggestions have lead me to think a completely different way about this project and I'd still be interested to know how you think we should approach it. But I'm certain that attempting to spread a sentence would not go viral, and would be hard to measure. Despite those two problems, I also don't see how it's results would be applicable to our use of the internet in future, perhaps my original plan had the same flaw.
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