Contagious Media Showdown

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Posted by ryuzaki0 on Friday May 20, 2005 @05:16AM from the get-it-off-me-get-it-off-me! dept.

Philipp Lenssen writes "In the Contagious Media Showdown, competitors plant addictive memes to see who's best at viral marketing. The contest pages officially launched yesterday. The grand prize (most unique visitors) is $2000, with three other prizes at $1000 each for most links, most popular entry with a Creative Commons license, or first site with an Alexa ranking higher than 20,000."

26 of 114 comments (clear)

Winning strategy No. 1: by James_G · 2005-05-20 05:17 · Score: 5, Insightful

Get linked from Slashdot.
My own entry... by EnronHaliburton2004 · 2005-05-20 05:19 · Score: 4, Funny

Cowboyneal's Boobies.

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94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Just another SEO contest? by dos_dude · 2005-05-20 05:21 · Score: 4, Interesting

Viral marketing? Addictive memes?

Sounds like just another SEO contest to me. The only twist: not every one needs to use the same stupid made-up keyword.
WARNING! by Capt'n+Hector · 2005-05-20 05:22 · Score: 4, Funny

Do NOT click here what EVER you do, do NOT CLICK on the following link!
DEATH RAY OF DOOM

How's that for clickability? Come oooon, you know you want to...

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Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
My entry was called contagious media by Anonymous Coward · 2005-05-20 05:23 · Score: 3, Funny

All proceeds go to help fund MPAA/RIAA efforts. Thank you for your help.
Contest site is flawed by It+doesn't+come+easy · 2005-05-20 05:23 · Score: 5, Insightful

The contest site presentation is flawed (and therefore in this case the contest has been invalidated IMHO). By displaying and sorting links to the websites involved in the competition by rank, they are driving the leader's scores up (because people will tend to click on the leading links to see why everyone else thought it was so cool).

They should have simply supplied the link in a non-discrinating sort (such as alpabetical) and a very brief description of the site's theme. The ranking should not have been displayed until after the contest was completed.

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The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
1. Re:Contest site is flawed by Chris+Pimlott · 2005-05-20 05:27 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Hell, if this is supposed to be a real viral meme contest, they shouldn't have the pages listed on the contest page at all until after the contest is over.
2. Re:Contest site is flawed by kbeech · 2005-05-20 05:50 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  It would be interesting to see whether the winning sites were propelled to the top more via Slashdot or BoingBoing. CryingWhileEating and IP Justice League are already linked from BoingBoing.
3. Re:Contest site is flawed by NoInfo · 2005-05-20 07:23 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  I'm not sure why the #1 is at first place, the best one is:
  ipjusticeleague.com
  
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  bug.gd: error search engine. Humanity working together to solve all errors.
I just lost the game! by meatflower · 2005-05-20 05:23 · Score: 2, Informative

I just lost the game.
Reading this reminded me of something else that fits in the same realm as viral marketing, and that is The Game, a viral social phenomen. Confused?
1. Re:I just lost the game! by 01000011011101000111 · 2005-05-20 06:27 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  You. Utter. Bastard.
  There goes nearly a year's worth of not thinking about the game :(
  
  --
  Programming is an Art. I am an Artist. Does that mean I get to wear a daft hat?
If you want the most unique visitors by FidelCatsro · 2005-05-20 05:23 · Score: 3, Interesting

"Free Lesbian porn , hot naked girls on motor bikes " as a title .
then after that when someone clicks on the page ,, a big bold "Can not be found here , but what we do have is..." no-one is going to return and if the "But what we do have is.. " bit is intresting then you will get lots of links by people who found it funny and were not too narked off you didn't have a heap load of porn
Simple principle of marketing "Sex sells". Simple principle of the internet "Its full of porn"

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The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Re:Crying while eating? by shawb · 2005-05-20 05:24 · Score: 2, Insightful

Yeah, it's wierd. Most virals are. Odd thing is that in this case, since it is at the top of the list, more people will click on it first, and won't get bored and just go away. Being at the top ensures that you are at the top.

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I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
Re:Crying while eating? by Ribbo.com · 2005-05-20 05:31 · Score: 2, Interesting

Yes I remember there being some quiz question about "On the US governments website, which state has the most views of their fiscal statistics" or similar. Turned out to be Alabama, simply because they were at the top of the list.
Re:I think Slashdot just skewed the results by LiquidCoooled · 2005-05-20 05:31 · Score: 2, Funny

*Tinfoil hat area*

The page itself is Phillip Lenssen's own entry to the competition.
The real competition page doesn't even list the participants ;)

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liqbase :: faster than paper
Excellent excerpt by benhocking · 2005-05-20 05:35 · Score: 2, Funny

"We've documented over one hundred cases of male truck drivers suffering from uncontrollable lactation."

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Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
User agents by pjbgravely · 2005-05-20 05:36 · Score: 2, Interesting

Check out the user agents for the #1 site.
http://cryingwhileeating.com/plesk-stat/webstat/us age_200505.html#DAYSTATS
Strange!

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Star Trek, there maybe hope.
F:F:F by Shky · 2005-05-20 05:37 · Score: 2, Informative

William Gibon's book Pattern Recognition deals heavily with viral marketing and the creation of subcultures. It's a pretty interesting read, and a definite departure from his other stuff (his only book written in the present day).

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CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
Winning strategy No. 2 by RobotRunAmok · 2005-05-20 05:38 · Score: 4, Funny

Round up everyone who still drop the word "meme" into conversation and beat them bloody with aluminum softball bats.

Alright, alright, it may not be much of a "strategy" but words can't express how good it would feel.
1. Re:Winning strategy No. 2 by Soybean47 · 2005-05-20 05:47 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  The worst part about the whole "meme" phenomenon was that it was hard to complain about it without calling it a "meme." As in, "The 'meme' meme is the most annoying meme ever memed!"
2. Re:Winning strategy No. 2 by tool462 · 2005-05-20 06:25 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Come on, what's wrong with "meme?" You need to change your paradigm or you'll find yourself unable to synergize and compete with the mindshare of more proactive entities. Contemporize, man.
RetroVirus by Doc+Ruby · 2005-05-20 05:53 · Score: 3, Funny

What a great idea! I'm going to start my own "Contagious Media Showdown".

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make install -not war
Change the results... by It+doesn't+come+easy · 2005-05-20 05:55 · Score: 3, Interesting

Everybody, let's all click on the lowest ranking site together...

Ready, one, two, three, go!!!!

--
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
Slashdot Scooped by NPR by geomon · 2005-05-20 05:57 · Score: 2, Interesting

NPR covered this story yesterday.

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"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
1. Re:Slashdot Scooped by NPR by geomon · 2005-05-20 11:49 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  ..50% are 35-54.
  
  That is my category.
  
  As I said, older than dirt.
  
  Or that should be "Dir-te".
  
  --
  "Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Be honest... by It+doesn't+come+easy · 2005-05-20 06:03 · Score: 2, Funny

How many clicked on the "Girls who love Geeks" link first? (the other link is better)

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The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.