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Rate Your IM Popularity

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-thought-the-internet-was-to-get-away-from-this dept.

aicrules writes "The internet has long been a safe haven, and thus a play-field-leveling force, for the less socially adept to create a network of friends to share in fun, games, and conversation. However, it appears as if the influence of the social ladder is creeping its way in. While it will certainly lend itself to the abuse that any online scoring system faces, AimFight is the new place where people can go to check their popularity against others." From the article: "Your popularity is based on who has you on their buddy list. There's a complicated algorithm at work here. Your score is measured to the third degree, in the sense of the 'six degrees of separation' game that seeks to link anybody on Earth to any other person through no more than five friends. Say a couple of your friends, A and B, have you on their buddy lists. A, who has three people on her buddy list, doesn't add much to your score. That's because she doesn't have as many people on her buddy list as does B, who has 16. Your friend A is clearly not as well-connected as your friend B. Not unlike life."

20 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. Still no friends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dang, and I thought online no one knew I had no friends.

  2. I don't have any. by elgee · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have no friends whatsoever. At least not human friends.

    AmISnotOrNot ?

  3. Well that was unexpected by doublem · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess those high school bullies really did peak in high school.

    I'm incredibly popular by this measure, and one of the jerks who tormented me is a virtual unknown!

    Karma, it can be a bitch.

    --
    "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
    1. Re:Well that was unexpected by jinzumkei · · Score: 2, Funny

      Really? Let me borrow a pen, so I can write that down on the list of things I give a shit about.

  4. This sounds really cool... by g0bshiTe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh never mind, I'm not 12 anymore.

    --
    I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
  5. Nerds! by endeitzslash · · Score: 3, Funny

    Everyone knows that popularity in real-life is based on whether you're on the football team and how many girls have held still long enough for you to nail them!

    Now would you like fries with that?

  6. Re:Missing option: No-gottum IM by Bonker · · Score: 2, Funny

    I must suck since I don't use IM.

    Strangely, I still seem to be able to get laid whenever I want.

    Hmm... Seems that my Geek Card is expired. Not sure I'm going to renew.

    --
    The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
  7. Oh I get, Slashdot changed their format,,,, by dfn_deux · · Score: 4, Funny

    On my system it says something about "stuff that matters" in the upper right corner of this site...

    --
    -*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-
  8. Re:How? by thegamerformelyknown · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's run by AOL anyways, so I imagine it's all secure and such...

    --
    Foxed Design
  9. Random nonsense by ahem · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, just on a whim, I decided to see what things were more popular:

    apple (6293) vs orange (7389)
    coke (3830) vs pepsi (4274)
    snoopy (10653) vs garfield (3791)

    and finally...

    bush (2884) vs freedom (1422)
    bush vs iraq (1241)
    bush vs democracy (3)

    and most telling of all
    bush vs decency (0)

    --
    Not A Sig
  10. Re:Hardware? by ch-chuck · · Score: 5, Funny

    that'll be corrected in the dupe

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  11. Algorithms by cynic10508 · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's a complicated algorithm at work here.

    Translation: "We're not really sure how we got it to work. Basically we just randomly fiddled with things until we got an acceptable output." Much like the time-test C programming technique of adding/removing * and & to pointers until it works.

  12. Yet More Random Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ahem (334) vs. insightful political opinion (0)

  13. Nobody expects by RealProgrammer · · Score: 4, Funny

    their Spammish AIM position!

    --
    sigs, as if you care.
  14. Re:Missing option: No-gottum IM by sp0rk173 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Strangely, I still seem to be able to get laid whenever I want.

    You just choose not to, right?

  15. Re:why is this under hardware? by The-Bus · · Score: 2, Funny

    My girlfriend's is over 25,000.

    (Insert Tired Joke #2522 here)

    --

    Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.

  16. Re:The real winners by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 4, Funny

    That means as long as a geek latches on to a popular person, they can be popular by proxy.

    Sweet, just like High School!

  17. The best part, hands-down: by Marc2k · · Score: 2, Funny

    From the "What Is AimFight?" section:
    What can fighting really prove? Using a complicated algorithm, AIM® Fight crawls through the depths of the Internet to answer the all-important question that plagues us all blah blah

    Yee-ikes, traversing a tree is wicked hard. I'm glad I never had to learn to do anything like that in...oh, say..Comp Sci 1.

    --
    --- What
  18. Re:The summer that never ended.. by Angron · · Score: 2, Funny

    Seriously! The internet should only be for people who are really into computers! That way only intelligent people would be online - you know, people whose activities I consider to be worthwhile. Then I wouldn't have to deal with idiots online! Yeah!

  19. Re:Quick Perl hack by ForumTroll · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's not your fault it's ugly that's just the effect Perl has on anything. ;-)

    --
    "A Lisp programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing." - Alan Perlis