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Rate Your IM Popularity
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."
just curious.
highest score i've seen so far is in the 20,000 range.
So who's going to win this?
Why, the zombie hackers of course. I imagine that their ICQ buddy lists must be light-years long.
www.eissq.com/BandP.html Ball and Plate System. Amuse your friends. Crush your enemies.
myspace being bought out, the growing popularity of all these online "social networking" sites (read: online ego jerkoff sessions, basically) and now this?
Ugh. More & more 'tweeners that don't know squat about computers except how to click & install Napster and AIM.
I'm saddened at what the Internet has become.
I was going to give up my old ScreenName to get a better one...
but I'm thinking with a score of 18245, I should sell it on eBay instead
It seems to me that A should add more to my score than B does, because A is more selective as to whom she considers her friend.
It's like being A-listed (pun intended).
This will be wildly scewed by people who use IM for work. In my experience, most workplaces use MSN but I am sure some use AIM. I have dozens of workmates grouped by their functional area. According to this, I am really popular. THere are people here at work that have 100s in their lists, since they are on my list does that make me cool?
No IM, tried it twice and found it to be the most invasive annoying technology I've ever used. As far as cell phone, I have a pre-paid T-mobile for basic use but that's about it. I also don't have many friends... but that doesn't bother me as I tend to be a bit solitary and quite enjoy it. I think this always connected stuff is a bit out of hand. Last Weekend I was at State College (Penn State Alum) at the arts festival and every single person on the street and in bars is on a cell phone. two people walking together down the road both on cell phones... four people sitting at a bar together, all four on cell phones. Why even go out? What do people get from this? I guess this fad missed me by one generation and jeebus am I glad.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Actually, I found it kind of interesting, but not for popularity.
I did a little search on my accounts and compared them to each other. I was most interested in the account I've had for about seven years that AOL shut down out of nowhere for no reason with no explanation (and they wouldn't help unless I became an AOL subscriber).
My main account these days is around 3,000 on that scale.
The account I've had for seven years, but haven't been able to use for almost two years now, was 23,000 on that scale.
Just goes to show that if someone where to just yank away your email account or AIM account or phone number out of nowhere, you potentially lose a lot of contacts and communication. Even if you retain contact lists, the retention rate when you switch contact methods is never complete.
An interesting note on BuddyZoo and degrees of separation -- it was created by one of the creators of Synapse, the other co-creator being the creator of thefacebook.com, with whom I worked on a small project several years ago.
Note to self: Stop putting jokes in my insightful comments so I can get something other than +1 Funny!
IM has become an ESSENTIAL part of my work. We pass code snippets, ask each other design questions, and even share pieces of screenshots ("I'm seeing something really weird. Here is a shot showing the anomoly" etc...)
IM has the advantage of being slightly more immediate than email, yet can be freely ignored if you're busy with something else. When you're concentrating on something important and someone sends an IM, you can just hit ESC and close the window. That's a bit more difficult to do with a ringing phone...
Also, IM has the advantage of automatic logging. Everything I send or receive is logged on my PC (with the option for manual deletion). I can go back and refer to an answer later. You can't do that with a phone conversation either.
All in all, my work would be much more difficult without IM.
Uh, ICQ is owned by AOL now, chap. And neither AIM nor ICQ segregate based off country, nor is there any difference in the technical skills of the users.
:)
Now, if you just want to be an elitist and advocate a better protocol, feel free. But I would suggest you stop advocating ICQ and start advocating Jabber.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
What if I don't want my 'popularity' published?