How Google+ Punk'd The Oatmeal

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How Google+ Punk'd The Oatmeal

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday August 14, 2012 @10:33AM from the revenge-is-a-dish-best-served-in-vanity-URLs dept.

ryzvonusef tips this quote from TechCrunch about a tit-for-tat exchange between Google+ and the creator of The Oatmeal webcomic: "This summer, the artist (Matthew Inman) wrote that Google+ comment threads sound like *crickets*, poking fun at the social network's lack of engagement. He also criticized not being able to 'set up a fancy profile URL so I don't have to link people to http://plus.google.com/blergasdf1234thimbleturdorgasm99meatpoopypoopxv9donkeypie ' — a made-up, ridiculously long string of random characters. ... In retaliation, the Google+ team didn't cite its user growth stats or give an excuse for why there are no custom profile URLs. ... Instead, they just redirected the vanity URL back to The Oatmeal author Matthew Inman's Google+ profile. Congrats, Matt, you've now got 'donkey pie' at the end of your own special Google+ vanity URL."

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I still don't get it by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-14 10:37 · Score: 5, Funny

What does "punk'd" mean?
1. Re:I still don't get it by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-14 10:42 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  What does "punk'd" mean?
  It's a reference to a TV show from a few years ago where Ashton Kutcher would play pranks on-
  Oh. I see.
  Well played.
2. Re:I still don't get it by Farmer+Tim · 2012-08-14 10:42 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  It means someone watches too much awful television and doesn't own a thesaurus.
  
  --
  Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
3. Re:I still don't get it by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-14 10:53 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Okay, I think I've got it. So the heading should be "How Google+ watches too much awful television and doesn't own a thesaurus The Oatmeal".
4. Re:I still don't get it by Jeremiah+Cornelius · 2012-08-14 11:02 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Yeah.... Burn!!!!!
  -- Signed, Kelso
  
  --
  "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
  Never been known to fail..."
5. Re:I still don't get it by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-14 13:35 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  TFS actually highlights what I consider to be Google's biggest problem: they don't listen.
  They don't listen when we tell them about faults with search.
  They don't listen when we tell them about faults with gmail.
  They don't listen when we tell them about faults with google shopping.
  They don't listen when we tell them about faults with Google+.
  They don't listen when we tell them we've come to depend on service X, and please don't discontinue it.
  And so, eventually, we wander away, and this is when the crickets come into play.
6. Re:I still don't get it by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-14 15:44 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Not trying to be an asshole, but they don't listen because they still have a shitload of users / information generators despite not listening. They don't -have- to listen.
7. Re:I still don't get it by aaronb1138 · 2012-08-14 19:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  You don't seem to understand that in most fields, crowdsourcing from the general public works really badly. Just look at the results of any given election. Consider GeoCities and MySpace were the result of letting everyone have input.
  On the other hand, crowdsourcing can be really effective when the source group are experts and learned enthusiasts.
  So, no, unless you have years of experience doing graduate level research in search, e-mail, or social networking, you should probably stop speaking with entitlement that Google should listen to you. If you have such experience, go get a job with them or build something better.
8. Re:I still don't get it by geminidomino · 2012-08-14 23:57 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Because unlike some other Robin hoods, I can speak with an English accent!
The reality... by mythosaz · 2012-08-14 10:38 · Score: 4, Insightful

G+, a vastly superior platform.... ....except that there's nobody on it, which is what makes a social platform superior.
Unless your preferred social experience is finding new social groups, you're pretty much boned.
I participate in the Dragon Age Legends community when it was live, but when that closed, I wandered away...
1. Re:The reality... by SomePgmr · 2012-08-14 10:51 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Facebook doesn't make people stupid so much as us stupid people like using it. Subtle difference. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go windex my window screens.
2. Re:The reality... by History's+Coming+To · 2012-08-14 10:54 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  The average IQ is 100 by definition, it can't go up and down.
  
  I know what you mean though, the average internet chatter does make me wonder.
  
  --
  Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
3. Re:The reality... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-14 11:00 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  The average IQ is 100 by definition, it can't go up and down.
  So I can actually increase my IQ by simply killing people who are smarter than me. Something to think about.
4. Re:The reality... by History's+Coming+To · 2012-08-14 11:20 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Yes, precisely. I'd never actually considered that, I like it. You're obviously smarter than me...
  
  And thus began the IQ wars, and a species' return to the trees...
  
  --
  Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
5. Re:The reality... by Local+ID10T · 2012-08-14 11:53 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The signal (# of users) on G+ is moderate. The noise (# of junk posts forced upon you) on G+ is extremely low.
  Thus, the S/N ratio on G+ is very good.
  All of this is by comparison to FB.
  (The best thing about G+ is that it is not FB...)
  
  --
  "You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
6. Re:The reality... by History's+Coming+To · 2012-08-14 11:56 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  An IQ of 100 is defined as the sample mean. It doesn't matter whether you mean the IQ of everyone on the planet, all Ugandans, everybody with brown eyes or all Slashdot readers, 100 is the sample mean of that group.
  
  --
  Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
7. Re:The reality... by tuppe666 · 2012-08-14 11:56 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Actually, the average IQ is constantly rising - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
  After reading the very long and very boring Wikipedia page which contained lots of reasons why over a hundred years, Peoples *results* from IQ tests have been higher...everything from Genetics; Good Eating; Learning Stuff. You get to the end...And their is a rather large section titled "Possible end of progression" which basically states that the the Flynn Effect was over as much as 37 years ago, and shows many results showing no change, marginal increases, or a deterioration in IQ scores.
  You should really have read the link before posting it.
8. Re:The reality... by MikeBabcock · 2012-08-14 12:00 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Actually there's a lot of people on it. I'm not particularly special and I have over 1000 followers myself, with many of my posts generating two or three comments and plusses. That's quite good considering none of these people know me at all.
  When I tell people how to use G+, I tell them to use the search bar. People aren't accustomed to being able to Google social interactions, but you can on G+ (so long as they're not private).
  So if you're into cars https://plus.google.com/s/cars or funny hats https://plus.google.com/s/funny%20hat or many things in between https://plus.google.com/s/needlepoint ... you can find discussions about those topics, join in, and add the people who are interesting *to you* to your circles for those topics. If they find you interesting back, they may even circle you in return.
  You can build great relationships with complete strangers (a lot like on isolated subject forums) and choose what to share with each group, or share publicly for everyone to enjoy.
  If I want tor each the average person I went to highschool with, there's still Facebook.
  
  --
  - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
9. Re:The reality... by NatasRevol · 2012-08-14 12:22 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Why? You summed it up nicely.
  
  --
  There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
10. Re:The reality... by garyebickford · 2012-08-14 12:54 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  So you're saying that each person that leaves Facebook and goes to Google+ reduces the mean IQ of both?
  
  --
  It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
11. Re:The reality... by garyebickford · 2012-08-14 12:55 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Strange, the other day I was thinking that Facebook wouldn't be so bad if you got rid of all those people.
  Kinda like California!
  
  --
  It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
12. Re:The reality... by rpresser · 2012-08-14 14:38 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  And my brand new social network Rossy, not yet released, containing at present exactly one post which is not junk, has a S/N ratio of infinity.
  So much for S/N as a metric.
13. Re:The reality... by Simon+Brooke · 2012-08-14 23:14 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  G+, a vastly superior platform.... ....except that there's nobody on it, which is what makes a social platform superior.
  Actually the vastly superior platform is Diaspora... which no-one is using either.
  
  --
  I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
XKCD? by SuperKendall · 2012-08-14 10:48 · Score: 3, Insightful

It's the kind of childish joke I'd expect from an xkcd fan.
XKCD is about the least childish comic you can find, web or otherwise. Not sure where that came from..
It's been a while since Google hired on merit rather than "fit".
Did they stop the quest for people with PHD's or abnormally high grades? I hadn't heard that.

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Way to go Google+ team! by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2012-08-14 10:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

You've pretty much proved the guy's point! All right!
On the plus side, by astroturfing this on Slashdot you'll almost certainly show a huge blip in traffic to that link - which you can turn around and use in your end-of-month report to show even more phenomenal Google+ growth!
Wait, that was probably your whole idea from the get-go, wasn't it?

--
#DeleteChrome
Re:ummm....Punk Oatmeal? by Anubis+IV · 2012-08-14 10:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

Basically, a webcomic called The Oatmeal made fun of G+, claiming that it was impossible to make short URLs on G+, and they cited the aforementioned http://plus.google.com/blergasdf1234thimbleturdorgasm99meatpoopypoopxv9donkeypie as a fictional example of this problem. Google, feeling particularly clever, decided to redirect the up-until-then fictional URL to point directly to The Oatmeal's G+ page.
This is allegedly humorous enough that it warranted being posted here. I beg to differ.
Sour grapes much? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-14 10:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

Occasionally, Google does something cool (like the speech-synthesis YouTube comment feature they added after and xkcd comic) but this just reeks of sour grapes from the Google plus team. It comes off as immature and petty.
1. Re:Sour grapes much? by MikeBabcock · 2012-08-14 12:13 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Ironically Google+ also announced shortened URL availability for verified accounts, which I'm sure the Oatmeal would qualify for.
  In the mean time, they did this redirect, and it is quite funny.
  
  --
  - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Re:ummm....Punk Oatmeal? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-14 10:57 · Score: 5, Funny

You should beg for a sense of humor instead.
Re:ummm....Punk Oatmeal? by ThePeices · 2012-08-14 11:02 · Score: 4, Funny

I beg to differ.
Permission granted. You may now differ.
Re:Wow! That's almost hilarious! by rahvin112 · 2012-08-14 12:48 · Score: 5, Funny

Childish?
Childish would be receiving a lawsuit threat and settlement request for $20,000 from a lawyer, drawing a comic about said lawyers mother being humped by bears, then creating a charity drive called bears good, cancer bad to collect money for two very worthwhile charities. Then collecting nearly $200,000 in contributions for the charity drive, collecting the money as cash, arranging said cash into the words Fuck You, taking a picture of said arrangement and sending the photo to the lawyer.
That might be considered childish. The author of the Oatmeal comic did that.
Re:Google is like '90s Microsoft... by PopeRatzo · 2012-08-14 13:15 · Score: 3, Funny

Firefox; Linux; OpenOffice
Yeah, it's a real shame how Microsoft wiped those out and they disappeared.

--
You are welcome on my lawn.
They *do* listen by pamar · 2012-08-14 17:54 · Score: 3, Informative

I suppose that the original post should have included at least two things:
a) Apart from the harmless prank, Google is actually moving towards sane aliases for G+ profiles: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/13/google-plus-custom-url/
b) For the impatients, there is a sort of "url shortener" providing the service now: http://iplus.im/
Apologies if someone else mentioned this already and I missed it in the discussion.