The Plurkfect Storm Part 1: Hugs, text orgies and flame wars.

I wrote about Plurk's strange blend of public and private communication a couple weeks ago. Last week the site exploded with interactions so emotionally charged that they inspired a planned Gender Freedom Day In Virtual Worlds event in Second Life. So it seemed like a follow-up post was in order.

First, a little background. Plurk is a micro-blogging service with a twist. Participants can post short text messages called "Plurks." When you log in you see posts from those who have given you permission to be either a "friend" or a "fan" arrayed on a timeline. Plurk's most unique feature is the ability to spawn a near-real-time chat thread from any post. The example below shows a Plurk I posted, followed by comments.



Although you can see Plurks from only those who have given you permission to subscribe, you do see everyone's comments on Plurks you can access. So if Joe is my friend and Jane comments on one of his Plurks, I can see Jane's comments even though I'm not her friend or fan. Since comments appear in almost real time, they can end up feeling like typical chat room conversations. People often meet on Plurk through conversations within comment threads of mutual friends. (For more info see The Ten Minute Guide to Plurk.)

Plurk's two-way conversational capability has created (at least in my circle of mostly Second Life expatriates) a kind of corner-bar atmosphere. People talk about everything under the sun from troubles with their sweethearts to sporting events they're watching on television. There is also a great deal of communication depicting imagined physical actions ranging from hugs to explicit sexual activity.

So back to the story. Last week some guy got really, really angry after his virtual girlfriend participated in a girl/girl text orgy within a comment thread. He took out his emotional upset by flaming the hell out of someone in a series of increasingly venomous messages on a comment thread tied to an unrelated Plurk. People jumped in on either side. The flame skirmish turned into a full-blown flame war, including very personal attacks.

The conflict spilled out of Plurk. Although the original thread was deleted by the person who made the original Plurk, someone posted a copy to a blog and is now accessible to anyone on the internet. Sophrosyne Stenvaag, a prominent Second Life resident, took the events so seriously that she decided to sponsor a full day fundraiser supporting organizations promoting freedom of expression of gender identity and sexual preference in digital worlds.

So what's up with all this? Was the original incident a tempest in a teapot or does it speak to deeper and more pervasive problems? Does a social circle of a few hundred active participants mean anything in the wider worlds? Do the actions of even the entire 23,000 or so people active on the whole Plurk service indicate trends extending beyond Plurk's borders? Why are some people so mean? How can people feel hurt by a text message from a stranger? How you can you find and take part in the next text orgy (Plorgy?) Why has Botgirl written such a long post when she's supposed to be taking it easy after finishing work on the art show (shameless plug)?

These and other questions will be examined when I continue in Part 2: Social Media as Interactive Reality TV

Avatars want to be free

Night vs Human comic out in multiple web formats

The Night vs. Human comic that premiered with the opening of Botgirl's Identity Circus is now available on the web in a number of formats. You can view it in a virtual book at Issuu, a web comic at SmackJeeves or in the highest resolution on flickr.

Get your own - Open publication

All Of Me Beta Invites - New lifestream timeline

All Of Me, a new lifestream visualizer is out in closed beta. Although they don't offer an RSS feed importer, they link to flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Picassaweb and will soon add Facebook and Google Calendar. You can also upload local images, videos and web pages from your computer. One nice unique feature out soon is a playable, embeddable widget that comes in a number of styles.

I have 100 beta invites to share, so feel free to give it a try.

Step into the Avatar Transformer if you dare

If you don't think you're identified with your avatar then I dare you – I double dare you – to step into the Avatar Transformer at Botgirl's Identity Circus.

Zada Zenovka took what I thought was an NPSL idea I've been toying with for months and figured out how to make it work.

For all humanity's diverse experimentation with avatar forms, it is one thing to step into a new look that you choose; quite another to spin the wheel and take whatever comes your way. UnezzedRuth or LittleHobbit. AndiyAndrogyny or BettyBimbette.

Give it a try before your next social engagement and then show up in a random form. See what it feels like. If you dare.

Whew!

The opening of Botgirl's Identity Circus went flawlessly! I want to especially thank a few people who really helped make it a success:

Sabrinaa Nightfire for building the incredible tent that housed the show, plus very cool commemorative t-shirts;

Charlanna Beresford for taking charge of the avatar transformation exhibit and listening to me whine about all the long hours; and

Zada Zenovka who created what is, as far as I know, the first-ever random avatar dispenser and transformation-assist device in Second Life.

Also thanks to Dale Innis posing for yet another morph video and Georg Janick for hosting the event and inviting me to put it together.

Oh yeah, and Majic for begin such a good sport.

The exhibit will be up at least until SL Comic-Con on October 3, so please stop by if you get a chance.

Here's the new Dale video that premiered at the show:

Plurk hole: Privacy part 2

Your Plurk user name and identifying information are passed along every time you click a link embedded in a Plurk message from your timestream. Here is an example from my blog reports. I've inked out everyone but Codie.



Going from your user name to additional identifying information is just a click away. The next image shows that if you are at work or school, that information is also passed along. Wonder what someone at Microsoft was doing on my blog for 102 minutes? I think they're looking for a Jerry Seinfeld replacement for commercials and are considering Botgirl.



One more click and your physical location, operating system and other tidbits are revealed.



The key security flaw in Plurk, is that you view posts in a url that has your user name, for instance: http://www.plurk.com/user/botgirl. So when I click a link, my user name goes right along with it. Twitter doesn't have that problem because the browsing url is twitter.com/home.

There are two easy ways to avoid this issue if you care about it. First, don't click links. Instead, copy the link and paste it into a new browser tab. Another more sneaky way is to browse another user's timeline and click from there. That will send their user name along with your other information.

That's all here till Monday. I hope to meet some of you at the Identity Circus opening on Sunday.