AltFave, March 3 Revisions
OK, based on some sound comments from people and answers to the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9JZGFH8 so far, AltFave specs have changed. We’ll make more changes as people weigh in — within reason, available resources, and general intent, a.k.a., “mission.” (Blech. Mission makes me throw up. Like synergy. And paradigm. And burrito. Never mind…)
Anyway, here’s what it looks like now:
AltFave account eligibility:
* NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS: LESS THAN 1500 to 6666 followers. Maximum followers to be determined by average of people’s responses to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9JZGFH8.
and/or
* LESS THAN A 10-25 to 1 ratio of Followers/Following. Depends on average of responses at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9JZGFH8.
AltFave Specifications:
* NO BANNED LANGUAGE. Fuck, cunt, motherfucker, you name it. All allowed. It’s for adults, not kids.
* NO BANNING PEOPLE. If a person meets AltFave account conditions and Twitter has not banned them, individual humans will not be banned from AltFave. (Bots are not people.) Repeat. If Twitter hasn’t banned you, AltFave won’t – for ANY REASON.
* ROLLING, PAGE-THROUGH LEADER BOARD
* NUMBER OF SLOTH NODS (a.k.a., stars) TO MAKE BOARD: 3 to 7
(TBD by average of http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9JZGFH8 answers.)
* Tweet author on daily leader board may be anonymous (I really really want anonymous, but majority of responses to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9JZGFH8 will probably determine this one.
* DAILY LIMIT OF STARS HARVESTED PER ACCOUNT = 333 to 1000 (TBD by average of responses at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9JZGFH8. (Sorry, but, no, AltFave will not keep your count for you or warn you we’re almost out. Extra bandwidth & server work.)
* Rolling, page-through individual pages (accessed via search, not linked icon)
* Icons of those who star a blurt SHOW on leader board
* Ability to star directly from any AltFave page (daily board & individuals’ pages)
* Leader board refreshes every 20, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. (Another survey question.)
* An AltFave leader board based on simple formula:
cumulative number of stars / number of tweets / number of followers
(will favor people with few tweets & followers, large number of stars/tweet)
* Refresh time for individual pages: no less than once/day, but no more than once/hour. (Resource use will determine this more than anything.)
Probably:
* Ability to follow directly from an individual’s page.
ELIMINATED:
* DAILY CONTEST. Why? Competition pollutes the social soil from which community may grow. Not that this is about “community.” (I’m leery of any use of community in relation to the internet. Those who sling it must define it before they have my attention or respect.)
What do you think? If you haven’t answered the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9JZGFH8, please do. This isn’t a democracy in the strictest sense, but your comments will be taken into account with a relatively open mind and can influence how AltFave will work. Please leave your thoughts below. No need to identify yourself.
Thanks,
joesmith (really)
AltFave – Twitter Star Site
So I have the domain and a CS friend who wants to to do this, so I’m gonna throw up yet another twitter star site. It will be called AltFave (or Slothnod) and located at www.altfave.org. Planned launch date: April 1st.
AltFave is especially is a content-based star site for people who aren’t yet/already hugely popular in Twitter Star Land: newer ppl, ppl with fewer than several thousand followers, non-comedic writers, and sundry people who are intriguing or entertaining but not necessarily huge on twitter and unable to crack the miniumum stars it takes to make the Favstar. AltFave is not intended to compete with Favstar. It’s meant to fill a gap, to provide a place for other people to get some recognition they might not otherwise. It’s a more level playing field for the hoi polloi. (Hoi polloi not an insult, btw.) AltFave is aimed specifically for the base of the Twitter Star Land social pyramid.
The mascot of Altfave is a sloth. Unpack that and you’ll have a pretty good idea of AltFave’s humble purposes.
What makes AltFave different? The conditions for opening an AltFave account:
* NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS: LESS THAN 3,666
* TWITTER OPENED AFTER NOVEMBER 1, 2008 (1½ years after Twitter’s launch, 6 months after Favrd launch in May 08)
* DAILY LIMIT OF STARS HARVESTED PER ACCOUNT = 500 to 1000 (No, AltFave will not keep your count for you.)
* Users must manually sign up once for stars to be harvested from and for them.
* LESS THAN 15-20 to 1 ratio of Followers/Following.
- Above conditions apply at time of sign up. If people gain more than 3666 followers over time, good for them. This is more about beginning with a more level playing field, not simply importing the already popular. We won’t police the numbers, but will reserve the ability to cut people loose when they have so many followers that damn every blurt makes the board without drama. The rules are posted when you sign up, so if you outgrwo Altfave, there are other places for you.
- Obviously, lopping off early adopters and people with several thousand followers is meant to level the field a bit. Then see what happens.
AltFave Specifications:
* Number of stars to make board: 3 to 5 (Majority rule on this choice. I’ll post a poll later.)
* Tweet author NOT identified on leader board
– (not hidden, though, on an individual’s page that’s found by search, not click)
* Rolling, page-through daily leaderboard.
* Star directly from any AltFave page (daily board, historical daily leaderboards, and individual pages)
* Icons of those who star a blurt SHOW on leader board (icons NOT linked. By design.)
* Scrollable individual pages (Requires search to see. No easy icon-based click-through.)
* Daily contest, Midnight-Midnight GMT)
- End of day, results posted, tweet authors revealed (Should be fun? The most probable cause for human drama. Begging others for stars late in the day. Whatever. If it matters that much. People do what people do.)
* Leaderboard refreshes no less than every 20, 30, maybe 45 minutes. (May diminish obsessive board watching for star addicts? Place hope here.)
* An AltFave leaderboard based on simple, known formula:
cumulative number of stars / number of tweets / number of followers
(will favor people with few tweets & followers, large number of stars/tweet)
* Daily leaderboard cumulative history page (scroll back or search by date)
* individual user pages require search to see. No easy icon-based click-through. By design.
* NO BANNED LANGUAGE. Fuck, cunt, motherfucker, you name it. All allowed. Intended for an adult audience.
* NO BANNING PEOPLE. If a person meets AltFave account conditions and Twitter has not banned them, individual humans will not be banned from AltFave. (Bots are not people.) Repeat. If Twitter hasn’t banned you, AltFave won’t. Period. Say what you will, without censorship.
* Refresh time for individual pages: no less than once/day, but no more than once/hour. (Resource use will determine this more than anything.)
Probably:
* Ability to follow directly from an individual’s page.
Note: @joesmithreally will NOT be included. This isn’t a vanity project. If “I” want anything out of this, it’s to have a blurt reader that’s not the same people through a day. It’s just an ALTERNATIVE to other star sites, an optional place to see new intriguing or entertaining people you might otherwise miss, and, yeah, to see yourself get some nods. (I wish stars were nods. Just little head nods. Y’know, less star-ry.) AltFave is not out to compete with other star sites. It’s an ALT + FAVE reader. No more. No less.
What do you think? This isn’t a democracy, but your comments will be seriously taken into account and maybe influence how this works. (I’ve made 1 big addition and 1 subtraction based on people’s thoughts thus far.) Please leave your thoughts below. No need to identify yourself.
Thanks,
joesmith (really)
One Way Web 1.0
I’d rather write here. Where nobody reads. Where you don’t know. Where nobody stars or hearts. Old School. Public. Yup. But probably unseen. Free. In a word.
In: Twanthropology
Deleted dumb rant blurts…
Feeling unappreciated at work & home. Yeah, sob fucken sob. Going on an unfollow binge. Taking it out on star stingy ppl.
Some ppl don’t do stars. Good. But of those who do, why follow someone if nothing they blurt is star worthy? To what end, then?
Fuck American celebrity culture. It’s not a culture. It’s an infestation. A toxic cloud, an invisible miasma of meh, seeping into our skin.
I hardly live for fucken twitter stars. And certainly not popularity. (Ha. If you knew…) But a nod now & then maintains relations. As IRL.
It’s all about relations. Fill that in as you will.
Fuck. So now I’ve turned into a trivial extortionist. Fucken stars make & ruin twitter simultaneously. At one with our anti-culture.
….
Big baby man woke up sensitive today. He’s better now.
In: Twanthropology
Frikins
I’ve been reading favrd & favstars star sites regularly since about March of last year. Some tweets and people deservedly stand out, gain a lot of popularity, do well in the star rankings, etc, ad nauseam, and they fully deserve it. But, after a while, the tweets, memes, pile-on topics, iPhone funnies & formulaic humor all run together into a river of meh. Humor isn’t everything and, in fact, when the lemmings start singing a meme or everybody’s jumping on the topic/s of the day, the boards become more than a bit banal. But I digress…
What matters more than humor? Quite a few things. Originality first & foremost. The composite person/a that comes through tweets, second. Also intrigue, interest, creativity, quirkiness, depth, use of language, perceived intelligence, shared attitude, mutual appreciation, to name a few more things. And yes — dammit, over time, despite myself and my decades-long avoidance of making “friends” on the innardtubes — a sense of kinship. Kindred spirits, kindred turns of mind, kindred bad attitudes, kindred je ne sais quoi. Anyway, these people are my favorites — in the broadest sense of favorite, beyond the dreaded stars. They’re real people, or so I think, people with whom I’ve sorta kinda developed a bit of fri-kin-ship.
Frikin, noun. New word. Kinda like friends, akin to kinship. People with whom I’ve sorta kinda have a kindred connection of some sort, people who don’t appear to play star games (showering stars for a while, then moving on up to lure more followers), several people who don’t bother at all with stars, and even a few really popular people (>1000 followers) who will talk to or stick a star on a leper’s blurt. (I tend to stop following people once they’re popular enough to make favstar >50% of time. No point in it.)
Anyway, these be my frikins. Old school follow list in alpha order.
@abrevi8
@afoolishwit
@Alter_ed
@ImAwake2
@amuirin
@avi1111
@Balut
@bedheadblonde
@Beef_Tongue
@bestgirlbetty
@blackstarz96
@BlingVodka
@blobert
@blondediva11
@blueyesbrunet
@Brain_Wash
@brokenlife
@bytErrant
@_CalebK
@CampNicole
@chiclet
@CinderellaJoey
@cloudeeuh
@crustyjuggler72
@CynicalNihilist
@Dylerium – My son. He doesn’t tweet often.
@dysolution
@EdgellACE
@EightBitsShort
@elbeard
@EsseErre
@Freakdad
@gothscifigirl
@GPappalardo
@grumpassgrumpaw
@iamnotdiddy
@ImAVeronica
@ImAwake2
@imlorilee
@IsJonas
@JarfOmega
@jebanthony
@JeanM617
@JohnnyChimpo
@kambrock
@linajk
@Lorisays
@melchie – Known in the flesh. Great guy. Wooing him for eventual biblical knowledge. (He’ll never see this so I can say that.)
@mlb_matos
@mnik
@MODAT
@muchty
@navanax
@nicedream
@NotHot
@northpacific
@ravenlll
@rejecter
@RexHuppke
@rheoflux – Known in flesh life. Great guy. And funny on twitter. Check him out.
@rongillmore
@sackofmindblow
@simontarr
@Scetches
@simontarr
@Spinchange
@Spooky_Johnson
@StuffinMyBrain
@SusAnimated
@switchbladephd
@talks_in_maths
@TerriSueWho
@theamygrace
@therealcherilyn
@Trick_or_tweet
@trixieboots
@vampisaurus
@vodkatoxic
@WadetoBlack
@warslaw
@YouSeeMike – DAMN glad to see my long lost brother back.
Special mention:
@debihope – She can’t play star games any more. She’s banned from favstar. I dug her months ago. I dig her now. She laid bare what had ALREADY BEEN a goddamn game, just played differently by earlier favrd adopters.
If you’re not here, untwist your undies. You’re newer (following you continously >1-2 months), I’m not sure whether you’ve got some damn star strategy going, you’re cool by me but became popular enough to stop following in main feed, I simply forgot. I need to update this list, too. There are quite a few people I want to add. Register comments/complaints below. Anonymity is fine, probably better. (In all aspects of life. heh.)
In: Twathology, Twiaries
List = Mistake
Fucked up again.
In: Twathology, Twiaries
Opinions on the innardtubes
iPhone app reviews are fine. Music, film, tv, maybe even book, reviews: fine. They’re opinions, right? Opinions with which one may agree or disagree.
But, my oh my, post opinions about the production of Twitites in Star Land? No, no, not that.
Me no unnerstand.
In: Twanthropology, Twiaries
The Over-Favrd 40
Why have a funniest list without a companion, most over-followed, over-rated list? Here are my choices for most undeservedly popular, starred Twitites. User name is followed by the date they joined twitter.
cleversimon Nov 16th, 2006
gruber Nov 30th, 2006
nevenmrgan Dec 1st, 2006
Tony_D Dec 2nd, 2006
AmyJane Jan 15th, 2007
zuhl Feb 8th, 2007
welsec Feb 26th, 2007
jimray Mar 8th 2007
bcompton Mar 11th, 2007
lonelysandwich March 28, 2007
texburgher Mar 19th, 2007
Remiel Mar 23rd 2007
Moltz Apr 5th, 2007
jdickerson Apr 10th, 2007
toldorknown Apr 12th, 2007
melissasantos Apr 12th, 2007
MsHiss Apr 17th, 2007
shoesonwrong May 7th, 2007
apelad Jun 8th, 2007
secretsquirrel Jun 13th, 2007
elizabite Jun 14th, 2007
SeoulBrother Jun 25th 2007
tj Jul 9th, 2007
essdog Jul 11th, 2007
biorhythmist Aug 8th 2007
frageelay Nov 30th, 2007
crispycracka Mar 26th, 2008
CcSteff Apr 8th 2008
InSoOutSo May 6th, 2008
seanhussey May 7th, 2008
sloganeerist May 11th, 2008
smartasshat May 21st, 2008
luckyshirt Jul 14th 2008
jasonpermenter Jul 16th, 2008
dwineman Jul 28th, 2008
zolora Sep 21st 2008
Jessabelle2o7 Sep 6th, 2008
irreverend Oct 7th, 2008
This is “unkind.” This is not “constructive.” Please. This is my opinion. Put yours below. If you must.
Note: Favrd apparently launched in May 2008
In: Twanthropology
Leper Taste: Funniest Twitites
I liked Greeblemonkey’s funny 50 list at http://www.greeblemonkey.com/2009/12/now-for-some-different-sorts-of-lists.html. I agreed with a lot of her choices, so I thought it was a pretty good list. I’m an inveterate, irritating list maker who’s been making music lists and engaging in other such year-end trivialities, so I thought I’d make a funniest 50 list of my own. My tastes are as fine as anyone’s and who’s going to be more objective than Star-Land’s social leper?
No order intended. Your results may vary.
badbanana
adamisacson
ruthakers
Trick_or_Tweet
GPappalardo
MrBigFists
xrayedman
bedheadblonde
gothscifigirl
RexHuppke
navanax
theduty
Freakdad
debihope
Beef_Tongue
Brain_Wash
iamnotdiddy
thebenbrooks
blueeysbrunet
rejecter
Thaozilla
bitterpuss
evrythingmustgo
crustyjuggler72
jane_bot
lafix
dysolution
trixieboots
cravenheart
WadetoBlack
afoolishwit
lorisays
reverendross
1surlygurl
indecisiviously
roughdiction
lukeinvan
therealcherilyn
79protons
EightBitsShort
MODAT
Girl11Eleven
northpacific
cpinck
abrevi8
mycorpse
linajk
blondediva11
fitzright
nicedream
abigvictory
davio1962
FriedWords
sween
blankslate
kolchak
gordonshumway
joeschmitt
Good on twitter; really good blogs:
bestgirlbetty Blog: http://bestgirlbetty.wordpress.com/
CousinBrandon Blog: http://cousinbrandon.wordpress.com/
There are a few other excellent ways to “do twitter.” As many ways to do it as there are people, if you think about it. And I certainly don’t follow people for humor alone. Far from it. That would be rather empty, and certainly repetitive, and likely, in time, rather dull. But, for these purposes, humor alone was considered for these purposes.
Nobodies only. No celebrities included. Otherwise, @SarahKSilverman and @michaelianblack would’ve been here.
-
Oh, yeah. Primary criteria?
- originality
- consistency (cumulative star batting average of .400 plus)
- composite portrait of an actual person behind blurts
- Biases
- Make me think, just an itsy bit, AND heh or LOL. Yeah. That’s the shit.
- Book learnin’ is better than tv watchin’.
- More than 1 layer of possible meaning preferred. Surface-only humor can be funny, but a humor/serious combo, and any layered language ready to explode in an attentive mind, beats the bejesus outta single-surface humor every time. In my book, at least — even though, yup, sure, a few of the funniest above are mostly surface. It’s a good surface.
- Hard-earned (a.k.a “dark”) humor, grounded in hard daily realities = bonus.
* If you’re on this list and think I’m trying to ingratiate myself to you, go fuck yourself. Please.
* If you’re not on this list and you’re disappointed, I’m sorry. It doesn’t mean you’re not funny, and sheesh, I’m following you. In the main feed. In the limited time of mortal life. For a reason. I’m trying to be as objective as possible here, setting any kinship aside.
* Despite this list, I still wish humor weren’t so predominant in Star Land. There are so many other interesting, intriguing, and intelligent ways to write <140 characters in a text box. There’s so much more to life than jokes. But Star-Land, nope. Not so much.
In: Twathology, Twiaries
12-31-09 Deleted Blurts
In the interest of being “constructive” (Hi, Joe Schmitt) I deleted these:
Your Mama gets old fast.
Your Mama ate a burrito and delivered a food baby while fucking herself with an iPhone. So damn funny I wanna upchuck. On your Mama.
In: Twanthropology