Rate Your IM Popularity 332
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."
why is this under hardware? (Score:3, Interesting)
highest score i've seen so far is in the 20,000 range.
The real winners (Score:5, Interesting)
Why, the zombie hackers of course. I imagine that their ICQ buddy lists must be light-years long.
Re:The real winners (Score:3, Interesting)
The summer that never ended.. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
screenname auction (Score:2, Interesting)
but I'm thinking with a score of 18245, I should sell it on eBay instead
Re:The real winners (Score:5, Interesting)
Isn't that kind of backwards...? (Score:2, Interesting)
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).
Worklists make you popular (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Missing option: No-gottum IM (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This sounds really cool... (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:I liked this game better when it was called... (Score:3, Interesting)
An interesting note on BuddyZoo and degrees of separation -- it was created by one of the creators of Synapse [synapseai.com], the other co-creator being the creator of thefacebook.com [thefacebook.com], with whom I worked on a small project several years ago.
Re:"Social Ladder"? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Only works for AIM of course (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Privacy implications? (Score:2, Interesting)