Friday, October 31, 2014

This Week - A Trending Halloween Hashtag

This week, I would like to talk about something that, while not ground-breaking, shows how Twitter is being used these days. Because today is Halloween, there is a hashtag trending on Twitter right now, #ScaryStoriesIn5Words, and people are tweeting about things that they may fear without admitting it, in 5 words or less. Click here to learn more about this trend and see some samples of what people have tweeted with this hashtag. This sample includes a tweet from Charmin, taking advntage of the popularity of this hashtag for marketing purposes.¶ While this practice is commonplace, this particular case shows the power of the hashtag very well. Because it is a Halloween-specific hashtag, it probably will not be trending tomorrow because the halloween excitement will have died down by then. However, it is interesting to see how people are taking advantage of the trend right now. There are 14 or 15 tweets mentioned in the article.¶ Seeing how businesses are taking advantage of a hashtag that will probably only trend for a day got me thinking about how I want to promote myself. I have a more personal blog where I talk about different issues ranging from political and social things to issues relating to new media and accessibility for blind and visually-impaired users of technology. I link to the post I made here about MasterCard’s new card with a fingerprint sensor in my post here about the accessibility implications of both Apple Pay and the new card.¶ If my other blog becomes popular, I might post questions on twitter and start a hashtag people can use to show that what they are tweeting is in answer to my original question. This could help get people talking about what I’m posting and sharing their opinions freely. Have a happy Halloween!

Friday, October 17, 2014

Apple Isn't the Only Company Planning to Use Biometrics to Authorize Transactions

Since Apple announced yesterday that it will be rolling out Apple Pay on Monday, there is a new development in the payment realm. According to this article on TechCrunch, MasterCard plans to release a credit card that uses biometrics, similar to Apple’s Touch ID. Instead of manually entering a PIN, the user would use their fingerprint to authorize transactions.¶ The scanner on the card will be charged with the terminals while in use, so it does not require conventional charging. The card looks like a regular credit card and has the same dimensions. The only difference is that there is a fingerprint sensor embedded into the card. The fingerprint data is stored on the card and not transmitted to another location, so it is less likely to be intercepted and stolen.¶ This is expected to come out sometime in 2015. It will be rolled out in markets outside of the US first because it uses a chip, but who knows? If Apple Pay really takes off, and if retailers find it worth supporting, this card might become popular in the US as another way to pay. If there are few issues with Apple Pay, this just might become popular as well. We’ll see how this turns out.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Professional Gaming: A New Sport

There is a new type of sport becoming increasingly popular: Professional, competitive gaming. with streaming services like Twitch dedicated to hosting players’ streams, fans can watch tournaments in progress from home. Fans can also donate directly to streamers to support them, and Amazon will give half of the money made from advertising to the players. Because of this, gamers can make enough money to live comfortably by playing the games they love. According to this article on Mashable, professional gaming first became popular in places like South Korea, but it took longer to become popular in the West because people didn’t think gaming could be a full-time job, at least not one that could pay the rent. Now, people are dropping out of college to pursue a professional gaming career. I may not be a gamer, but I think it’s great that professional gaming is taking off. For some people, the traditional 9-5 job might work, but for others, it might not. This could also provide opportunity for people who might not necessarily enjoy the college experience. Who knows what the implications of the popularity of professional gaming will be? We’ll just have to see. The article compares professional gaming to professional sports, but I see it being like professional blogging. For those people who stream their gameplay, they are broadcasting themselves playing the games they love, and that’s how they make their money. Some people blog for a living, and even though they are broadcasting their views through a different medium, they are still putting themselves out there.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Moderating Trolls in the Comments Section

We all know what it’s like to look through the comments on a video on YouTube or on a news site and find comments that are particularly nasty or offensive, but have you ever wondered what it is like for people who moderate these comments? An article on Mashable attempts to answer this question in an interview with Alex Chrum, moderator for debate.org, a site where people can discuss controversial topics. As you can imagine, trolls attempt to post comments with racial and sexists slurs, among other things, and Chrum is the one who decides what gets published and what doesn’t. Moderating these comments takes an emotional toll. When Chrum left work every day to go home, she was in a depressed mood. She would try not to think about the offensive comments when she was at home, but she took some of them personally because they were particularly offensive. Eventually, she found a way to not take them personally and to segment her life so that she would think about work when she was at work and think about home when she was at home. This is probably why, if you are a journalist who wrote a particular story, it’s not good to read the comments. Let the web team handle that stuff so you don’t take it personally. I don’t think I could be a moderator because I get annoyed with some of the comments I see on YouTube videos. I don’t know if YouTube has a system for moderating comments, but even if some more offensive comments don’t get published, I still see from time to time automated trolling comments, saying things like, “Don’t stop reading this comment because if you do, a ghost will come into your room and chop your head off. Re-post this comment to 3 other videos and you will find the love of your life.” I mostly see these comments coming from accounts that don’t use the person’s real name; it’s just a username. I guess this is why Google made everyone use their real name in comments. Since they have made this a requirement, the trolling comments I have seen have decreased, but there are still a lot of trolls out there getting away with it. I don’t typically post a comment on a video unless I am feeling very strongly about the topic of that video, and when I post, I don’t express my opinion in an offensive way. I speak my mind and say what I want to say, but I don’t curse, and I don’t use racial or sexist slurs. For example, if I see a video about children in a treatment center getting yelled at, and if I feel like this is wrong, I will post something like, “This makes me sick. I can’t believe anyone would think that this is okay.” People can disagree with me, but I am not going to start a flame war. I just chime in on the discussion and leave. If people reply to me, great. If not, that’s okay. If a troll replies to me with a stupid question, I ignore them. I am helping the moderators by not being a troll, and I would encourage others to do the same.