Visit http://thor.marvel.com/ for all things “Thor”!
a YouTube post by MARVEL at 03:35 20 Apr 2011
user: http://youtube.com/user/MARVEL
view: http://youtu.be/EPNjWWQqWCA
LINK: http://phz.in/2cse
view: http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_ebert_remaking_my_voice.html?awesm=on.ted.com_Ebert&utm_content=awesm-bookmarklet&utm_medium=on.ted.com-static&utm_source=direct-on.ted.com
LINK: http://phz.in/2cpn
a YouTube post by itnnews at 11:46 25 Feb 2011
user: http://youtube.com/user/itnnews
view: http://youtu.be/gey6ZvoWPxE
LINK: http://phz.in/2c6a
This film is just about getting people to help out those affected by the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.
We’re not tied to any charity or relief organisation, but we just want people to give what they can where they can. Giving is the act of spreading love.
The NZ Red Cross seems a good starting point so we have provided a link at the top of this description if you just want to give and ignore our cheap cartoon.
If you have a charity or want to promote another way to help, feel free to leave a comment below.
A beach-load of love from J-Rad, Macca and Bosh.
a YouTube post by handsomityinstitute at 13:50 22 Feb 2011
user: http://youtube.com/user/handsomityinstitute
view: http://youtu.be/zcGUg4tNR2M
Here’s the original :
http://phz.in/1d2s
LINK: http://phz.in/2c3l
Everywhere you look these days, there’s another site offering you the chance to collect ‘badges’ in ‘reward’ for using their services and applications or from playing a ‘game’. Foursquare (notable pioneers) and Gowalla with their location-based ‘check-in’ systems, GetGlue and Yelp with their reviews and opinions of ‘things’ and ‘places’, and coming soon ‘OneTrueFan‘ and others doing the same for websites. There are many more sites out there doing it too.
Today, Martin from TheNextWeb ponders on whether we will see an element of ‘badge fatigue’ by next year.
I got fatigued about this quite a while ago when I first saw them. I really have never seen the ‘gaming’ element in these ‘badges’, nor the ‘reward’.
Where’s the ‘game’ in this apart from the site or system itself ‘gaming’ the intelligence of its users? (Don’t get me started on so-called ‘virtual gifts’ : small jpeg/gif images of flowers, teddy bears or treasure chests which some people buy for other people to put on some site profile or other. Maybe it’s just not for me.
The same goes for the ‘virtual’ object pickups and drops in places like Gowalla. Ermm.. what?? I just don’t see the point at all. I check in at home and have the ability to ‘drop’ a teddy bear and ‘pick up’ a guitar. I’m sorry, but WTF?
Am I alone in finding it really strange that ‘mostly adult’ 20- or 30-somethings (and over/under) actually take some pride in ‘collecting’ these images for their various site profiles? I could understand I bit more if it was children with ‘webkins’ or ‘moshi monsters’ etc. doing a similar thing as many did with football/baseball cards, to collect full sets, but adults?
Am I totally missing something? Have I become too cynical after being in the web for over 15 years? Is there maybe some irony which escapes me?
I understand the reward in possibly getting a discount from a real-life product in a real-life store/cafe/etc. from being the person who has checked in the most and become the ‘mayor’ of an establishment. Incidentally, I am the ‘mayor’ of the local pub down the road here in Somerset, but if I was to tell the landlord this fact and ask for a free pint, I think I’d find myself stuffed in to a cider barrel and rolled down the lane before you could shout “village idiot!”.
I’m building a few sites at the moment, some location-based, some requiring creativity and expression and some (apparent) utter wastes of time (surely a winner! ;p) which could, if I wanted to, have ‘badges’ as a part of the system, to lure users back to use the site and offer them the thrill of ‘unlocking’ features in thanks to using (or testing) a site more than another user. I can see the ‘reward’ in unlocking extra features.
But just another sticker-like image on my profile page? I just don’t get it yet.
Could someone please explain it to me. I am open to being convinced of the value to the users, I can see the value for the site owners, for sure.
But I can’t just see the ‘fun’ in it. Yet.
ps: Yes, I know this post is ‘littered’ with ‘quotes’. Just do an ‘air quote’ with your fingers each time you see one. Or drink. It’s a lot of ‘fun’. ;p
