Bloggasm

I have a new PBS article up about citizens that are using Web 2.0 technology to aggregate on-the-ground polling reports on election day: Citizens, Media Use Social Media to Monitor Election

It’s been two years since I conducted my internet-famous case study: Your Chances of Getting Laid through Craigslist

Just received this press release via email:

Tom Smiley of The Consenting Adults Network researched the popular classifieds’ personals section to determine how many online advertisements were actually legitimate. The results were astonishing.

(PRWEB) November 1, 2008 — The Consenting Adults Network would like to announce the publishing of a very important Case Study which exposes and documents what an issue scammers have become for online personals and dating websites alike.

The Craig’s List Case Study examined personal advertisements posted with pictures in the w>m category from one day in all U.S. cities, with the hope of gaining a better understanding of exactly how big of an issue scammers have become for websites like Craig’s List. The results of the study were extremely disturbing and a blow to hopeless romantics out there everywhere. After reviewing 6,590 personal advertisements, it was found that 84% (possibly even as high as 91%) of the personal advertisements examined were by imposters posting fake ads.

Tom Smiley, creator of OnlinePersonalsFraud.com, had this to say about the results. “Scams and fraud have long been a headache for the online dating industry, and we knew there was alleged fraud in the Craig’s List personals. We just didn’t know how bad it actually had become. To get the full impact of this study you need to go through and look at the data we collected. As you read through the fake ads you won’t be able to help feeling betrayed and disgusted. I can’t even begin to imagine how many victims are out there.”

The methodology and documentation to support these findings can be reviewed at www.OnlinePersonalsFraud.com where the Case Study is published in its entirety.

About OnlinePersonalsFraud.com

OnlinePersonalsFraud.com is a research project started by Tom Smiley of The Consenting Adults Network for the purpose of documenting scams and fraud in online personals and dating websites. He argues that dynamic identity verification is the key to fighting fraud and improving the quality of these services. By exposing online scams and fraud he hopes online personals and dating websites alike will take more pro-active measures to better serve their members.

About The Consenting Adults Network

By integrating current and developed internet technologies into a new software solution, the CA-Network (www.ca-network.org) offers its premium members a better, safer and more discreet online personals experience. Technically an “information screening service”, the CA-Network provides a medium by which mature adults can search for others with similar interests while offering them additional options to be more discreet about their online activities.

Looks like somewhat of a publicity stunt for another online personals website, so take the results with a grain of salt.

With McCain so far down in the polls, right wing bloggers are facing a dilemma. For years they’ve had to speak in racial code speak, always hinting but never blatantly displaying the prejudicial undertones that knit and weave their way into so many of their posts. But now in the final days of the election, with so much at stake, they’ve realized they have no choice but to shed the sheep’s clothing, dig deep into the swirl of muck of racist thought, and fling it at the wall.

Here’s popular conservative blogger Atlas Shrugs writing an entire expose trying to claim that Obama’s father is Malcolm X.

And a quote from popular conservative blogger Ace of Spades this week: “Eh. Here’s the deal: He’s pretty much exactly the same kind of socialist race hustler as Jesse Jackson. Everyone swears he’s not Jesse Jackson. But he is.”

As I’ve pointed out before, these aren’t fringe bloggers or diarists, these are celebrities within the conservative sphere.

This is a stain that will stay with them for a long time to come. I’ll make sure of it.

Big Media Figures Admitting That Drudge’s Influence Has Waned:

It’s one of the key underplayed stories of this election, but more and more media figures are beginning to acknowledge that the onetime Ruler of Their World has lost his hypnotic sway over the media.

Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post, for instance, yesterday asked: “Does Drudge matter?” Though Cillizza didn’t take a position one way or the other, the mere fact that he dared to raise the question is significant. Cillizza has been one of the most prominent purveyors of the “Drudge Rules Our World” theory of American politics, as recently as a few weeks ago.

WaPo’s Howard Kurtz, the ultimate Beltway media insider, also recently raised questions about Drudge’s not-so-iron-grip on the press corps, asking whether his influence is “overstated” and expressing decided skepticism about Drudge’s current pull.

thanks to jay rosen for sending me the link.

Empty Nast Syndrome: Condé Nast Cutting Five Percent of All Magazine Staffs

According to the article, The New Yorker will not be spared in this.

The New Yorker, easily one of the top five most important journalist institutions in the US.

I think it’s time to stop putting off renewing my subscription.

via gary

There’s this thing called The Google, and if you’re going to write a boasting column saying “I told you so” about some cunning prediction you made that eventually turned out to be true, it’s not hard for us to go back through archives and find out that you predicted just the opposite.

Yes, that’s sarcasm: