MeFi Projects

This is a non-functioning but clickable demo (built using Carrd) of the sort of thing I wish I had now that I'm off social media: a profile-driven site, with no feed, where people can just update what they're up to or into these days. "Catch up, then log off; made for people, not users." [more inside]
posted by bixfrankonis on Jan 1, 2022 - 3 comments

Originally conceived as a way to get a status report on someone or something, the Finger Protocol aka RFC-742, has been around since the late 70s. Even today, the capability to finger lies dormant in every major OS. [more inside]
posted by ph00dz on Jan 27, 2021 - 2 comments

Suffer from tweetgret? Tortured by typos? Get into online spats? Calm Twitter is here for you. A browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, it guides you through a deep breathing exercise before checking if you *really* want to send that tweet. Example GIF. [more inside]
posted by waninggibbon on May 31, 2018 - 2 comments

It's 2017 and Twitter's Arab Spring euphoria is long over. We've traded Gamergate for Pizzagate. Trump uses his account as a literal bully pulpit. Journalists receive death threats in 140 characters (well, now 280). Leslie Jones has been forced to perform double duty as a troll buster. And even Twitter co-founder Biz Stone struggles to get neo-Nazis booted. What's an ordinary user to do? Enter MuckTweet. [more inside]
posted by waninggibbon on Oct 8, 2017 - 0 comments

If Twitter were built today, it would be designed from the beginning with chat in mind. Screenshot [more inside]
posted by philosophistry on Jul 26, 2017 - 5 comments

Short comedy video series: Trent is a sort of Max Headroom for the social media era — but only sort of. He lives inside the matrix, telling you what's #TRENTing, in a brash style — mixing a Scandinavian accent with a Brooklyn attitude. In this episode, Trent weighs in on the Ghost in the Shell controversy, the Vice President's rule about dining alone with women, and your search history being up for sale. WARNING: "Mature" language. [more inside]
posted by edlundart on Apr 1, 2017 - 2 comments

Tameline organizes your Twitter feed by giving everybody only one row. Loud users no longer crowd out quiet users. Here's an example. [more inside]
posted by philosophistry on Apr 13, 2016 - 6 comments

Can you objectively measure dance? In this brief educational film, the Bureau of Non Verbal Communication shows you how to quantify your get-down and avoid common mistakes -- like having poor taste.
posted by fake on Mar 20, 2016 - 2 comments

"From time to time in life, we all find ourselves striking what feel like little Faustian bargains--deals with the devil--to get by. Faustian Bargains is an online community centered on the idea that revealing starts the healing! Only a few rules: No judging. No shaming. No real names or identifiable specifics. Share your story of corrupted personal integrity with us, finally get your sins off your chest, and help others like you feel a little less ashamed of being human in a world that's occasionally less than perfectly humane. Join our community and finally find the understanding, love, and acceptance you've always wanted and deserved in a safe space with benefits!" [more inside]
posted by saulgoodman on Nov 20, 2015 - 0 comments

For three weeks last November, Women, Action, and the Media accepted harassment reports that they escalated to Twitter, collecting data on the experience of harassment and the process of reporting it. Our team of academics have published a comprehensive report on what they found. [more inside]
posted by honest knave on May 14, 2015 - 2 comments

Since September 2014 I have contributed stories about Japan as Global Voices' Japan Editor. I report on what Japanese people are actually saying about the news on Twitter, in blogs, and on 2chan (somewhat similar to Reddit). Often I can find eyewitness accounts (in Japanese) to what's happening in the news, sometimes even scooping Western news outlets. It's all about presenting an authentic, slightly quirky take on current events in Japan.
posted by Nevin on Jan 6, 2015 - 0 comments

Augur is an iPhone app that displays random Twitter posts, and attempts to provide both advice and prophesy. Pulling from a growing list of keywords, the app ignores any Twitter posts containing links, images, #hashtags, or @mentions. It also parses out any first person mention (I, Me, Myself) and tries to present Twitter posts containing second personal conditionals (You will, You shall, etc). [more inside]
posted by avoision on Jun 25, 2014 - 6 comments

My friend Joel and I host a weekly podcast called Not a Real Job, where we discuss online marketing for small businesses and entrepreneurs. It's roughly 20–30 minutes a week, so it's perfect for your commute. It's funny, a bit goofy, and (hopefully) useful. [more inside]
posted by cvp on Apr 7, 2014 - 0 comments

Chinese words like foot fetish, Islam, and march are or were blocked on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. For two months last year, I used a Ruby script to uncover about a thousand of these blocked words. I've posted some of them on a website I created with short little entries on why they are blocked. [more inside]
posted by jng on Mar 10, 2012 - 4 comments

I made this multiplayer bingo game to help you keep your sanity at SXSW (or any other place you find yourself drowning in social media buzzwords). Invite your friends to a game, then click off egregious jargon as you hear it spoken around you. Get five in a row and you "win"! Or lose, depending on how you look at it.
posted by the jam on Mar 12, 2011 - 0 comments

My friend Cristin Norine is spending one month living in a gallery, alone, that's in plain sight on a busy street in Portland, Or. She can't leave or have visitors, and is only communicating to others via social media. [more inside]
posted by blazingunicorn on Nov 13, 2010 - 2 comments

As described by this article, this post, and this comment, the Digg Patriots were an organized corps of conservatives operating out of an invitation-only Yahoo! group for the purpose of gaming social news giant Digg -- suppressing left-leaning content, spamming right-wing stories, and using dirty tactics to harass and ban political enemies. While their exposure made waves online, the lack of concrete evidence raised questions about their very existence. Now, after taking time to redact and format the data, the evidence is here. NoTruePatriot.org documents nearly a year of Digg Patriots activity, 12,900 posts in all, in a sortable, searchable database. Take your time to peruse their posts and judge for yourself the seriousness of their actions. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi on Oct 15, 2010 - 1 comment