One more SL thing to worry about...

Well, if it wasn't bad enough that my avatar still looks like a doe-eyed manga character, or that SH/NH/JJ/CC are already doing business while I am still on help island, or that Lee keeps throwing wild parties at our apartment...

Now comes Nicholas Carr with bad news: The dingo stole my avatar.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 02:33pm in Bizarre but Expected, Games | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2)

Amusing Time-Sink and A-1 Blog Directory

A month or so ago, I stumbled across Blogshares, which bills itself as "fantasy stock market for weblogs. Players get to invest a fictional $500, and blogs are valued by inbound links."

I like simulations and, while I don't have all that much time on my hands, thought I would give it a go.

$14 billion (fictional) later,  having pumped-and-dumped Neville, Shel, DRC to a fare-thee-well, and having realized that the "market" is not really a market (and that "Ideas" and "Chips", not blogs, are the valuable commodities), I don't need to play anymore.

But... and perhaps this is the point of the game ... for the "market" to work, blogs must be filed and catalogued into various "industries", which can range from the language of the blog ("English", "French"), to the subject ("Advertising", "Cooking"), to the location of the blogger ("Russia", "North Carolina"). Players make these assignments by "voting" on a blog's industry (and thereby earn the ever-valuable "chips").

It's not a Blog-taxonomy-Wiki, but it has every attribute of one.

The result: a complex, comprehensive directory of the most active part of the blogosphere. Not every blog is here; on the other hand, I've not met a blog recently that wasn't here. And by exploring various "industries", I find myself on a journey of serendipity.

Don't worry about playing... but sign up. The directory is worth real gold.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:54pm in Games, Taxonomy of Cyberspace, Time-Sinks | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)