June 12th, 2006
Businesses No One Needs: Comment Spam SMS Messaging from Wiffiti
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
What’s in a word? If it’s Wiffiti, the digital version of “graffiti” via SMS, then that word is annoying. The basic idea is to take a coffeshop, throw up some big screen plasma displays and let people pay to SMS dorky messages to the screen. Captured here for as long as it stays up are live streams from 6 Wiffiti locations as they are bombarded by Wiffiti er comment spam. Note: At the time of posting, the spam is suitible for work, but since the stream is live, that could change.
Wiffiti is another great innovation in cell phone text messaging. It consists of plasma screens installed at various locations onto which you can send text messages from your mobile phone. You can either respond to a text message or simply throw in a thought or a quotation. It is really like a graffiti wall, and you can also follow the conversations on the web at Wiffiti blog. Source: Wiffiti
We Say: Great innovation? Hotspots are great, but they should have throught this one through. Who are the idiots paying money to do this??? And why didn’t we think of it first?
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Oh no…I tried it….. Wonder how much $$$ they just got for that?
Snopesman says:
Just think of the billions people are making off ringtones …. and MySpace/Facebook …. and boxes of magnetic poetry ….
June 13th, 2006 at 4:34 am
Alice says:
I know….it’s just wrong.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:51 am
Bill M says:
Nothing new here. A business model based on human vanity always has a good shot at success.
June 13th, 2006 at 7:53 am
John S. Richards says:
In Manila they have been sending SMS messages to cable TV screens for years.
June 13th, 2006 at 7:57 am
Cos says:
People don’t pay to post messages to Wiffiti screens, except whatever they normally pay their cell phone service for sending text messages. I have flat-fee unlimited text messaging with my cell phone, for example, so posting messages to Wiffiti is entirely free for me.
“Suitable for work” varies based on where you work
, but the messages will pretty much always be suitable for the venues they’re in. I don’t know if you took any time to learn about this before you posted, but it sounds like you’re assuming these are unmoderated, and that’s not the case.
As you know, blogs that moderate comments prevent “comment spam”. Similarly, Wiffiti is monitored full time. Perhaps someone “thought this one through” a little more than you thought they did?
It is an experiment. Give it time, and see whether people find useful or interesting things to do with it.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Alice says:
Good point Cos. I tried sending a message and it was fun and it looks like they are moderating some posts by deleting them. Like I said, why didn’t I think of this…
June 14th, 2006 at 9:54 am
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September 13th, 2006 at 12:16 pm