G.R.I.N.

Gossip, Rumour, Innuendo and Nonsense...

...was flying around Artwiculate recently, aimed at me. I have apparently been accused of "betrayal", of "deception", of "manipulation". No-one has come and spoken openly to me about it. I am ashamed of the behaviour of some of the Artwiculate players, especially those who I thought were my friends. If it affected only me, then I would say "So be it", but you (you know who you are) have dragged two of my friends into this, and whispered that these are really me. So I cannot just let it pass. But on the other hand, I am not completely blameless, as you will see if you read on.

Time for a history lesson.

Sikkim Shino

In 2007 I joined Second Life, the virtual online world, and quickly became hooked. This was a place where you could not only design your own avatar's look, it was a place you could meet any number of interesting people, where you could travel around and see interesting places, do interesting things, where you could walk, run, even fly. To me, as a disabled person, this was a liberating revelation and i wallowed in it addictively.

Not long after joining I (or my avatar, rather) was dancing to disco music in my favourite club. Suddenly I was astonished to see an avatar in a wheelchair enter the club and start to spin around to the music. This was the first wheelchair avatar I ever saw in SL and I had to go up to her and speak. We adjourned to her SL home, and spoke for a long time. This was Sikkim. I learned something of her Real Life (RL) : she is a paraplegic, following an accident in her late teens. We spoke of disability, of philosophy, of SL, of cabbages and kings, and discovered we had a lot in common.

Sikkim is a very strong woman. She has had to learn to be. She is also very intelligent, very well-educated, and very well-read. She is fiercely independent, confrontational even, especially in the matter of her disability. She chose to represent herself in SL as what she is, while I hid my own disability behind a young, fit and healthy avatar who could run and who could fly. We had, we still have, different philosophies on this, and I never have used a wheelchair in SL although Sikkim would dearly love me to.

Sikkim is not British, though I have promised not to reveal any location or family details. Yet her grasp of the English language - not her first language - is astonishing, and would shame many an English speaker. She and I became firm friends (virtual friends) and often met up in SL.

My time in SL began to fade when Linden Lab (who created the world) ended the volunteer 'mentoring program' which I'd been involved in for most of my time there. Gradually I lost touch with Sikkim. When I joined Twitter to play Artwiculate I had almost stopped going to SL completely, and Twitter came to supplant SL, or rather, Artwiculate did.

So how did Sikkim arrive in Twitter & Artwiculate? It's not entirely coincidence. After I stopped playing, I did regain some energy, enough to begin to do some basic Twitter maintenance, for example to catch up on who was following me, which I had not looked at for quite some time. I was surprised and happy to see a familiar name in the list, and I contacted her to resume our friendship. At the same time I told her about Artwiculate, and Sikkim proved enthusiastic, as I well thought she might. She has got quite hooked. She has her own style, she has developed her own theme, and her tweets contain subtle nuances I can only envy. I do not resonate to her religious / liturgical theme, but clearly that is something she knows quite a lot about.

Do not support her as my friend, but please nurture her as you would (should) any talented new player, who deserves your respect.

Eleanor1gby

I met Eleanor in real life some years ago when we both worked on the same contract, professionally. I retired from that profession some years ago, forced to by my illness, but we kept in touch. We are not quite so 'simpatico' as Sikkim and I are, but we share a similar sense of humour, which is how we became friends.

This is where I have to confess some duplicity, though there was no malicious intent. In my early Artwiculate days I got frustrated at certain times of day (late afternoon, early evening) when I saw what seemed like hundreds of Artwiculate retweets go by, but none of mine. If I'd created what I thought was a particularly good tweet that day, it pissed me off no end, and I wondered what I could do about it.

With Eleanor's consent - she had no interest whatever in Twitter - I borrowed her email and details to create another Twitter account (@eleanor1gby). With this, nearly a year ago, I retweeted my 'best tweet' on a few occasions (perhaps 4 or 5 times?). At the same time I also used it to RT some other tweets I liked - so I was not the sole beneficiary. The idea was not to cheat one extra point, but to put the tweet 'out there' so it wasn't missed. I even - long long ago - played a couple of times with that account, though now I'm glad to see that her best tweet is one of her own.

However, the '@eleanor RTs' didn't seem to help my 'visibility mission', from what I could see. In any case, soon afterwards Navin's RTwiculate app was up and running and I used that to RT with instead, using an RT account in the way some of you have (@TSupercargo, @pn9r, etc). I abandoned the @eleanor1gby account altogether, and Eleanor and I had a joke or two about it. I did used to tell her about Artwiculate once or twice, but although she liked the idea, she still had no interest in Twitter.

Did I ever use @eleanor1gby to vote for TiddK? No, never. Did I use @eleanor1gby to RT TiddK (and others) on more than a handful of occasions? No. Are there any other @eleanor1gby-type accounts? No, only my RTwiculate RT account, and that's no secret. Was it deceitful that I occasionally used @eleanor1gby for Tidd's "visibility"? Yes, I guess it was. I'm not proud of it now.

When I made my big exit from Artwiculate at Get Satisfaction (why did a 'big exit' piss some people off? it's just who I am, passionate and emotional - please, deal with it), I pointed Eleanor in its direction. She was impressed enough by my obvious passion - and by the valediction of my friends - to finally decide to 'have a go' herself, though apparently she STILL does not like Twitter. So I remembered her old account and handed it over to her. She has obviously changed the password and avatar and stuff, I've just let her get on with it. I did give her "Wordless Of The Day" to use with Tacit - it was my best ever tweet and I thought it might give her a helping hand.

Alas, not only did it fail, all her tweets have failed, I now discover because of the gossip rumour innuendo and nonsense. That's not fair on her, as a new player. (**I see that she has started to do better. I'm happy for her. 31st January.) Though I also have to point out, she doesn't seem to mind. She knows the art - as I never did - of playing 'just for fun'. So perhaps there is no real damage done, except maybe to a few of you in the role of perpetrators of this malfeasance.

Sikkim I know too well - she will not give up on account of all this "G.R.I.N", and she will stay loyal to me as her friend. Eleanor? She really doesn't care that much. If I told her that certain Artwiculate players resent her presence, she would simply stop playing, I'm sure of it. Do you resent her being in Artwiculate? Do you want her to stop playing? Shall I tell her that? Or will you? (I'd prefer if it came from you. She's my friend after all).

I was sincere when I made my "big exit". That's how I wanted - still want - to be remembered. I was - I am - very tired, and my condition is slowly getting worse. I can't stop it. I never expected that introducing two friends would cause all the endless angst that it has, nor the grubby suspicions. It has however shown me who my true friends are, so one good thing came out of it all. The others of you who expressed your sympathies and your good wishes at GS, then turned on me in the next day or two... you know who you are. All you (you know who you are) have succeeded in doing is ..to pass judgement on @TiddK without a trial and sentence her; she will not now return to Twitter (though the account has to live on - it is needed outside Twitter) ..to harm the prospects of two new players ..to put more weaponry into the hands of Artwiculate's detractor(s).

The power of words.

Well, I have that power too. I wonder whose shines the brighter?

Once I ran to you

now I'll run from you

This tainted love you've given

I gave you all a girl could give you

Take my tears and that's not living

Oh. Tainted love. Tainted love.

Now I know I've got to run away

I've got to get away.

You don't really want it any more from me -

To make things right you need someone to hold you tight

And you'll think love is to prey but I'm sorry I don't pray that way

Once I ran to you

now I'll run from you

I didn't want a tainted Goodbye, and I'm sorry that it came to this. I will end it here.

R.I.P.

Artwiculate : who are the "Top 6"?

This post is simply to place factual, statistical evidence in front of those who have been persuaded that there is a "Top 6" (i.e. the top 6 winners) who "hoard crowns".

1. Why a Top 6?

We are told that there is an Artwiculate "Top 6" who indulge in "crown hoarding". What/who is this "Top 6"? Here are some facts (as at 10th January 2011) taken from the Artwiculate website.

#1 : 41 crowns

#2 : 36 crowns

#3 : 25 crowns

#4 : 25 crowns

#5 : 23 crowns

#6 : 19 crowns

#7 : 14 crowns

#8 : 13 crowns

#9 : 11 crowns

#10: 11 crowns

Interesting distribution. There's a gap of sixteen crowns between #1 and #3, and a gap of twenty-two crowns between #1 and #6. Yet there is only a gap of five crowns from #6 to #7, and only eight crowns separating #6 from #9 & #10. So why a "Top 6"? Why not a Top 7, 8, or even a Top 10?

There is a reason behind the "Top 6". It began (and those with long memories will remember this) as a "Top 5". However - for reasons it would be inappropriate to mention here - in the mind of its 'creator' it needed to be a "Top 6".

But please read on...

2. Patterns of play

To be meaningful, statistics need to have inconsistencies, inequalities and biases ironed out and/or a "compensatory algorithm" applied.

So looking a little closer at the "Top 10"...

#1 has been playing for a bit over half the time that Artwiculate has been around.

#2 and #3 have played pretty much the whole time, from September 2009.

#4 has been playing since the end of 2009, except for 2 - 3 weeks

#5 has been playing since the end of 2009, but has had longer away

#6 played since the end of 2009 but stopped in September 2010!!

____________________________________________

#7 has not played Artwiculate consistently or regularly since it began.

#9 stopped playing a long time ago.

#10 only plays occasionally.

When you examine "stats", produced regularly to demonstrate how many crowns the "Top 6" have gained in recent months, bear in mind that #6 has not played for months!

In fact, using statistical analysis, you see that - apart from #1, and perhaps #8 - the crowns gained by the leading 10 players reflect quite accurately their actual playing time. And there are several more players in the Top 20 who do not play any more, except perhaps occasionally. The statistical analysis would also apply to them.

I am well aware that this analysis doesn't prove why some regular players have not won more crowns. All it does prove is two things :

(1) There is no significant "Top 6"

(2) As a generalisation, playing time of the Top 20 reflects number of crowns, in maybe two-thirds of cases.

A Book review from Tidd

The Little Guide To Unhip

by Kate Rigby

You'll never have so much fun disagreeing with an author. And that's really the point with Kate Rigby's "Little Guide To Unhip" : she has assembled a highly subjective hotch-potch of clothing, pop stars, TV shows, cultural icons, social situations, food, pets, and various other phenomena, and rated them on an 'unhip scale'. They're all personal choices, and as she admits at the end, "you may disagree on some of my inclusions".

I disagreed with her very first choice! Gilbert O'Sullivan, whatever else he fell into, did have one of the great, era-defining songs, "Nothing Rhymed", after which I can forgive him anything. Now if she'd said Leo Sayer ... but wait ... read on, perhaps she does? 

Rigby writes with wit and dash, and more than a little personal reminiscence. You get the distinct impression that she has lived through, even suffered, each of the unhip manifestations she describes. She also writes with a great deal of affection for her subjects; clearly "unhip" does not mean "terminally awful", but simply "something she may (or may not) enjoy but doesn't rush to put on Facebook".

She deviates very briefly from the blueprint : can religious organisations be rated on a hipness scale? I'm not sure they can.  However, you will laugh out loud as you read through this short, undemanding yet comically rewarding book. 

One final thing - why the "unhip" of the title, why not "uncool"? This is part of the joke, as Rigby has used a term that is in itself "unhip" in these oh-so-cool days. 

Thoroughly recommended.

(please note : the link behind the title takes you to the book's listing on Amazon)

A proposal to encourage Artwiculate voting

An idea to encourage Artwiculate voting

First, the success of the game is in the enthusiasm of individual players, lovingly crafting tweets using the WOTD. It is not dependent on results! However, many players are proud and happy when they feature in the rankings, and anything that would encourage more people to vote and make the rankings more accurate, would be welcomed by many players.

The number of people who actually vote on the Artwiculate site has always been comparatively low, but recently seems to have nose-dived. From conversations with Artwiculati, it seems that the main problem is the number of tweets to read through (it's a daily commitment, not a one-off exercise). On an average day there may be 15+ pages, numbering in excess of a 300 tweets.

These tweets - which Artwiculate automatically indexes from Twitter - include a number of 'non entries':

• tweets that were never intended to be part of the game
  
• retweets that went wrong ("RT" missing, or comments added)
  
• tweets that reference other tweets - e.g. "<== this is awesome!"
  
• tweets from Artwiculati, thanking other players for RTs, etc
  
• duplicates, where players haven't used the Artwiculate 'remove' button
  
• spam (on a bad day!)
  

My idea is about 'filtering' the indexed tweets to a level that other players have agreed would be more manageable : 100 tweets, the equivalent of 5 pages. It would look something like this :

1. with (e.g.) 2 hours to go, Artwiculate would issue a list of the 100 leading tweets, in a form that could be voted on
   
2. 'leading' is defined as the 100 tweets which, at that point, have gained the most points by Artwiculate's scoring system, but see next..
3. in order to maximise the number of players who would be able to feature in this list, only a player's best (e.g.) 3 tweets would appear (as more players joined, this could be reduced to 2, and perhaps even to 1 in the future!)
   
4. No player would be able to vote for any tweet in the list which they had already voted on, on the main site (just as no-one could vote previously from a profile AND on site)

None of this would stop people from voting through all the tweets as now, if they wish, but it would be a boon for busy or tired players who at present find voting too much of a regular commitment, and are therefore - as can be seen from the figures - choosing not to vote at all. Looking through 100 tweets would still be a solid task, but it would be manageable. 

My estimation is that much of what is required is already in place, in effect : 

• A list of top tweets for the day (there is already a Top 50 produced daily)
• Limiting number of 'tweets per player' that can rank (already done for the Top 50)
• Limiting voting to once per tweet (already done)
• Announcing the list with 'x hours to go' (already done with "the lead has changed...")

A side-effect of this would its scaleability in the future : as more players joined the game, and the number of pages grew, the task of voting would remain the same. And the BEST result would be on 'spam' days, where even 60+ pages of tweets would still only require 100 to be voted on!

It's LOSE not LOOSE !!

There is an epidemic on the internet. The word "lose" (as in, "I'm rapidly losing my marbles over this awful spelling") seems to have become "loose" (as in "set loose the dogs of war upon these miscreants"). 

It's everywhere!! In fact, it seems to be on the point of replacing the correct spelling "LOSE" altogether. I am not exaggerating when I say from my own observation, that the incorrect spelling is now more common than the correct spelling.

There are two words. One is LOSE, the other is LOOSE. They mean different things.  Yet more and more (on the Net), they are being spelled the same way. For anyone who doesn't know, here are the differences between the two words:

LOSE - to suffer deprivation of (something) 

LOSE (verb) : "I win - you lose"

LOSING (participle; adjective) : "losing my mind"; "the losing hand"

LOST (past tense) : "I lost my way"; "the lost sheep"

LOSER : "you, who cannot spell. LOL"

LOSS (noun) : "I experienced the loss of my sanity"

- - - - - - - - - 

LOOSE / LOOSEN - to untie or to set free; make less tight

LOOSE / LOOSEN (verb) : "I set loose the tiger" "I loosen my seat belt"

LOOSE (adjective) : "the belt feels loose to me"

LOOSED (past tense) : "the dogs were loosed by Montgomery Burns"

(there is no noun)

And if you already spell it correctly, then make my day - if you see LOOSE for LOSE online, put it right! And if the person gets annoyed, send them to me.  :-)

Proposed Petition to Artwiculate

Artwiculati! Please read the following, and let me know what you think. If you like it, then leave a comment for me here, and I will go ahead and post the petition in GetSatisfaction. 

If you disagree with any of the points (someone has already said that point 4 might not be practical), then please also comment. Many thanks.  

---------------------------------

We, the Artwiculati, are endlessly passionate about this wonderful game : the creative buzz of composing erudite, poetic, heartfelt, or just plain witty, tweets, and we love the social life that goes with it. Once again, we reiterate our thanks for the fact that it exists.

But, we don't feel that the social networking aspects of the game should become the measure of or means to success; we feel that there should be a 'level playing field' for all players, and we applaud your continuing efforts to achieve this.

There are a few ideas to help this even further, which have been discussed quite a lot recently. We would like to put them to you, and therefore...

We, the undersigned, being passionate about Artwiculate, humbly petition the people responsible for the running the game, as follows :

1. Please make all kinds of RT count equally. If this is not technically possible, then please stop RTs from scoring at all.

2. Please equalise the different time zones by introducing a 25-hour day for the game.

3. Please remove the voting button from individual players' profile pages, i.e. all voting to be 'blind' from the main site (this will also help to deter "voting to influence results" which undoubtedly follows on from your 'front runners' announcement)

4. Please restrict voting to the players of the game. For example : 

• only those following @artwiculate, and 

• only those with a minimum points tally, to prove they actually are players

If you, like us, believe these changes will help, please try them out for a month or two

Please respond to this, so we know what your thoughts are :-) 

What words or phrases do you hate? (1)

These I have hated

Most people have words or verbal habits they dislike intensely, or even hate. I'm no exception! So here I am going to begin what may become the first of many threads as I pour out my invective against these hapless linguistic tics.

1. Attendee

Pre-eminent among them (for me) is this sorry abortion of a word. I wish I had a time machine, so I could go back and have strong words with the twonk who first coined it. Or perhaps hit them over the head with a saucepan to prevent them polluting the gene pool :-) 

I would say to him (or her) "Weren't you taught the rules at school? Were you asleep that day? Do you REALLY want to bequeath your ignorance to the future in perpetuity? It's quite straight-forward : "

EmployER : the one who DOES THE EMPLOYING (active)

EmployEE : the one who IS EMPLOYED (passive)

And so with InterviewER / InterviewEE, ExaminER / ExaminEE, and so on.

With "attendEE", who or what IS BEING ATTENDED (passive)? Why, surely, the event itself! So the conference, seminar, workshop, meeting, or whatever, is the only "attendEE" here. The people actually ATTENDING (active) must be "attendERs". Was it too difficult in Twonk Land to see that? Sigh.

I suspect I know how it happened, or can guess. There was a confusion between being "invited" to an event (INVITEE - quite correct), with actually "attending" it. And now it's too late to correct, and we are sadly stuck with it.

2. Going forward 

I have never actually met a "normal" person (i.e. one who doesn't use this horrible phrase) who doesn't wince at the very least when they hear it. The perpetrators are nearly always company spokespeople, and maybe the occasional politician.

Sometimes it is partnered with "in the future", so we end up with the abysmal tautology "in the future going forward".

Please, people - STOP IT!! It's just NewSpeak, an Orwellian-sounding piece of pseudo-professional nonsense. It means nothing, or rather it means "in the future", or "from now on", two perfectly good English phrases which could and should be used instead.

3. Electrocution

This is a perfectly good word. When properly used. Which it isn't, often.

Its origins are quite clearly defined by the Oxford English Dictionary :

ELECTRICITY + EXECUTION

Folks, you can't survive being electrocuted! It means you're dead dead dead. It does NOT mean the same as "getting an electric shock". It means "getting an electric shock which kills you".  Clear now?