Organic luxury chocolate – and ethical too

Finding a gift for a chocolate loving diabetic mother is seriously tough, but while looking for the usual sugar free diabetic chocolate (it does exist), I came across a bit of gem. I can honestly say that if a website deserves to win an award for ‘low-fi web design vs high quality product’ efforts, it’s Grenada Chocolate. Lovely packaging though.

Free games on Cimex.com

Every now and then on the web, you find a hidden gem of a site which, for whatever reason, has a modest level of visibility in the whole ‘free games’ market.

Naturally, anyone searching for ‘free games’ will be well aware of massive gaming websites likes of miniclip, so I thought I’d give a special mention to a free gaming website on www.cimex.com.

Originally launched as marketing tool or portfolio of work, Cimex’s games website is well worth a visit (and a bookmark).

Behold, dear user: Free games by www.cimex.com

SEO job on offer

Digital agency Cimex is on the lookout for an SEO executive. Get in touch.

Doctor Who goes all EMO

Is it me or could the new Doctor Who choice of actor have been influenced by the current trend for square jawed, boufanted EMO actors in major grossing films like Twlight?

Spot the difference.

The new Doctor Who

EMO British actor from Twilight

DarthWaster.com launches with a charity fanfare. Of sorts.

The ambassador of http://www.darthwaster.com

Behold – the new web address of my charity fundraising page: www.darthwaster.com. Purty huh?

Why not do me a favour and send my fundraising page to everyone you know. If I get enough of a following, hell, I may even set up a blog and post everyone’s web address. It’ll help eveyone’s SEO and may even increase the number of donations. Heh. Do it.

Donate to DarthWaster.com and raise cash for Cancer Research UK.

EA Tiger Woods ‘walk on water’ glitch response to YouTuber

Some punter on YouTube filmed an embarrassing software glitch in EA Sports’ Tiger Woods Golf video game.

So EA Sports decided to reply to the guy’s video by filming a video response…featuring the real Tiger Woods.

Of course, the cynic in me wants to ask the original Levinator25 video poster if he’s in the employ of EA or any of its suppliers. Nice work either way.

Why user generated content makes web editors nervous

I originally posted this in July 2006, but thought I’d reprise it. Enjoy.

A while back, I explained to a web editor how the BBC was planning to introduce more user generated content (UGC) to its site – namely its new Share/Find/Play strategy.

As is increasingly common among web editors now getting to grips with UGC, the following sentiment sprung forth: won’t that mean masses of useless content to wade through?

I’m finding this is an increasingly common concern among content professionals.

I’m not trying to sell in UGC services as a whole here, but I’d like to document some of these concerns and provide some of my own thoughts on why they exist.

User generated content means poor quality

By who’s standards exactly? Granted, UGC can be riddled with appalling writing, unsubstantiated claims and conspiracy theories but unless you’re running a talent website for writers or budding journalists, who are we to judge?

UGC is about letting users express themselves in their own way. Resist the urge of the sub editor in you to correct content. Editing or censoring ‘errors’ in your users content is a big no-no. Let them be.

The same applies if you’re looking for balanced debate or hoping that the quality of your blogs will raise the profile of your site. Have faith in your community and put trust in the adage that users vote with their mouse. The online stars of your platform will gather momentum as they gain a following, while the never do wells wither away and die from the drought of page visits and replies.

All that editing and censorship will mean massively increased workloads

So what? Isn’t your remit to increase user traffic and activity on the site?

UGC isn’t just about blogs and forums of endless editorial debate. Content suffers when UGC is half heartedly applied to traditional publishing models, where the user is constrained in what they can submit.

Why only allow users to submit written editorial content? It’s no surprise that web editors have concerns over UGC because, understandably, they’re looking for quality editorial. But why? The vast majority of people aren’t professional writers. Many don’t like writing full stop.

Instead, give the user access to a completely open platform, where they can submit any type of content – editorial, but also audio, videos and images.

As the likes of YouTube and Flickr are showing, users are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are evolving from ‘readers’ to multimedia content producers.

What if I have empty blogs, forums or no user comments?

I’ve yet to meet an editor or journalist that’s never written an article which is designed to inspire debate or gain a reaction from readers.

Avoid having empty blogs and message boards – roll them out to carefully selected users or offer only one forum topic at a time. Once they grow, open up more and cast the net wider.

Never open up a major network of forum or blog networks on day one. Unless you’ve got millions in marketing spend or you’re MySpace in a position where your URL gets a mention in virtually every news wire on a daily basis, you need to coax users in slowly.

I’ll have to deal with – ugh – the public!

Ever worked in print journalism? If you have, you’ll know that letters to the editor and opinion articles are the lifeblood of any publication. Having a healthy post bag and bursting opinion schedule is a great position to be in. It shows that your readers trust and respect you enough to engage with you and your brand. Thanks to UGC, readers can now take this brand engagement to a whole new level.

UGC is a fad. It’s a waste of time and money

We’re seeing more and more mouse potatoes take root (see what I did there?) at home and, much to the alarm of employers, in the office.

The web is moving away from being solely a lean-to technology focused on information retrieval. This is about taking the traditional publishing model and applying the benefits of the web – interactivity, the ability to publish at minimal cost, automation and search.

Quality websites with opinion and debate have the edge over others which simply break news. A team of quality writers can initiate that debate, but now you can allow users to actively take part and reinforce that role / value. More users spending more time on your site have obvious benefits, not least to your ad sales team.

Don’t under estimate how valuable UGC really is. The traditional web publishing model, by its very nature, pumps out content which appeals to a mass or large niche audiences. Even the best attempts to be super niche will assume some common ground among users.

Blogs, on the other hand, allow this homogenous content to be tailored by really niche users with heterogeneious preferences and opinions. UGC effectively widens the appeal of your content, making it relevant to more audiences, no matter how small or individual – all this is possible with very little effort on your part.

Bert and Ernie do ganster rap

A prime example of a content mash-up, if ever there was one…

Accident turquoise southey pneumonia calais

No, I’ve not overdosed on Night Nurse. At the risk of seriously damaging my blog’s search engine ranking with spam text, I just thought I’d share a junk email I received today.

The more I read it, the more immersed I became. It’s like it belongs to some stream of consciousness riff you’d see in a nightmarishly bad poetry reading.

Sent by someone calling herself ‘Annabelle Honeycutt’, I’m a little stumped as to what it is I’m supposed to be buying but here it is in its full glory.

bargain minim recur? anastasia, poe turquoise.
colorate southey lift impend snapback popular, accident
popular eng disparage turquoise rank.

snapback minim eng

turquoise clogging joyous? lolly, joyous minim.
snapback lift turquoise popular maiden rank, bargain
miss lift dispelling splayed nightmarish.

pneumonia remitted clogging

popular recur remitted? snapback, accident disparage.

wake accident.

Marvellous. It reads like a Chinese restaurant menus in Beijing which uses the literal English translation [via Yahoo / ITV News].

MPs urge for tighter controls on content

This debate has rumbled on for years, but the Guardian’s Mark Sweney reported only last week that MPs are asking web companies to do more in vetting content on their sites. It’s not new – remember when the time when ISPs got sued failing to take down libellous websites quick enough?

The problem? Well, when you’re YouTube and you get millions of submissions and updates each day, who checks what, when and how? But things might get tricky if sites don’t get proactive and self-regulate or sign up to an informal code of practice.

Can technology help filter out user generated content? It depends from CMS to CMS and I bet that some post moderated sites search for abusive language via the front end search box. But even if it’s true that some of the big UGC sites have search technology that uses an algorithm to hunt down copyrighted music or TV content, how difficult would it be to get these sites to share this technology. Video search technology is big business and anything that can dynamically identify video patterns / human actions / faces is going to be worth zillions, not least to the authorities and security agencies. Imagine the potential of a video search tool that could recognise and flag up drunken fights or car thieves on a city’s 2,000+ CCTV cameras, effectively doing away with the labourious effort of a human trying to watch them all at once. An extreme example but you get my point.

[Read more about the MPs comments at BrandRepublic]