Twindex

I have an idea for a social networking app.

If you have a lot of followers, it’s sometimes quite difficult to remember who does what, or who is interested in a thing.

It would be nice if there was an app which would connect to Twitter, Facebook, G+ etc and collect a list of the people we follow.

So now if Jan tells you that her Aunt is sick, you can make a note of it within the app.

Then when you have that feeling of uncertainty, Did Jan say Mum, Sister or Aunt?, You can verify it by clicking on Jans avatar in the app and looking at your notes.

Perhaps there was someone you blocked on Twitter ages ago, and you can’t remember why, just look at your notes.

Maybe you have a story which may be of interest to the media in Perth, a quick search may show that one of your followers works for ABC radio in Perth.

Yes it’s the Pokedex for Twitter, well kind of.

Thoughts?

Twindex (c) Wolfie Rankin 2012.

Radio Ga Ga

There are so many wankers out there who go on about Social Networking already, and when I stumble on a site about it, I usually stumble away pretty quickly.

But someone said something about Twitter on my timeline which I thought about.. That people who follow, but never talk to you, are creepy.

Well…. maybe, and maybe not.

I used to be in radio years ago, and I think that Twitter has a lot in common with it.

Let me explain.

You are the star of your show, and you feature a panel of interesting people who are always on your show.

These are the same as the people who you always talk to on Twitter, and usually at length.

They will make up a small percentage of your followers.

-

Then there’s your regular audience, who are mostly there to listen, but once in a while will play a small roll by asking a question or participating in a segment of your show.

These are the people on Twitter who hang back and don’t say much, but once in a while, they’ll see one of your tweets and respond, You may see this person in your stream about once a day at most.

-

Then there are those who tune in merely to listen, they may never bother to talk to you, but they enjoy your show very much.

These are Twitter users who follow but never join in… unfortunately there’s really no way of knowing why they follow unless they do speak up, and I would rather they did.

If you fall into this category, and are following someone, Give them a shout and a friendly wave, “Hello, I’m Mick from Australia, and I’m following because….”

If they don’t, there’s a chance that they could be blocked, for appearing to be a spammer or some other undesirable, when all They’re doing, is being a good, quiet audience member who just wants to drink their tea in peace and enjoy their favourite show.

These people will generally make up the bulk of your followers.

Verified

When it comes to verification, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are all a bit slow unless you happen to be a major celebrity.

It seems to me that something is needed to push things along quicker.

Some may argue over why we’d need verification anyway, Well for one thing, the recent pseudonym debacle at Google+ (Quora? Nobody mentioning Quora? They started it) could have been avoided if we had some quick and easy way of proving that yes, We are real people here, even if we are using made up names.

So how could we do that?

Well, I think what is required is a third party, who verifies who you are, registers your name and avatar… and then tells the other social networks that all is right with the world.

You’d sign up, and then be required to prove to this company, that you are you, a scan of your drivers licence, birth certificate and one or two other items should be enough.

The company may then spend some time looking at your data, possibly phoning some people, and then set up a page for you.

At this page you could:

List the Social Networks which you are connected to, and nominate ONE account at each site for verification… You could not have two seperate Facebook pages, for instance.

Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and others would receive the data from this website and automatically add the Verified Tick to your account.

It would also take your Avatar photo and description of yourself, directly from the verification service, so that you wouldn’t need to do this manually every time you join a new social network.

It would save you time setting up a new social network, be easier for the social networks to verify you, and no ugly scenes where perfectly reasonable users are thrown off a network.

The problem is that this site would need to be trusted by the public and the other social networks, who would have to adopt it widely… If there were three or more such services and each network wanted to use a different verification service, it’d fail.

Lastly, the site would not share ANY private information with anyone else, all information apart from what you wish to share… Your Description, Name and Avatar…
MUST be kept completely confidential.

Gravitar is similar to what I’m talking about, extending it to do this extra work, could be a reasonable plan.

Twitter on the Quake

I’ve written this guide for those of you who are very new to the internet, have heard that there’s news coming through on Twitter, and would like to use the service.

This guide is very easy to follow and will get you set up as quickly as possible.

Now there are links, but be careful not to navigate away from this page, hopefully a tab will open in your browser which will keep this page open for you.

Firstly, sign up on Twitter, You will need to create a user name, you may be prompted to try several as yours may already be taken, a good idea is to use your first and last name like this “Sam_Green”.

If it’s taken, just vary it a bit until it works.

Follow the prompts and fill out the rest, profile and picture are not required at this time, do that later.

Once you have an account, write down your user name and password.

Now download Tweetdeck

Scroll the page down and click where it says “Desktop”, download Tweetdeck for your computer, and set it up.

Once it starts, you will be prompted for your Twitter account name and password, fill that in and continue.

Tweetdeck should start. (If there is a problem, let me know in the comments section below)

At the top left of the Tweetdeck screen is the name “Tweetdeck” to the right of that is a yellow icon, you use this to open a chat box where you can type in messages.

The next icon is a grey circle with a “+” in it, hit that now.

A box will open.

In the white space, type #eqnz and hit Search.

The box will close, and you will see messages, very rapidly, coming down the screen,

Don’t be put off by this!

There will be hundreds, as you can imagine a lot of people will be talking about the quake, this is usual in an emergency.

I will also explain how to find and follow news people who will give accurate reports of what is happening, this will open a much slower feed, which is easier to follow.

If you notice a news service who you trust as you watch the #eqnz list progress, put your mouse over their icon (quickly), and you’ll notice it divides into four, press the lower right of that persons icon.

A small box with Tweet and User will appear, choose User, and you will see “Follow”.
that person has now been added to your follow list.

You can also follow the people in the list below, all of them are well worth your time.
Simply click on the links below to go to their twitter home page, and hit the follow
button, You’ll begin seeing them show up in Tweetdeck when you go back to that.

@3AW693 – Melbourne Radio Station
@nova937 – Radio Station
@SkyWorldNews
@7NewsSydney
@7NewsBrisbane
@1233Newcastle ABC
@612Brisbane ABC
@702Sydney ABC
@ABCLocalVic
@ABCnews
@DailyTelegraph
@SMH_News
@TVNZNews
@9NewsBrisbane
@NZHerald
@SBSNews
@carolduncan of 1233Newcastle ABC
@ABCTV_Australia
@Tzarimas (Helen Tzarimas, Reporter)
@I_Enigma (Friend who gets news out)
@seacorro ABC Reporter
@channeltennews

@wolfcat Ex-ABC
@SafeInChch A twitter account set up for those with friends & family in Christchurch to check in.
@NZRedCross
@NZCivilDefence (US Readers note the genuine UK Spelling)

Also, @Kate_Doak has also supplied a list of people worth following.

Tweetdeck is also available for other devices such as iPhone or Android.

If you find any errors, please let me know, I hope this has been useful.

All my best wishes to you.

Wolfie! @Wolfie_Rankin on Twitter

Also, ABC News 24 has been unlocked for global viewing:

Post Second Life

I thought I’d have time off from Second Life, and see how that goes. Maybe after a few weeks I’d have rested enough and suddenly decide to go back.

But I haven’t felt any desire to return.

Although Second Life was a place where I could pretty much do anything, it also came with so many rules and operations (prim limits, island stuff) and the bitching, as to smother anything that was lovely about it.

Would I return and carry that torch for the thing that I tried to convince others was worth their time and efforts, and the thing that I often tried to convince myself was worth my time and effort?

Yes, I know, I was the cheer leader for Second Life for such a long time, but even during the time that we were filming our Doco, I was already asking myself why I was hanging on, I had taken it about as far as I could go, I wanted more, but there wasn’t more.

Then I found what I was missing was over on other social networks, suddenly it seemed that the place I thought was mine, really wasn’t, that I’d been fooling myself this entire time.

I never liked the aspect that Second Life took, where a person was supposed to concentrate on Second Life things, but somehow not on real life.

At no point was this made clearer than when Julia Gillard was made Prime Minister.

Twitter was all over it, In fact Twitter knew about it before TV did (nothing unusual there), The news broke while Hey Hey it’s Saturday was on… I watched it, and the rest of the show, there was probably half an hour left, Then, after the show finished, I went into Second Life to do my usual Schtick of playing News Boy for ABC and The Australians group, But feeling I’d be far too late, they’d all know.

But they didn’t, not till I mentioned it, I was very surprised… I think, perhaps I still don’t like admitting the harsh reality to myself, that this is how things really were.

In Second Life, people disconnect themselves from the Real World a bit too much, I do understand, sometimes the real world is too hard to take. We look for escape, somewhere to hide… but a line needs to be drawn, people can’t go around being that disconnected, but they can, and do.

I read Myf Warhursts article on Second Life, and wrote to her, defending it, as I always did, but a part of me probably felt that she was right.

Not that long ago, my computer always displayed the goings on in Eragon or ABC Islands, suddenly it didn’t… I thought I’d go back, but there was no desire… I did momentarily to show a friend on twitter what it was, that was for an hour, maybe that would make me reconsider, it didn’t.

Days go by now, I do my tweeting and facebooking, I compose e-mails and write to my blog, I feel more at home now than I ever did in that big 3D world with nobody in it. I talk to people who are in media, and I understand them because I’m one of them, I’m on their frequency.

I couldn’t wait to get back into Second Life once, to see what was happening, but it’s attraction soured so much for me that I wonder if I ever really did like Second Life at all.

And Katie doesn’t mind the extra time spent with her, although I doubt that She ever missed out on much.

Wolfie! (The 2D Version)

So you just got twitter?

As some of you know, I’ve been using the internet since the early 90′s, and therefore am quite a confident user, I don’t call myself a guru, but I know what goes where and why.

Now Twitter can be a bit confusing when you join up, but then, it’s no harder than using anything else you’ve tried, and I hope that I can help you smooth it out a bit.

Firstly, it’s not wise to lock yourself away, yes I know that you want a certain degree of privacy, but if you lock yourself away on twitter, a problem occurs.

Let’s say that you find out something awesome, perhaps you saw something, or you were “there when it happened” and want to send the news out.

Well your followers will see your news and naturally they will want to Re-Tweet that news to their friends in turn.

But they can’t, because your info is not available to the public… that doesn’t mean that your friends couldn’t do a copy/paste, but it’s a hassle that you don’t really need, and your friends don’t need.

If you really want to send a secure message via twitter, you can use the Direct Message option.

Once you are on twitter, people will start wanting to follow you, particularly if they noticed you reply to a friend of theirs, they will think “ahh this person added something worthy to the conversation, therefore I want to follow them”.and that’s fine, this is how you grow your followers list.

Do not try to get a large amount of followers via some “Get many followers now” scam, if you do, you might get lots of followers, but they’ll be a pretty useless lot, you need people who are on your frequency. One good friend always beats a thousand strangers, right?

Now, some followers will be genuine people, but many will simply be spammers, and sometimes it’s hard to tell one from the other, so here’s a few clues which may help you decide.

If I’ve just got an e-mail from Twitter, telling me that Lady3456 is following me, I’d click the link to go to their twitter page.

The first thing that bothers me here is the name, If I should see a woman’s name followed by numbers, it’s got to be a spammer, though I may be wrong. Most of the time this persons icon is a photo of a good-looking woman.

Suppose the very first tweet I see on their page looks something like “Make many followers”, That’s confirmation enough for me, and so I’ll block them via the settings on their twitter page. * Which you’ll only see if you’re logged in.

This technique is all too common on twitter, and a variation can be the businessman, dressed in a “nice” suit, suits make Wolfie an angry puppy.

If I look at the pictures of who they’re following and my icon is not on the top line, it means this person has either just got twitter and is furiously following people, which is fine because some people, like me, do go nuts when they find something new that fascinates them, or it could mean they’re a spammer, following people at random, trying to get noticed.

If I look at the persons tweets, and they’re always about some product or service, unless it’s a product or service which I’m interested in (ABC News, for instance), they’re blocked.

If I see anything, ANYTHING, about Ringtones, Real Estate, Teeth Whitener, You get blocked.

If I see in your profile that you’re a SEO, a Social Media Expert, into Marketing and Investments… You’re Blocked.

Anyone proclaiming to be a Christian, Conspiracy theorist or Hateful Right Wing Nutcase, You’re Blocked.

Porn – I can find it myself, I don’t require your help thankyou, Blocked.

If your tweets are nothing but African-American street slang, dotted with profanity, then you can fuck off, bro’

If you’re too damn lazy to fill out your profile and leave your image as an egg, then you’re gone… A profile is an essential piece of information, it’s a bit like shaking hands in the real world… and your avatar can become known as “a trusted brand”, filling out your profile and adding a picture, even if it’s temporary, is essential, don’t skip it.

And those who only ever tweet about Sport, Body Odour, Videogames, Celebs, Jock itch…

If you do any of the above, then you are not welcome in my twitterverse, and you will be ruthlessly and mercilessly blocked, immediately… with as much pain as possible.

Look out for twitterers who have only tweeted a few times (or never) yet somehow have hundreds or thousands of followers.

Then there are things that I just find annoying, like tweets written in ALL CAPS, DEAR GOD WHY???

R U 1 of those who are too lazy to use your keyboard? Most people will be using twitter on full sized computers or smartphones with a full keyboard, SMS shortcuts piss me off, sorry, but they do, I won’t block you because of it, but you know what they say about first impressions.

And People who tweet nothing but quotes by famous people, and don’t appear to talk to anyone, seem highly suspect to me, what are they up to? I block these too, cruel bastard, aren’t I?

A lot of users don’t like follows from protected users, unless they know who they are in advance, I’m the same, So if you’re protected and don’t bother to ask me first, how do I tell you’re genuine?

But if I look at someones Twitter page and I recognise the person’s name, or I can see an active, friendly discussion between that person and some of my other followers, then I will allow them to follow me, and if I’m interested enough, I may follow back.

If they start a conversation with me on twitter and I haven’t followed them back, I will usually do so fairly soon, Because it’s usually enough to tell me that they’re a real person, and they’re actually interested in me.

Have they got 42,000 followers and they’re not @stephenfry (Who at this time has about two million followers)?
Unless you’re a celebrity with a verified account (or I know you’re real) then I find this highly dubious indeed.

So you may be wondering how a spammer finds you anyway, well twitter is highly conversational, it’s a bit like a cocktail party, and yes you can drink and tweet if you like… but relationships might be a bit mixed up tomorrow… so I don’t really advise it. But you move around the room and keep your ears open, and when you find a conversation that tickles you, you move into that group and say “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but overhear what you were saying, as it happens, I know something about that myself…”

So, You find two users having a chat on Twitter, which might go something like this:

@BigBadWolf is asking @LittleRedRidinghood out on a date

@LittleRedRidinghood is feeling a bit unsure about it, but says ok

So you send a tweet to @LittleRedRidinghood advising her to pack a taser. (Troublemaker that you are).

The following day as you go through your e-mail, you will find one from twitter, telling you that @TasersRUS is now following you on twitter.

Your tweet contained the word “Taser” that’s the only reason they followed you, they have some kind of autofollow program which grabs a particular word and follows people based on that, which is stupid, I mean you could have said “tasers suck” and you still would have got a follow, block this person immediately.

However, be aware that @LittleRedRidinghood may also decide that you’re a kind, thoughtful individual, who’s suggestion of a taser turned out to be a very handy idea (you bastard), She follows you, and she may also introduce you to @Granny and @Woodsman…. *growls*

While we’re on about key words, the word “Riddle” will bring in the spam quite rapidly, do it when you’re not happy and want to punch someones’ lights out, a good blocking and reporting is quite therapeutic.

Why block anyway, is it really all that important? Well do consider that when people follow you, their icon sits on your followers list on your twitter page, and that group of pics helps genuine followers spot the names of people who may be familiar to them, thus helping them decide whether they should follow you or not, so try and keep your followers list clean… it only takes a few minutes a day to do.

By he way, Spammers sometimes disguise themselves as potential friends by following several of your followers, however their conversation will never involve your mates.

Hashtags are great, they help keep a group together, you may have seen them used for TV programs, #qanda and #newinventors for the ABC programs, and #HeyHey for Hey Hey it’s Saturday.

In a program like tweetdeck, you can dedicate a whole column to one of those shows, and see every tweet relating to it. To join in the conversation, just add a hashtag to the end of any normal tweet, and let the computer do the hard yards.

Alas the rotten spammers will discover that a hashtag is popular and will begin suggesting that you visit certain web pages featuring girls promising to love you for quite some time, this is the reason HeyHey kept changing the tag, I told Daryl that this could happen, and he must have agreed… but generally spammers catch on a bit too late, and will spam after the show is over, missing their opportunity.

By the way, I would definitely get a twitter app, like tweetdeck It’s so much better than using the website, you’ll find that twitter comes to life when you begin using one, so do try it.

I hope this little bit of info helps, if you have any of your own tips, please comment.

Wolfie!

BTW: Furries tend to be genuine, We think this is because spammers don’t know what furries are.

*** After Thoughts ***

If you’re running Twitter on a phone, please be careful with allowing twitter to send out GPS locations.

If you must use a social network which uses GPS, which can be useful, especially when traveling with a group, then go with Gowalla or Foursquare. These social networks should be treated much differently than Twitter in that you only allow completely trusted individuals to link up with you. I only have about twenty Foursquare and Gowalla followers – And for the record, although Foursquare is more popular in Australia, I prefer Gowalla, but this really is another story

If you’re a celebrity or public figure, then you should also press Twitter for a Verified Account as it helps followers feel certain that it IS you, and saves you being impersonated by others, who may not have very kind intentions towards you. Lastly, A Verified Account is a very very nice thing to have.

You can *attempt* to get a Verified Account by writing to Twitter.

The Brick Wall

Since being involved in social media, my perceptions have changed in many ways, and one of those things is my views on what makes a celebrity.

There was once a time when I couldn’t wait to see a movie, or to watch it at home on video or TV, I liked the people I saw on the screen, but they could never love or even simply, like, me back.

For much of my life I’ve felt like there’s this brick wall, and what I want is on the other side. Though surely we’ve all felt like that at some stage, the grass is always greener they say.

Sometimes the way I see it is that people who are in media are on that side of the wall and I’m on this side.

I find it very strange that there are people who I’ve “known” via what they do on TV or Movies for years, even decades, and yet they don’t know me from a bar of soap. a lot of people are comfortable with that idea… but I’m just a little uneasy about it.

There have been moments when I’ve been online where I felt as though I had managed to put a few small holes in that wall and manage to tell someone on the other side that I am here.

I find that these days, I don’t care about someones show unless I have had some sort of contact with them online.

Actual conversation, that’s what I’m after, it means more to me if someone has sent me a few tweets to ask how Katie is today or if I’m feeling well, or to ask my opinion, or if I could help with something as opposed to “My big new show is on Ten in five minutes”.

I have always felt that I was on the wrong side of things, a frustrated audience member, I want to be up there with those other people, I want to produce something that makes people think or wonder or just laugh for a while.

You know, for a while when I was on radio, I got very upset with myself. “What use am I?” I asked myself. I wasn’t a doctor, who does serious work like heal the sick and injured, I was just a dag who turns up to a radio studio twice a week and says silly things between records.

Well, years later, I found myself in hospital, looking at stark walls, feeling worried, not feeling well enough to do anything, or even read. The constantly beeping drips really get to you after a while, and you hear the nurses talking about patients in the other ward who died during the night, I found the whole experience pretty tough going.

Then one day my wonderful Mum bought in my old Walkman, and I managed to find one station which wasn’t blotted out by all the radio interference that a big emergency hospital generates.

I still remember the first thing I heard was Duran Duran, it was bliss.

For a while I could escape.

And then I realised that to some people, hearing a friendly voice can be vital, working in radio was definitely not a useless occupation afterall, in fact doing any sort of work that makes people smile, be it radio, TV, theatre, film, writing or anything else, is definitely well worth the effort.

But I’m getting off track a bit.

If I can feel included in some way, if I feel I’m not just listener 20,345, if the person speaking into that mic knows I’m there, then it means a lot.

OK. so if you’re someone like Justin Bieber for example, you may really want to reach out to your fans on a personal level, but with thousands of keen followers, is it even possible to form a friendly relationship with any of them?

I do follow a few people who I adored as a teenager, and have tried numerous times to get a little conversation up, but have failed.

Earlier in the week @ThomasDolby followed me, he asked me a question, I answered… I was overjoyed, could it be that he and I could have a nice conversation, I would love that. I thanked him for following me, but warned that I’m a bit chatty, anyone who follows me on twitter knows that I practically write a small novel each day in tweets.

He unfollowed me.

I felt “jilted”, like the guy who was dropped by his favourite girl via SMS.

So I took my frustration out in a torrent of humourous tweets…

I thought I’d do a Vicar of Dibley and scoff all the crunchy bars in the house.
(I do store a lot of chocolate here, so if you should ever feel emotional, drive over, I have lots to share)

Well I didn’t do that, but I did down two bags of crisps instead, besides, chocolate is bad for my kind.

I thought that perhaps I had whacked a bloody huge hole out of the wall that day, only to watch aghast as it sealed itself up again in front of me again.

People do chat back to me, that’s wonderful, I appreciate it so much. If all you do is tell your followers when your concert is on, or when your book comes out, then people begin to care less about you and even wonder if you’re really you.

I follow @petshopboys, but their tweets are pretty useless, sometimes they tour and take happy snaps, but they come across as though tweeting is a business they’d rather not do, and they don’t seem particularly interested in the possibility that anyone might be reading… I find that I don’t feel any warmth towards them much anymore.

Though @StephenFry and @MrsStephenFry are really funny, and I suspect that Stephen Fry is a gent who would probably want to have a conversation with us if he didn’t have twenty million followers.

The ideal twitter celebrity is someone who will tweet back to you, has an air of kindness about them, has a few jokes with you, tweet about personal things and the things they’re working on, adds the odd passing thought, likes to stand up for the occasional issue, asks their twitter friends for technical or even personal help, and remembers to say thank you now and then… I’m happy to support this person.

I thought of Ringo Starr, do I even need to say he was with The Beatles?
Anyway, he believed in answering every letter from his fans, most just wanted his autograph, He had a damn good crack at it, he was at it for years. it wasn’t long ago that he finally told his fans he just couldn’t do it any longer, I wonder if he’s moved onto Twitter?

I have been labeled a celebrity myself by some, and I wore that label partially with tongue firmly in cheek, and partially because a part of me desires to be on that other side of the fence.

I’m forty-five this November, and am hoping to have completely smashed that wall by the time I’m 70, Perhaps that’s when Thomas Dolby will ask me if I’m free for coffee today.

And yes, should I make it to the other side, I will do my darnedest to keep in touch with you.

Wolfie!

Getting a Job

My dream job is to work with the ABC, but there are complications, firstly I’ve never had a paying job, so I really don’t know what to expect. The idea of going for a payed job feels something like being lead to a cliff, blindfolded and asked to take a “leap of faith” (and as I’m an atheist, that’s a hard ask).

I have filled my time either with education or voluntary jobs.

What I wanted to do most of all at high-school was to work in radio, and I did get to act out my wish at a community station in Melton, Victoria called RIM-FM (now 979FM). I was there for three years, I ran a two hour music program twice a week and also did some background work, such as writing CSAs or any material which needed to be scripted. I also edited lots of tape. A skill I learnt from a small amount of time at the School of Audio Engineering at St. Kilda.

Illness stopped me from going further, so I dropped out and waited a few years, and found that I felt better… so I decided to do a course in Shiatsu Massage which lasted two years, this was my new age hippy stage, which I can’t knock because I needed something at a relaxed pace which I could handle.

After this I took on another voluntary position with Friends of the (Melbourne) zoo, and liked this, but my health took another dive a few months later.

People who know me would know of my battle with cancer, in myself and with family members.

So I have been on the disability pension for some time, I don’t go out much, just to shop and walk my dog, then I come home and rest.

So the internet has become very important for me as a way to socialise and be involved with things.

I began using it in the 90′s via my Amiga computer, so have seen a lot of changes from then till now.

In the last few years I have been assisting ABC on a voluntary basis on their Secondlife island, acting as a greeter to the public, building it’s structure, producing a live game show for the visitors, and making sure that it runs smoothly from a technical perspective.

The island is a project of ABC Innovation in Sydney, Abigail E. Thomas is in charge there.

I am also a very keen Facebook user, My page almost resembles an online newspaper as I like to add links to the important stories of the day, and to interesting videos or images (photos and comics). However I don’t play facebook games.

Twitter is something I have also found worthwhile, I enjoy reading tweets from the people I follow, who are usually media people. Often this is where I discover links to the news stories which I use on Facebook, Crediting the finder or writer of the story as I add the links.

My technical skills include:

Basic computer use: PC, Mac and iPhone, I can also do some limited maintenance.

Basic Photoshop skills, which I’ve used for Secondlife, Various blogs and Twitter.

Basic Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas skills (Video Editing) the results can be viewed at my Youtube page.

I recommend watching the “Win a Secondlife Avatar” promotional video, Featuring use of a virtual world, Filming of a virtual world, Video Editing, Video Effects and Soundtrack editing.

And also “Step out of the Shade” A music video I made, using the same techniques as mentioned above.

I can edit sound recordings in various sound editing programs and produce and publish a podcast.

I also have reasonable photography skills, I’m familiar with DSLR use and HDV camcorder use.

I have completed a documentary with December Films called “Alter Ego” about users of Secondlife which was produced for SBS, and Have a very small credit in the Australian Feature Film, “Beautiful Kate”.

My limitations mean that although I could occasionally make it to a location, I would far rather work from home if possible and e-mail in any work which needs doing.

I am exceedingly comfortable using the internet, and not quite as comfortable with the real world.

I am an unusual but friendly character, who has a loyal and caring nature, if you can take my oddity, I consider myself a furry, then perhaps we can come up with a plan?

Now, I don’t have the highest opinion of myself, however, if you think that by looking at what I’ve written here, that I may be capable of what you require, then just send a tweet to @Wolfie_Rankin.

Also, I’m pretty broke, My house is falling to bits and I need some help to get out of this hole.

Wolfie!

A Tragic Waste of Life, A Reply.

Recently, Myf Warhurst wrote an article about her own experience with Secondlife, which sadly had been rather negative. As those of us who have gone through the early stages of avatar childhood have found, it’s not easy.

Chiming in at the comments section were a band of the usual suspects who claim the internet is an oubliette of everything evil… while ironically using the same mechanism to vent their frustrations, how bizarre.

Social media can be like choosing a musical instrument to learn and play.

I’ve seen people do really well with one social network, yet completely flop at another. if you find that you’re no good on the piano but do well on guitar, it doesn’t mean the piano sucks and is only for idiots, right?

Therefore if Twitter and Facebook don’t do it for you, then perhaps Skype is more your thing.

The Movie “Beautiful Kate” demonstrated a great use for Secondlife, Rachel Griffiths played the Daughter of a dying Father. Alone in the outback with nobody around for miles, she used Secondlife to meet with a group of people, it would have come in handy on long lonely outback nights.

I have mentioned before that users of Secondlife are often stuck in remote locations or not well enough to get out of the house and meet people, as according to those who would never use the internet insist we must always do.

A friend of mine works as a miner in NSW, he works really hard, often at odd hours. He lives about 200km away from his family and shares his home with his animals.

But naturally he wants to have some sort of human contact, quite difficult when you’re way out in the bush and the local pub and cafes are not open at 4am, and frankly, who wants to go out again when you’re utterly beat?

About four years back, after some persuasion by friends on other social networks, he decided to try Secondlife.

Initially he was against it, he had some pre-conceived ideas about Secondlife and it’s users, but once he tried it
he was sold. He even went as far as buying an entire island with a friend, which can be quite an expensive thing to do, most people who use Secondlife don’t buy an island.

When I pay him a visit, his avatar is frequently standing with a group of three or four others, they don’t role play or play a game, they talk about exactly the same things that people would if they met in real life, and so do I.
Talking on Secondlife, with a group of friends is far better than speaking to just one on the phone, and if your friends are interstate or overseas, then it also works out to be a very cheap conversation.

We internet users take quite a lot from the media, and even other internet users, which is quite strange really.

There have always been passive hobbies where people sit for a long time, especially during winter when it’s too cold for anything else. Some people sit for days knitting, sewing, painting or writing, is there anything wrong with that?

For me, I loved being home with my parents and my animals. as long as I was home, I was happy. and besides, I had stacks of 45s which I loved to sit and listen to, I was obsessed with music, and nobody had any objections to it… Well no, there were some who thought that I should have been down the park, kicking a ball around, but that was simply not me.

The internet is mocked by all and sundry, they roll their eyes and sigh, things were better in our day. when a womans place was in the home and there weren’t any poofs, and we all went to church on a sunday.

Of course, television was acceptable, although our teachers hated it, “Chewing gum for the mind” they called it, and warned that our generation would grow up unable to think for ourselves because of the stupidity on the tube.

I doubt they considered Jim Henson, Professor Julius Sumner Miller, David Attenborough and shows like Beyond 2000, New Inventors and Catalyst which routinely broadened the mind instead of stunting it like our teachers thought it would.

I often watch TED which is an internet program of sorts, where intelligent people get up on stage for about fifteen minutes and tell us what they’re into, it’s a bit like show and tell for adults, and some of the talks are completely brilliant.

Facebook is all this, Twitter is all that, It’s ruining kids brains, eyes and postures, whatever will come of the next generation?

Relax, it’s just a little bit of history repeating, what became of us with our monophonic colour TVs, Countdown and Walkmans? We grew up mostly intact like everyone else, and I’m certain the next generation will too.

In fact, according to one TED speaker, we’re getting smarter, despite what news stories about Tea Party members would have you believe.

I’ve tried it all, and it’s all good, I’m sure that Today Tonight would be most bitter that I haven’t come to a terrible fate such as being stewed up by some sort of Hannibal Lecter character who found me on Facebook.

Being through what I’ve been through in the last five years, if anything, the internet has saved me, and I’ve met many wonderful friends who, yes, I’ve met in real life and continued to be good friends with them after the fact.

If there was no internet, then chances are that I would have sat at home and not gone out to meet people, as I’m a very shy person who keeps a very low profile in public and rarely speaks to anyone, having had the internet and engaging with people, I’ve come out of my shell a heck of a lot and am no longer scared to say hello or ask a question.

The internet as a whole has done me a lot of good, a waste of life? surely not.

And Myf, I invite you to try again, please do!

Myfs original article from National Times

Wolfie!

Myfs article also spoke about The Laneways Project at ABC Island. I have seen the real thing as I live fairly close to it, I can get on the train and be there in about thirty minutes. But the fact is, Friends and Family rather inconveniently tend to live in other states and countries, and as much as I’d like my friends from Oklahoma, London, Perth and Amsterdam to join me for a cuppa at the laneways, they can’t, at least not until someone invents teleportation.

The Laneways Project gave people an idea of what a part of Melbourne looked like, it appealed to Secondlife users and I dare say that some who may not have considered visiting Melbourne before, may have decided otherwise because of what they’d seen there in Secondlife.

Missionary man

I’m feeling downright pissed off over the twitter messages and deleted (sort of) webpage by Wendy Francis, Her rampant homophobia is clearly evident, even if she denies it.

but to then have Gary Burns from One Nation chime in and say that he appreciated Wendys tweet and then to add that he likes to bash “phoofters” is just horrific.

A type of personality exists, where if a person carries a holy book and they believe in invisible fairy people in the sky, then somehow they may have an inflated view of their own morals. They feel perfectly happy to tell us what we ought to do, many of them are in favour of filtering our internet so that we can’t see pictures of people making love, in our own homes… which to me is far more natural than praying to unlikely gods in the sky.

But how can the self-righteous nits think that their moral codes are so much better than our own, when ours don’t include a fear of sexuality or race?

These people are happy to spread all kinds of nasty lies, fear and guilt, and embed cruel and frightening notions of hell into our kids heads. while discouraging proven ideas such as the age of the earth and that dinosaurs actually lived.

They’re holding our kids at ransom, fervently serving Jesus on a plate when Evolution is swept under the carpet, why is Religion taught at schools when physics and biology is not taught at Church?

They’ve managed through their fear mongering to hold back science and medicine, such as stem-cell technology which could have already freed us from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

I thought Christians were supposed to “Love thy neighbour”

Via their religious views they seem to feel it’s ok to go and slander people with differing sexual orientations, to bother people who have done nothing wrong other than be born in a different country, or declare a “just war” because they have their God on their side.

These people with their mad ideas also seem, despite their holy books telling them to live in peace, the very ones most likely to wish to bare arms… why is it that the religious nutters are almost always gun enthusiasts too?

These people with their God, their Holy book, their Guns and a bizarre national pride make very dangerous human beings.

While they are keen to tell us that Gay Marriage will damage society completely, I urge you to look closely at what these people have done, and will continue to do.

Their hatred causes shame, and that shame causes some gentler members of our community to fall into depression and commit suicide and I don’t think that has done much good for society at all… just think, some of the brightest people in our community, who had the potential to save us from ourselves, thrown on the scrapheap because someone couldn’t deal with where they wanted to put their penis.

Although we tolerate them, as indeed we must, at times it is extremely difficult when faced with the dreadful utterances and backward ideals that they harbour.

They will tell us that we haven’t moved forward, and yet we have… nobody puts boxing gloves on their teenage sons to prevent masturbation in bed anymore (at least I hope not), Women can vote, and drive, it’s perfectly ok to go shopping in a bikini on a very hot day if you like, Black people can marry white people if they wish and shops can remain open on a sunday.

If gay people want to get married, then why not? what does it matter to you where they spill their seed? you won’t be in their bedroom… standing there at the foot of the bed with your Bible, preaching Jesus at the top of your lungs while David penetrates Steve’s hot rear end with his nine-inch love-tool? No, Didn’t think so… so who cares what they do?

And in truth they just might be having a relaxing night on the couch together, watching a Bambi DVD… Yes, the Disney film, with the deer.

But then I always knew you had a filthy mind.

“Missionary Man” Eurythmics

Wolfie!