ChatRoulette, Elevators, and Panopticons
February 17th, 2010
My wife and I – and millions of others, I’m sure – are continually annoyed by folks who walk up to elevators and press buttons already lit.
Though not a new phenomenon, we think we have a solution.
If pressing a lit elevator button were to cancel the call and simply send the machine to the nearest floor in the current direction, there would be a penalty to pressing it more than once.
The interesting thing about this idea is that it need not be universal. Instead, elevator designers could follow the lead of Jeremy Bentham and create a panopticon-style system in which some small portion of elevators operate this way. It only takes the fear of looking like an idiot to regulate behavior (most of the time).
ChatRoulette Weirdos
As ChatRoulette takes off, it’s becoming plagued by pervs flashing their junk or otherwise being slimy. It’s certainly expected, as the anonymity provided by the web brings out that side of people. It’s just a fact of life on the Internet: if there is an opportunity for a guy to flash his weiner anonymously, he will.
And that’s fine. It’s the way of the world. It’s the way of the web.
But so, my friends, is community moderation.
Enter ChatSnapper
Let’s try an experiment.
- Follow @ChatSnapper on Twitter.
- DM or @reply to @ChatSnapper with a link to a screenshot from ChatRoulette (or other online chats) showing offensive (or just weird) behavior.
- Check posted links and help shine a light on the offenders.
Let’s see if the existence of a rogues’ gallery has any effect on the actions of folks.
If this works, I’ll start calling elevator companies.
ADDENDUM
Alex Bisceglie alerted me to a similar effort: ChatRoulette Cock Map. It includes an app that can track the IP of offenders as well.
The very moment that Alex sent that, I was working on a WebKit browser with screencap and yfrog upload. For now, grab a build at: ChatSnapper – Alpha.
