« Assorted links | Main | Relations »
Zero price markets in everything
The first time I entered ChatRoulette—a new website that brings you face-to-face, via webcam, with an endless stream of random strangers all over the world—I was primed for a full-on Walt Whitman experience: an ecstatic surrender to the miraculous variety and abundance of humankind.
That's the premise, the actual story is at this link. Here is one excerpt:
The first eighteen people who saw me disconnected immediately.
Recommended.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on February 5, 2010 at 04:13 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
"full-on Walt Whitman experience" sounds like a British euphemism for something I wouldn't need to see either.
Posted by: Andrew at Feb 5, 2010 4:19:41 PM
I'm definitely too old for this one.
Posted by: zbicyclist at Feb 5, 2010 4:27:35 PM
One man popped up on people’s screens in the act of fornicating with a head of lettuce.
I love the internet
Posted by: William at Feb 5, 2010 5:36:08 PM
"head of lettuce," snicker snicker.
Posted by: Andrew at Feb 5, 2010 5:48:50 PM
"The first eighteen people who saw me disconnected immediately"
thats fairly standard on the internet. When people find out you aren't their preferred sex, they often DC.
Posted by: Doc Merlin at Feb 5, 2010 6:50:21 PM
Yep, just like Omegle, people do it just to meet girls. Which honestly may be the stupidest way of meeting girls.
Posted by: knb at Feb 5, 2010 9:49:28 PM
DocMerlin said "thats fairly standard on the internet. When people find out you aren't their preferred sex, they often DC."
Standard maybe, but suppose that the sight was populated with an even mix of males and females, each ready to disconnect when the wrong gender shows up on the screen. Now do the math of the probability of 18 wrongs in a row, which is 1 over 2 to the 18th power or 1/262,144. Conclusion: it is all men and among those only ones who are trolling for women.
Posted by: liberalarts at Feb 5, 2010 10:33:51 PM
This looks like the idiot's Bloggerheads.
Posted by: Edward Gaffney at Feb 5, 2010 10:50:32 PM
Um, Bloggingheads. But you should also note Bloggerheads, it's quite a read.
Posted by: Edward Gaffney at Feb 5, 2010 10:51:30 PM
You can quickly disconnect and reconnect through ChatRoulette to try to get a sample size of its users.
Couple impressions:
1. Total sausage fest. Lots of young guys, early-mid 20s. Very few girls.
2. Literal sausage fest. Non-trivial amount of guys exposing themselves and manipulating their private parts.
Posted by: Jacob at Feb 6, 2010 2:18:09 AM
The most shocking things (e.g., the penis/lettuce thing) are recorded. Most of the penises aren't though. I'd say there are four main types/groups of people you encounter on Chat Roulette:
1. Two girls, surfing together, giggling at the hot guys and "ew"ing at the penises
2. A bunch of college bros, telling guys they're gay and/or ugly, and asking the girls to show them their tits
3. Men with cameras on their penises, masturbating, waiting for either a hot girl or a hot guy to not click "next"
4. East Asians, lookin' for love and/or friendship
Posted by: Stephen Smith at Feb 6, 2010 2:46:11 AM
That is untrue. What could’ve pushed up house values if not bad underwriting? It wasn’t incomes, for crying out loud. Also, citing the anecdotal evidence of oligarchs buying places in central London is silly as a means of differentiating the US & UK bubbles. Most Park Avenue & Fifth Avenue necessitate all-cash purchases, but that hardly means debt didn’t prop up the broader Manhattan real estate market. You criticize other journalists for making unfounded assumptions, Felix, but you are pretty darn good at doing that yourself.
Posted by: best pro duo at Feb 6, 2010 6:45:55 AM
Tried it--first thing I saw was a recording of two dogs copulating. Couldn't disconnect fast enough.
Posted by: DNW at Feb 11, 2010 8:11:14 PM
This looks like the idiot's Bloggerheads.
Posted by: chatroulette at May 23, 2010 10:52:54 PM
You can quickly disconnect and reconnect through ChatRoulette to try to get a sample size of its users.
Posted by: chatroulette videoları at May 23, 2010 10:54:04 PM
