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Welcome to this Sunday’s edition of “Is It Real?” where we present to you a Web 2.0 company/product/service, and ask you to guess - without the use of the internet at all - whether it’s real or not. We collect votes all week, and then the following Friday, we reveal the real answer. Ready to get started?

Today we feature an ever-popular niche that’s making its way to the internet - social networking for your pet. You may have heard of Dogster.com, or even Catster.com - social networking platforms where dog or cat owners can create online profiles for their lovable, furry friends.

Now we bring you Hamsterer - a social networking community for small, furry, rodents. No, this isn’t some horrible Richard Gere joke site - this site is legit, and gives Hamster owners a platform to write, blog and even Tweet about little “ChesterBee” or “Mr. SnuggleMuffin.” This social networking platform for Hamster lovers has proved to be a genuine international success!

So, dear yooRyoo readers, the task is upon you - without searching the web in any way - make a decision: is Hamsterer a real online community for Hamster owners, or are we making it up? Vote below and tune back in on Friday for the results:

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Happy Halloween, yooRyoo readers! In today’s special Halloween edition we’re featuring a video that celebrates this auspicious, scary holiday…

But before then, let’s reveal the results of last Sunday’s “Is It Real?” feature - the ever-popular social networking site called StachePassions. In a nutshell, StachePassions is a social networking for men with moustaches to network and meet women who enjoy…men with mustaches. Sounds creepy - you should see the pictures in our post (link here).

We asked you to vote on if you think that StachePassions is a real site - here are the results:

• 50% of you actually believed it was true
• 33% said maybe
• 17% gave it a definite “no”

The real answer? Surprisingly enough, Stache Passions is true (don’t believe me - click this link here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!).

OK, with that, we’ll get into our Friday video…today, we’re featuring the best of Halloween-themed internet sites. Enjoy, and don’t eat too much candy tonight!

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Welcome to this Sunday’s Is It Real?, where we feature some web 2.0 technology/service/program that begs believability, and asks us to question if it is real. We give you just enough information about the company, so that you could understand the concept…then we ask you to vote if it’s real - without the help of the web in anyway to verify your answer.

We leave the voting polls open all week, and then reveal the answer the following Friday. Capiche? Good…let’s introduce this week’s company - Stache Passions!

A 100% free social networking & online dating site specifically for singles with a passion for the moustache, Stache Passions is a social network built around members that feel there is nothing finer than a good stache. Stache Passions provides an open environment where mustache wearers can revel in the sitewide love bestowed upon them by a community of stache afficianados.

Both men and women are invited to be free members of the site - presumably the women are there to meet men with moustaches. Some of most popular profile pictures are below:

So, dear yooRyoo readers, we ask you - is “Stache Passions” a real social networking site? Of is this something that we made up? Vote below…and tune back in on Friday to find the real answer.

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It is time for this week’s “Is It Real?” feature - where we scour the internet to find a web 2.0 company that defies the imagination and challenges the credulity of the “new media.”

Here’s how it works - every week we present an online company, and give a brief description of the services it provides. We give you just enough information to understand the concept and then we challenge you to vote on if the company is real, or not. Trick is: you cannot surf the web to find the answer!

Think you’re up to the challenge? Well, then let’s proceed with this week’s entry:

McDnld’s: a social network based on your fast food experience. Yes, McDonald’s - home of the Golden Arches - are launching into the web 2.0 fray with their very own social networking site. Called “McDnlds,” this platform is designed for kids and adults alike to share in their eating experience.

Children are presented with Flash-animated Ronald McDonald’s and Grimaces, guiding them through fun online-games and challenges. Reward points are earned that eventually can be redeemed for a small-size fries at their local McDonalds.

Adults, on the other hand, are presented with a cool, MySpace-like interface, allowing them to upload pictures of themselves (presumably while eating Big Macs or drinking Shamrock Shakes), list their favorite music, make friends, and even are given a forum to “blog” about their McDonald’s experience. It is rumored that the best blog posting will enter them into a chance to be a star of an upcoming McDonald’s commercial.

With this upcoming launch, other fast-food companies are planning to launch their own online-communities, including: MyWendy’s, BurgerKingBook, and KFCspace.

So, dear readers, without using the web in anyway, vote below on whether you think McDnld’s is actually real. We’ll reveal the true answer - and the results of our poll - on Friday (in our “Friday Fishwrap” post). Until then, happy voting!

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In partnership with the new T-Mobile G1 Phone is one of the first open source applications built exclusively for the so-called “gPhone” - and just in time for the presidential election. While this new cell phone from Google (aka “the Android”)has  dubbed the “iPhone killer” and alternately the “Blackberry killer,” (in some circles, called the “McCain killer” in reference to the Republican Presidential nominations’ PR gaffe stating that the Senator invented the ubiquitous Blackberry).

“Grok the vote” (GTV) is the new G1 Phone application that monitors social networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook in an attempt to determine your voting preferences automatically.

Every time a G1 phone user enters or updates their social networking profile through the phones interface, “Grok the Vote” gathers a listing of your preferences, including your music tastes (or lack thereof), books you’ve read (or censor), groups you belong to (or hate) and even the types of friends your connect to - all in attempt to “grok” your vote.

Do you have a video post of “I got a crush…on Obama” by the Obama Girl? Well, that’s an easy algorythm - one vote for Obama!

How about if you are part of the Facebook group for John McCain? One vote for McCain!

If you want to censor books in public and school libraries, support a plan for oil drilling in Alaska without considering the economic trama and the environmental destruction that it would cause, support abstinence only sex education, believe that Creationism should be taught in public schools, regardless of religion, support the National Rifle Association- but not the restriction of guns from known criminals, oppose same sex marriage or any sort of health benefits for same sex couples, oppose the listing of Polar Bears on the Endangered Species Act, do not believe that Global Warming is caused by human activity, and are against all forms of abortion, even in the case of rape or incest victims, then McCain it is!

GTV was introduced to combat the vast morass of voter apathy. In the last November election, voter turnout was estimated at 39%. What about the 61% of the rest? I mean, is that really a Democracy? Does that qualify for a mandate of the American people? 39%? I mean, c’mon!

Yet, popularity of social networking sites are at an all time high! Hence - “Grok the vote” to the rescue!!!

Once a person downloads and runs the GTV open source application on their new G1 phone, Google subtly adds a User Licencing Agreement which indicates that users agree that their vote will be cast, depending on the conclusion GTV draws from the “grokking” their Social Networking sites.

Definition from Wikipedia:
Grok is a word invented by science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, first used in the 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land.

To grok is to share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity.

When asked about those that do not display any online preferences, the makers of GTV replied: “Well, those votes would automatically go to the Democratic candidate. We do this in an effort to combat the known Diebold voting machine bias towards conservative presidential candidates. This is also to combat the seemingly inbred tendency for liberal infighting, such as Ralph Nader pulling votes from John Kerry in 2004, and the conspicuous silence from Hillary Clinton post-Obama nomination.”

But, recently Bush was heard saying (while he thought he was off-mike):

Well, those f–kers can do any dang thang they want y’all, the die bold guy sez they’ll still deliver that geezer, and the second run beauty queen.”

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Just banged the office admin, and now the tales of your lack of “sexpertise” are making the rounds at work? Do you look away as you pass your ex in the long hallway on your way to the water cooler? Groups of your ex’s cadre sistahs dissing you behind double-takes and half-covered faces, with sounds of derisive laughter ringing over the cubicle walls?

Despite the maxim: “never date a co-worker” (otherwise known as “don’t shit where you eat”), office romances still happen. One study showed that the place where we meet over 90% of friends and acquaintances is - you guessed it - at our places of employment.The odds are we’re going to hook up.

Since they can’t change the statistic, the makers of Snatch! decided to “tap into” this corporate zeitgeist by creating a new mashup, combining aspects the social networking site LinkedIn with the dating aspects of Match.com.

Now, instead of dating coworkers, you can leverage your LinkedIn connections for more than just employment contacts, but for dating and casual one-night sex connections as well. Hurting for a raise as well as needing a booty call? Why not combine both? Now with Snatch! you can!

With Snatch! you can virtually “wink” at a person at a different company that you may have met at a conference without running into interference from your HR department. Chatting on Snatch! about wanting to “hit that” is free of the risk of IT forwarding your risque emails to your meddlesome HR rep (to add to your already overflowing personnel folder). Now you can tap work-booty with impunity, and the next morning still go to the office with you head held high, (not avoiding eye contact as you typically do).

There has been talk of abuse on the network, such as users trying to “sleep their way to 500+ connections,” if you will, and CEOs using Snatch! as a sort of new feudalism - offering employees to other employers as a way to tie companies closer together (or to steal corporate secrets). The makers of Snatch! respond that while statistics show there is abuse on any social networking site, they try to discourage it by installing levels of security, such as permission-based connection building (otherwise known as “Snatch!” approval).

A contingent from those ever-invading Fuckus Focus on your own damn the Family are offended by the language used on the controls of Snatch! - such as the “Tap That!” button designed to initiate chat sessions, or the “Suckit!” button label which asks for a recommendation. They position that these languages encourage unsavory activities.

The makers of Snatch! are nonplussed: “We’re just having fun helping people to have some fun. By developing this platform, we are just making official the kind of relationships that happen anyway, in happy-hour and FAC functions. All without the ‘career-limiting’ aspects of dating and work.”

(Editors note: Snatch! is not related, except in a very parallel-ironic-universe kind of way, with the pron site snatch.com…not like we would know about those kind of websites anyway…).

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In today’s Is It Real?, we present another Web 2.0 technology/service, give a brief description of what it’s about, and then challenge you to decide (without the help of the web at all) if it is real. We reveal the real answer the following Friday (as part of our Friday Fishwrap feature). Now that we understand the rules, let’s get started:

————————>

Today, we feature one of the most advanced, unique concepts I have seen in the last few months: a social networking application called “HoffSpace” - centered around David Hasselhoff. Here is an excerpt from David’s very own introduction:

“In my travels round the world I have always been surprised that no matter where I go people recognize and know me, from Europe, Australia and India to the Philippines and the Zulu Nation in South Africa…while two people from two entirely different countries and backgrounds may seem to have nothing in common, the only thing they might have in common is me… So I decided to start a network where people from across the world might come together and get a conversation started over me.”

Hence, he has launched HoffSpace - videos and photos of the adventures of his very own life (THAT NO ONE ELSE GETS TO SEE) and also from the lives of other members. He’ll also feature “Hoff TV” where (as he describes it): “I go live often.” There are chat features, the ability to create home pages with personal interests, music features, video and photo uploads…virtually everything one needs to create an online social community…all based around David Hasselhoff.

The byline of Hoffspace: “One man or woman CAN make a difference...”

So, readers of yooRyoo, I challenge you to vote below: is Hoffspace real? We’ll tally your votes all week long, and let you know the real answer on Friday.

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Wikipoetri 2.0 is a web-based interface utilizing wiki technology to allow users to contribute or modify poetry content. Wiki’s are often used to create collaborative and community websites. In fact, Wikipedia is one of the best know wikis in the world. Although Wikipedia is often ridiculed for its inaccuracies and contributor’s bias, the founders of Wikipoetry 2.0 say that the reason is that Wiki’s have not found their correct media for wikis to be applied.

Now they’ve found it: Poetry.

From Wikipedia:

Poetry (from the Greek poiesis, a “making” or “creating”) is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning.

What this means is that you can write poetry about anything and it doesn’t really have to mean anything. Shoot, it’s perfect for wiki’s!

Having a site like Wikipoetri 2.0 is like a freshmen creative writing class back in my undergrad, “ gushes fan Fran Lieptowicz, a fan of Wikipoetri 2.0. “I mean, you add a line onto a previous line, or even edit and delete lines of poetry written before. It’s constantly evolving.”

Other writers disagree:

It’s constantly revolting,” says Rachel Summer, PhD in Poetics from the Naropa Institute of Disembodied Poetics, Boulder, Colorado: “Imagine a morass of constantly changing lines, no coherent assonance, alliteration or rhythm, and symbolism that starts and then goes nowhere. It’s ridiculous. More so, it is shameful.”

A snippet of one of the Wikipoems (version 07/08/2008 07:53pm) is called “Nostalgia”:

The lucid dreaming of driving
the headlights burn tunnels, stare hole like Superman into the night
the Venturi effect inhales the car
the night closes behind like a tight sphincter
Eat My Exhaustion

Ms. Sumner responds, “I mean, come ON, ‘stare hole like Superman into the night’? ‘the night closes behind like a tight sphincter?’ I mean, what the fuck is that?”

The anonymous founders of Wikipoetri, going by the literary poet names of Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Olsen say that Ms. Sumner is missing the point.

Wikipoetri 2.0 breaks the boundaries of traditional poetry, much in the same way that spoken word poetry broke the bounds of what was traditionally known as poetry. Like Spokenword poetry, where anyone could get up on stage and read their writings, Wikipoetri 2.0 enables poetry writers to collaborate and attempt to write a great community written poem”

Professor Sumner shudders, “It’s spray paint over the Louvre, the great tradition of Poetry. If shit can be poetry, then poetry is shit. I simply can’t abide it,” at this point Ms. Summer stuck her head in an oven and turned the gas up.

Video of the poet Wang Zen performing the
wikipoem Nostalgia, version 07/08/2008 07:53pm

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Idea by Dave, thanks Dave!

In order to capture a niche market of web surfers, a new social networking platform has been announced. Sh*#tfaced is an open-source, social networking platform targeted at SUI’s (Surfers Under the Influence) - a growing demographic of online searchers.

With an easy interface, (so easy a drunk could use it, heh), users are able to design their social networking site into a dizzying array of animated backgrounds, simultaneously running videos and clashing music audio, much like how MySpace is like now. 

You are able to send drinks to unsuspecting TOA’s (Targets of Affection) and (totally hetero) man-crushes.

The current demographic is mostly males in their early twenties that are either in a frat house or would like to get into one. Very few women are  part of the Sh*#tfaced network, which tends to lead to virtual beer-can-crushed-against-the-forehead competitions, armwrestling, and endless virtual drinking games. Most comments displayed have a version of “This place is a sausagefest. Let bounce, brah.”

The photos displayed are typically lots of crowd shots in darkened interiors with harsh flash lighting on grinning people looking like they are really trying hard to manufacture some good ol’ alcoholic fun. Hey, it ain’t fun unless there’s at least one drunken brawl, don’tcha know.

Add photos, design an avatar for the 3D “Passout Party” room, and virtually drink the night away!

“It’s like a modern day vomitorium, totally Roman, bro. Or Latin or something. Whatever. Anyway’s it tits man, yeah tits,” comments one inebriated participant.

Test the limits of virtual alcohol poisoning with Sh*#tfaced!

Next stop: AlAnonster.

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Are you IMing and are trying to convey what you are feeling, but your feelings are too complex for just a simple smiley or frowney face Emoticon? Well Demoticons are your answer! Demoticons are for those mixed states where you really are not sure how you are feeling. Some Demoticons are:

• ;-\ Wanting to get back together with your abusive ex, but knowing you shouldn’t feel that way demoticon.
• >:| Disagreeing with a co-worker, but not wanting to say anything to “rock the boat” demoticon.
• /:> Attracted to a co-worker while discussing business matters. And she’s your boss demoticon.
• :-[ Silently judging you demoticon.
• >: ) Looking both pleased and angry, similar to a sarcastic expression, but with more heat demoticon.
• >: ( Making a business presentation, but really needing to take a dump in the middle of it demoticon.

More Demoticons are being created everyday, and some say that a new pictorial language is being developed from the introduction of Emoticons, and now Demoticons. There are even differences in how different nations do emoticons such as the Japanese smiley (done upright, so that you don’t have to tilt your head to the left to read it): (^_^). Demoticons for the Japanese are also being developed for mixed states. The equivalent one for “Giving a presentation, but really needing to make a brown baby is: (*´_`*) being “Both pleased and angry, similar to a sarcastic expression, but with more heat” would be  o(>_< )o and stoned, of course, is (0_0).

Please submit any Demoticons you come up with and we will consider them for a new posting! Yay!

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