Yesterday lecture was actually full of good presentations. Many popular applications in facebook were examined to a great extent, many ideas were dig out, many suggestions, they are unspeakable good to me. It was a great experience for me, and for those who want to build facebook applications. CS3216 is actually a great class. Prof not only let made his students critic about facebook applications but also let them do a real one, so that they can learn from both assignments. As prof always says, 'go get you hands dirty', 'the learning is in the doing'. It's not only about judging the other applications, it's also looking back at what you've done. Truly. after the seminar, I realized that the application my group did has some critically bad points, the idea was simple but amazing, but the execution was not so successful. But leave it for later, now is the time for facebook seminar critique, Superpoke :-).
About the presentation:
-'Presentation'(performance): the teamwork was not very good. There were times the slide was ahead what Tomithy was saying, and there were times he changed the points but the slide didn't. It was a little distractive and ruining the mood. That was a bad point of having one person presenting, one person controlling the slide, the teamwork can't be perfect everytime. I prefer one person presenting and controlling the slide at the same time, and this can be even greater with the remote (truly I don't know what it is :">, it's just to control slide without being near the laptop like what Ji Wei used, amazing).
-The slide: nice, but not too easy to grasp because of the CBAA+, I spent some time wondering 'what are they' during the presentation.
-Message:
+Truly, I don't quite remember, somehow I was not good at remembering things in English, both listening and reading. The first thing I remember is that the presentation was not about the application itself, but about the idea of this application, 'poke', that it is a very potential idea.
+Indeed, the most thing I remember is that the suggestion of using this kind of application to poke 'serious, global thing' ('causes'), such as '$friend throws at you Haiti earthquake. Throw back?'. I think this is quite an interesting idea, but I think it can only work quite well for people paying attention to superpoke or regularly use them. For me, at first I can be excited about some poke my friends sent me, but I am not of the kind liking using this type of application, after some time, I will probably drop this, and for every notification containing 'superpoke', 'poke', I will just simply ignore. Sometimes having many things from the greatest to the smallest is good. Sometimes it isn't. In this particular field, I think 'causes' is quite good enough an application for that kind of activity. Superpoke is of another type, and it is different, following a successful road from some other will not always guarantee success. Superpoke should have it own way as well. Anyway, quick rethink, I think it is not impossible to implement 'causes' in 'superpoke', but how to implement it is a hard question. Facebook is not the first social network (initial idea) in the world, nor is google the first web search in the world, but what makes them so successful is the 'how'. Superpoke should adapt 'causes' in its own way, as there's some difficulties like what I mention above(people don't know what is 'causes', what is normal poke). It's not impossible, but nor is it easy. How to overcome? I have no idea. Oops. This is the new app arising, not suggestion?? how bad my memory is. Still, I don't like this things much, I think it's not very different from spreading message, one sending message to the whole friendlist and so on, through yahoo messenger, which is quite bothersome. But maybe the different is 'how' they implement such functions, I do not know for sure.
About the application:
- The functionality is quite simple indeed, and it's much like a kind of ecard I think, except that it is not too formal like ecard and has more things, more simpler but very funny things, and more functions such as war, pet as well. But still, it's not my type. Not much interest in this things, as in my opinion, it's not meaningful, it's just trivial, superficial and just for fun, entertainment. Nothing more. Not much impressions left in me after using this application. That's from user view.
- From developer's view, nothing particular about this, very simple :-). Just one thing is that the 'premium' poke (buy with money) is also included in normal poke as well, while I am almost sure I would never send such poke if I used this application. There should be a choice to hide those premium poke. Maybe this is a kind of making money :-), but I don't like it.
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Truly, I don't quite remember, somehow I was not good at remembering things in English, both listening and reading. The first thing I remember is that the presentation was not about the application itself, but about the idea of this application, 'poke', that it is a very potential idea.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, I couldn't exactly get what they were trying to say, either, so don't worry about it. =) Your english isn't too bad, in my opinion, I enjoy reading your blog.
Well, let such a miserable amateur be the 1st to comment, are you afraid? :p.
ReplyDelete(I thought a gmail reply would be better. But last time, u told me to post here. So let me try it:p).
Dont know much and deeply about the application u've invested in, but I do like this reviewing thing :). I can see in the post that u have cast a thoughtful look back to every detail concerning the application. I feel that you're not satisfied with the work, right :)? Hi. I know it:p. Still, the lessons u've drawn are really valuable.
Hi. This is the 1st time. Well, actually, if right on the 1st time u could already make out sth impressive, the game'd be not much interesting somehow hehe. Impressiveness also takes time and pain :)).
So, give it a better shot next time ok? I bet u'll do it well ^^
I think spamming all these "causes" via Superpoke would trivialize them, actually. :X I mean, sure, it raises awareness, but people think they are seriously helping by just poking someone and leaving some organization to give a cent per click, or whatever :P It doesn't do anything real. It's like saying "Wear Green (color, literally) to save the environment" at some event. Doesn't do nuts.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have learnt that when you ask people to support these causes in such a simple matter, on subsequent occasion if you ask for real support/ help they are more likely to give it so it doesn't conflict with what they did in the past.
I actually think poke is a really cool idea, but it's something you want to use once in a while, not spam everyday..
ReplyDeleteYet the people behind the app designed it for users to use it as often as possible, quickly wearing out it's users as they receive too much 'spam pokes'
Orry
Speaking for myself, I am far more likely to respond or pay attention to causes from friends that I respect and trust than from spams. Spamming via pokes trivialises the cause. (@Shannon, didn't mean to copy you but it happens I wrote this too. =P)
ReplyDeleteI think that the Causes app appears good enough. The only reason for its falling user rate is because such an app is not suitable for everyone. If we want to promote Causes, we should probably work on developing and improving Causes rather than trying to combine it with Superpoke.
Superpoke as I see it is a means of engaging in online social interaction. It was fun in the early days of Facebook and was in fact meaningful. A poke usually came from someone that mattered or something that wanted to interact with you online. The poke would result in some conversation no matter how limited. Unfortunately, the poke got abused and has now lost its effect.
Superpoke. I think facebook is trying to create a similar version of it? If you look at Suggestion on the right column of your profile page. isit facebook trying to get you engage with your friends by writing them a post?? I would say the meaning behind the application and the facebook feature is around the same.Facebook requires you to write a message to your friends. I might be wrong?
ReplyDeleteActually I don't think poke with causes is a very good thing.. Poke is a joking thing, causes is a serious thing, and when u add poke to causes, it will become a serious joke! oops.. Just kidding..
ReplyDeleteI just think that if causes is implemented in superpoke, what happens will be everyone will know about the cause, because it spreads very quickly. But no one will donate because actually their idea was to have fun poking one another..
- Hong Jun
@Shannon, Jonathan and Hong Jun: Yup, I totally agree. Superpoke and causes are not a good combination. It trivializes the cause, which is indeed very bad.
ReplyDelete"superficial and just for fun, entertainment". That's actually the whole purpose of the application. Do notice that 9/10 of the top ranking facebook apps are actually quite meaningless and not benefiting you in any sense. The whole poking thing is to annoy your friends (or maybe helps in reminding your friends that of your existence). To turn an "annoying" application into something more meaningful such as poking with causes might actually works if the intention is right.
ReplyDelete