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October 22, 2021 11:59 AM   Subscribe

 
ABCG

Always
Be
Grifting
posted by darkstar at 12:08 PM on October 22, 2021 [26 favorites]


Software Freedom Conservancy: Trump's Group has 30 days to remedy the violation, or their rights in the software are permanently terminated
Finally, it's worth noting that we could find no evidence that someone illegally broke into the website. All the evidence available on the Internet (as of 22:00 US/Eastern on Thursday 2021-10-21) indicates that the site was simply deployed live early as a test, and without proper configuration (such as pre-reserving some account names). Once discovered, people merely used the site legitimately to register accounts and use its features.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 12:08 PM on October 22, 2021 [26 favorites]


Russian for "truth" is "pravda."

They're not even original.
posted by panglos at 12:20 PM on October 22, 2021 [22 favorites]


Nobody rips into this nonsense as well as Bloomberg's Matt Levine: Donald Trump Does a SPAC Deal

On the other hand if Donald Trump launched a company that was like “I am going to start a social media platform for Trump fans,” could he get people to buy the stock? I think that two fundamental lessons of the last few years are:

You can get people to buy any stock; and
Donald Trump can get people to buy anything.

So if Donald Trump announced “hey I’m gonna do a social media company, buy some stock,” people would buy some stock. And then he’d get a lot of money. And then if the social media platform did not end up being profitable — as I cannot imagine it would be! — then he would, uh, still have that money? And if the social media platform did not end up being launched — if Trump and his crack team of technologists just couldn’t actually build a well-functioning online social network — then he would, uh, still have that money? And if there was no crack team of technologists at all, if nobody even tried to build the social media platform — then you see where I am going with this right?

The point is that if you launch a company with the goal of making it profitable, you have to, like, have a workable business plan and execute on it and deal with a million different operational complexities. If you launch a company with the goal of selling a lot of stock, you have to get people to trust you and give you their money. There is some overlap between those things! But they are different things!


Worth the full read...
posted by chavenet at 12:21 PM on October 22, 2021 [70 favorites]


I can only assume this leads to a) the site imploding in spectacular fashion within six months and b) Trump making off with Digital World Acquisition's millions. What a disgusting farce.

At least there'll be some good podcast episodes worth of analysis to come out of this debacle; I can't see anything else of value being generated.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 12:22 PM on October 22, 2021 [7 favorites]


Or what Matt Levine said.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 12:23 PM on October 22, 2021 [5 favorites]


If this is, as Matt Levine suggests, a low-effort scam to squeeze some money from his base, I wonder how this will impact (a) his hitherto unshakeable grip on the Republican Party and its candidacy going into 2024, and (b) their ability to get out the vote if a significant proportion of their voter base knows someone who was conned out of their life savings by him.
posted by acb at 12:35 PM on October 22, 2021 [2 favorites]


To answer your questions in order:
(a) - it will have no effect
(b) - it will have no effect
posted by thatwhichfalls at 12:38 PM on October 22, 2021 [91 favorites]


Meanwhile, his enterprise is called TMTG.
If I were They Might Be Giants' lawyer, I'd be sharpening some press releases right about now.
posted by chavenet at 12:45 PM on October 22, 2021 [11 favorites]


their ability to get out the vote if a significant proportion of their voter base knows someone who was conned out of their life savings by him.

When this whole thing falls apart it will be painted as the democrats fault, not Trump's. Even if he goes on OAN and brags about how he got rich off of this and there's there is a paper trail a mile long his base will still side with him, even (probably especially) if they were personally grifted.
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:46 PM on October 22, 2021 [13 favorites]


a-also, set irony meter to stun: SocialTruth

SocialTruth provides an innovative and distributed way to achieve both content and author credibility verification and detection of fake news increasing, thus, the trust in Social Media.

SocialTruth solution along with the implementation of Digital Companion can be used to detect fake news by both professionals (i.e. journalists) and individuals (daily social media users), allowing for improved governance and information veracity in Social Media.

posted by chavenet at 12:49 PM on October 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


The "Mastodon's Founder Says Trump's New Social Network is Just Mastodon" article is good but the title is a bit weak. That's not just something he says, from "view source" on the HTML it has mastodon code mentioning mastodon by name.

The same thing happened with Gab: right-wingers raised money to build their very own social network, it didn't work, so they gave up and used Mastodon instead.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:58 PM on October 22, 2021 [18 favorites]


o if Donald Trump announced “hey I’m gonna do a social media company, buy some stock,” people would buy some stock. And then he’d get a lot of money. And then if the social media platform did not end up being profitable — as I cannot imagine it would be! — then he would, uh, still have that money? And if the social media platform did not end up being launched — if Trump and his crack team of technologists just couldn’t actually build a well-functioning online social network — then he would, uh, still have that money?

Kind of, but not really. Assuming that regular securities laws apply here[1.], an offering of stock in a new venture to the general public, such as would make a grift such as this effective, is done through an underwriting bank through a process called an initial public offering (IPO). In an IPO, it is the underwriter which sells the stock to the public, and which benefits from the initial rise in share price. The company receives an agreed-upon amount from the underwriter. To the extent that the company, or its principals, can be said to benefit directly from action on the price of the stock, that is only insofar as they hold additional, issued but unreleased shares or options, and that subject to the restrictions on insider trading.[2.]

When you buy a share of Amazon, you don't put money directly into Bezos' pocket; you put it into the pocket of the person or institutional investor whose share you bought, which might happen to be Bezos. Bezos benefits indirectly from additional demand for shares of Amazon stock, but the seller, whoever it is, receives the actual agreed-upon share price.

[1.] I grant you, I think a strong argument could be made that the law is not coming and will not come for Trump, but that is sort of a different issue than "here's (an incorrect explanation of) how he will monetize this venture."

[2.] Id.
posted by gauche at 1:01 PM on October 22, 2021 [7 favorites]


Trump using Mastodon is less funny than Mike Lindell using Drupal. I will say that, at least.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:02 PM on October 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


TEENAGE MUTANT TINJA GURTLES
posted by saladin at 1:03 PM on October 22, 2021 [26 favorites]


There's no IPO here. The company's already been bought by a blank check company. A shell company formed for the purpose of buying another company without the paperwork and oversight required for an IPO. The grift already happened.
posted by fnerg at 1:07 PM on October 22, 2021 [25 favorites]


It is incomprehensible to me that he's not calling it Trumper.
posted by delfin at 1:09 PM on October 22, 2021 [1 favorite]


The next one will be called Purge
posted by bigbigdog at 1:17 PM on October 22, 2021 [6 favorites]


If we're talking right-wing social media sites, PatriotTakes which covers Gab, Parler, and others, has gotten monstrously large.
posted by meowzilla at 1:32 PM on October 22, 2021 [4 favorites]


Patrick Orlando is the chairman and chief executive officer of the Miami-based special purpose acquisition company, Digital World Acquisition, according to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Orlando…is based in Wuhan, China….

Hmmm… it’s so tempting to manufacture a conspiracy theory around this tidbit!
posted by carmicha at 1:33 PM on October 22, 2021 [9 favorites]


There's no IPO here. The company's already been bought by a blank check company. A shell company formed for the purpose of buying another company without the paperwork and oversight required for an IPO.

Reading the article, I see that this is correct. Thank you.
posted by gauche at 1:55 PM on October 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


carmicha: "manufacture a conspiracy theory "

covfefe!
posted by chavenet at 2:01 PM on October 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


Two Hedge Funds Sell Stake in Trump SPAC Firm (CNBC), which observes correctly that the Trump name is toxic enough that at least two hedge fund managers don't want to be associated with it, but buries the lede that another hedge fund that owns a piece of DWAC, ARC Global Investments II LLC, has as its manager Patrick Orlando, who, as you may recall, is also the CEO of DWAC.
posted by box at 2:02 PM on October 22, 2021 [9 favorites]


I'm just relieved that he isn't on MetaFilter.

(that we know of)
posted by Wordshore at 2:08 PM on October 22, 2021 [4 favorites]


When it crashes and burns when launched "for real" that's also a feature. One go-to point will be that his engineers, just tremendous people, you've never seen engineers like this, real American know-how, tremendous just tremendous, I just learned this the other day, people don't know there's a thing called a 10x engineer and they're named that because one of them is worth a hundred foreign engineers, I call them forengineers you heard that here first, well I call ours trumpx engineers. And they told me there's evidence our site was hacked and sabotaged by Jeff Bozo's, that's what I call him, by Jeff Bozo's Failing Amazon using illegal alien hackers, and folks, the audits are coming out this saturday or the one next, just wait and see. Donate here.

And they will.
posted by Drastic at 2:30 PM on October 22, 2021 [26 favorites]




I'm just relieved that he isn't on MetaFilter.
(that we know of)


Pretty sure it'd be blindingly obvious it was him within the first comment or two.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:45 PM on October 22, 2021 [13 favorites]


For that matter, we should encourage him to get into pro poker - he's not smart enough to even know his own tells and he'd get wiped out in no time!
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:46 PM on October 22, 2021 [1 favorite]


Trump using Mastodon is less funny than Mike Lindell using Drupal. I will say that, at least.

Drupal is really a horrible choice as a high-volume social network platform. And I say that as somebody who makes their living with Drupal.
posted by COD at 2:53 PM on October 22, 2021 [11 favorites]


I've been trying and failing to even figure out who is behind TMTG. Who's the board of directors? Who are the executives? Who's the schlub who reskinned the Mastodon code? I'd love to learn more about their tech team in general.

It's very weird for a company to be a public entity without any information about who runs it. The SPAC (DWAC) is the actual public entity and their leadership is visible. You'd think SEC filings would cover something about TMTG, at least the articles of incorporation, but casual searches don't find anything and no journalists I've read have covered it. TMTG's pitch deck has no information about the company or team.

The only name I have found is Scott St. John (a reality TV producer) as leader of Corporate Operations. The Daily Mail of all places had that info. That name is also in the one SEC document I could find, which lists Trump as the Chairman of TWTG. Lori Heyer and Roma Daravi are listed as press contacts.

That's it. Is it a real company? It sure seemed to have come out of nowhere. All that's missing is the cryptocurrency ticker.
posted by Nelson at 3:00 PM on October 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


May all his endeavors be cursed and abandoned. May he live always without grace. May his every breath be a grievance unto him for all the days of his life.

/spit spit evil eye sign
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:09 PM on October 22, 2021 [38 favorites]


Wait, since they are public do we have to make sure "total stock market" type index funds don't buy this kind of nonsense? Even if I accept indices including cigarettes and globe-destroying fossil fuels, I am really against "give money to DJT at whatever rate his followers prefer".
posted by a robot made out of meat at 3:18 PM on October 22, 2021 [6 favorites]


Go look at this shit and tell me the grift isn't already in.

And we'll have a streaming service. And a cloud computing platform. And Derek Jeter will be there...

And if you think after 4+ years of ignoring every law in sight they'll bow to some nerd's GPL lawsuit, I don't know what to tell you.
posted by JoeZydeco at 3:50 PM on October 22, 2021 [7 favorites]


I think a web site or social media service is just the come. My guess on the next move: reddit r/WSB accounts and Q followers hinting that libruls are shorting the stock and ‘cancelling’ Trump, bot accounts and talking heads calling all true MAGA supporters to buy the stock and “squeeze the libs.” Meanwhile, current holders of the stock ride it up and sell, leaving the rubes holding the bag.
posted by sudogeek at 3:55 PM on October 22, 2021 [9 favorites]


And if you think after 4+ years of ignoring every law in sight they'll bow to some nerd's GPL lawsuit, I don't know what to tell you.

Yeah, they'll blame it on Big Open Source and get away with it.
posted by brundlefly at 3:58 PM on October 22, 2021 [7 favorites]


Assuming that regular securities laws apply here[1.], an offering of stock in a new venture to the general public, such as would make a grift such as this effective, is done through an underwriting bank through a process called an initial public offering (IPO)

'Tis a SPAC.

if a significant proportion of their voter base knows someone who was conned out of their life savings by him

...which is why they won't.
posted by praemunire at 5:32 PM on October 22, 2021 [2 favorites]


Trump using Mastodon is less funny than Mike Lindell using Drupal. I will say that, at least.


It's weird too that they don't realize it was during the Obama admin that Drupal became the framework for gov't websites.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:47 PM on October 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


The way that Matt Levine article reads, he sounds like he's shocked that the stock market, which he apparently thought reflected reality in some way, (specifically relating to Gamestop stock) was just Dutch tulips all the way down.

I'd say, that since he's a former investment banker, that's some odd naïvete, but he's a former investment banker, so propping up the idea that the stock market is anything other than a giant casino, probably helps him. Also, Bloomberg.

Trump decisively cannot sell anything to anyone. (see steaks and vodka, which he can't even sell to Russians) He's okay enough at selling some things to some people to not totally destroy the inherent buffers against risk that all rich people have. I wish people would stop propping up the narrative that he has any acumen for anything. He's just been propped up like that his entire life.
posted by fnerg at 5:54 PM on October 22, 2021 [21 favorites]


Orwell is coughing up blood.

From Gizmodo:
Filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from a Florida lawyer named Holly Collins look an awful lot like they were made on behalf of TMTG. On Oct. 13, Collins filed for a trademark on TruthSocial." Collins also filed for a number of terms that one could easily see popping up as the lingua franca of Truth Social, perhaps replacing terms like “fave” or “retweet”; on Oct. 14, she filed for trademarks on “Truthing,” “Retruth,” “Post a Truth” and “Follow the Truth.” The last of those is actually already in use, accompanied by a logo identical to promotional materials released by Trump’s media group.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:45 PM on October 22, 2021 [13 favorites]


on Oct. 14, [Collins] filed for trademarks on “Truthing,” “Retruth,” “Post a Truth

In this Salon inteview, historian and cultural critic, Gary Lachman
discusses how the Donald Trump cult builds power because it seems to provide meaning to the lives of his followers, and how Vladimir Putin has created a "post-truth" alternate reality in Russia, now being emulated by Trump and his allies in the United States.
posted by otherchaz at 8:13 PM on October 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


May he live always without grace.

Nothing is more certain.
posted by nosewings at 8:20 PM on October 22, 2021 [5 favorites]


Drupal is really a horrible choice as a high-volume social network platform. And I say that as somebody who makes their living with Drupal.

Good news: so far it's been the case that Don's new networks aren't actually high volume. So that's one problem solved.
posted by Cris E at 10:21 PM on October 22, 2021 [5 favorites]


It’s really not that hard to build a social network that can really maximize freedom and safety. I know this because I’m part of a team that’s nearing the finish line on what we feel really can be the final social network.

First, tie every account to a person. No fake people, this is important because fake people are really the worst. You can make up whatever name you like, of course. You can have sock puppets for your various moods, but they’re aliases tied to the same main account.

Then you list the bad words you can’t say. This is a pretty short list, like just a few thousand things. The key is, the list needs to be comprehensive and vague so it can apply where it’s needed.

Ok, so how do you know where it’s needed? This is the huge thing, right here. This is the key lesson you can take away from metafilter: use humans. I can’t stress this enough, algorithms are only going to get you so far. Flagging works. It’s a system that can’t be gamed in any way and is guaranteed to fix drama and ensure quality discussion.

Now, what makes metafilter different from a social network is that there is only one conversation at a time—everybody is participating in the same thread, so there’s a consensus reality going on.

In a social network you have myriad simultaneous conversations. You can count on people flagging things that are outside the norm of a given space, ie, this-person-is-out-of-line. So flagging works for that case as well as it does for metafilter, even in a private space.

What it doesn’t handle is the little toxic cesspools of conversation, where everyone is in on the shitty behavior and they love it because they are getting away with it. The problem is, the little cesspools are private—and they should be.

But we all have an interest in maintaining the safety and freedom of this new social network, so you handle this in two ways.

First, you give people who aren’t members of the group the ability to flag content posted in private groups. This involves a slight piercing of the veil of privacy in that the content of the messages may be occasionally displayed to other safety-minded volunteers on the network. But the identity of the problematic posters can be obscured until really necessary.

The other way you handle these private conversations is that you provide people an incentive to flag content in their own private conversations they otherwise might not. You grant privileges, or even daily cash back, and people will really want to step up and do the right thing. Of course to ensure protection against retaliation, flagging naturally remains completely anonymous, as do appeal and final review.

This social network is specifically designed to maximize freedom, participation, safety and stability. We are heading into our second round of funding this week, and we’ve just settled on the branding for our first major push. So incredibly excited, I think the brand team really knocked it out of the park. I really like the way it rolls off the tongue.

The key is stability, security, safety. Think stability, think status quo, think rock solid, think conservative, think stasis:

Stasi. It’s for you!
posted by bigbigdog at 12:11 AM on October 23, 2021 [26 favorites]


The key is stability, security, safety. Think stability, think status quo, think rock solid, think conservative, think stasis:
Stasi. It’s for you!


I'm not certain if you meant to drop that last s or not, but I love it.
posted by Cris E at 12:31 AM on October 23, 2021 [3 favorites]


By the close of trading, shares of Digital World Acquisition and Phunware were up 107% and 471%, respectively, after rising as much as 285% and 1,471% earlier in the day.

I wonder if all these shrewd investors will lose some enthusiasm when they realise this new adventure is more akin to opening a LiveJournal blog and pointing a domain name at it?
posted by Lanark at 12:43 AM on October 23, 2021


> and “Follow the Truth.”

Explainer: What is Trump's new venture and what are its odds of success? - "What type of speech will TMTG prohibit? It will not allow for making fun of Trump or his people. According to its terms of services, as a user of the site one agrees not to 'disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site.'"

also btw...
  • A Majority Of Republican Voters Actively Want Trump To Run For President Again - "A Quinnipiac University poll conducted Oct. 15-18 found Trump has an 86 percent favorable rating and just a 10 percent unfavorable rating among Republican adults... While it's definitely too early to hang your hat on any 2024 general-election polls, a Selzer & Co./Grinnell College poll conducted Oct. 13-17 found that 40 percent of likely 2024 voters would vote for President Biden, and 40 percent of likely 2024 voters would vote for Trump." (Biden Has Lost Support Across All Groups Of Americans — But Especially Independents And Hispanics)
  • The Supreme Court's Conservative Revolution Is Already Happening - "Clark pointed out that when Roberts was nominated to the Supreme Court, he was criticized as a Republican partisan and likely foe of abortion rights. 'Now, he could end up in the minority of a case overturning Roe v. Wade,' Clark said. 'That's how conservative the court is right now.' The question, he added, isn't whether liberals will lose on big cases — it's how badly they will lose."
  • U.S. Supreme Court takes up Texas abortion case, lets ban remain - "'The state's gambit has worked. The impact is catastrophic,' Sotomayor wrote. The Texas dispute is the second major abortion case that the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has scheduled for the coming months, with arguments set for Dec. 1 over the legality of a restrictive Mississippi abortion law. The Texas and Mississippi measures are among a series of Republican-backed laws passed at the state level limiting abortion rights - coming at a time when abortion opponents are hoping that the Supreme Court will overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade that legalized the procedure nationwide. Mississippi has asked the justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the Texas attorney general on Thursday signaled that he also would like to see that ruling fall."
  • Retirements mount as House Democrats try to defend their majority in the 2022 midterms - "Democrats will try to extend their unified but narrow control of the White House, Senate and House for another two years. Republicans aim to leverage history, new congressional district maps and Biden's lackluster approval rating to win back control of Congress."
  • As redistricting gets under way, Democrats' prospects looking brighter - "2020 census data... found that most of the nation's growth is in urban areas and among minorities. Coupled with the shift of suburban white voters toward Democrats during the presidency of Republican Donald Trump, the party's prospects for the next decade are looking less dire. Proposals for new congressional maps in Republican-controlled states such as Texas, Indiana and Georgia do not aggressively target Democratic incumbents and instead seek mostly to protect vulnerable Republicans whose suburban districts have become political battlegrounds. Meanwhile, Democrats are poised to push through their own maps in states such as New York and Illinois, where urban growth and rural decline offer a chance to eliminate Republican districts. Gains there could help countermand Republican advantages elsewhere." (What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State)
  • Pennsylvania's high-profile attorney general enters 2022 governor race - "'There's a cost to their lies. Not only are they doing real damage to our democracy, but they are holding us back from meeting this moment,' Shapiro said, adding that, if elected, he would veto any law that infringed on voting or abortion rights."
posted by kliuless at 1:56 AM on October 23, 2021 [8 favorites]


When it crashes and burns when launched "for real" that's also a feature.

So basically, the business plan from The Producers, but with a web site.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:15 AM on October 23, 2021 [8 favorites]


I wonder if all these shrewd investors will lose some enthusiasm when they realise this new adventure is more akin to opening a LiveJournal blog and pointing a domain name at it?

The shrewd investors are already gone.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:13 AM on October 23, 2021


Trump decisively cannot sell anything to anyone

Seems to me he’s done pretty well selling people their own insecurities and resentments.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:21 AM on October 23, 2021 [6 favorites]


I'm just relieved that he isn't on MetaFilter.
(that we know of)

Pretty sure it'd be blindingly obvious it was him within the first comment or two.
posted by Greg_Ace


Hell, by the user name.

BigHandandPenisBillionaire
posted by Splunge at 5:34 AM on October 23, 2021 [5 favorites]


BigHandandPenisBillionaire

Seeing that handle, I wouldn’t rule out Chuck Tingle or a boyfriend….
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:59 AM on October 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


(I'm not certain if you meant to drop that last s or not, but I love it.

For the post-Cold War kids on Metafilter, the Stasi were the East German secret police.)
posted by eviemath at 7:25 AM on October 23, 2021 [7 favorites]


So basically, the business plan from The Producers, but with a web site.

and ummm, a reminder. The twist in the Producers scenario is that the guaranteed failure ends up being a surprise success. Kind of reminds of something that happened in 2016.

Vigilance, folks.
posted by philip-random at 8:24 AM on October 23, 2021 [15 favorites]


Social Media Network and Subscription VOD Service

PersonWomanManCamera.tv
posted by oulipian at 8:54 AM on October 23, 2021 [7 favorites]


Russian for "truth" is "pravda."

And there is the old Russian joke, "Pravda has no Izvestia, and Izvestia has no Pravda."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:13 AM on October 23, 2021 [4 favorites]


tronc?
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 7:38 PM on October 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


I just got back from a zoom and we are pivoting for the next version. It’s an incredible vision that I am just beginning to wrap my head around. Simply put, we are going to maximize independence and freedom right into the real world. This amazing country was built on the power of the individual, working alone, standing astride history with hammer held high, declaring, “Here we shall build our homes and our liberty.” This social network is going to be true to that spirit in ways no one has ever seen.

To maximize freedom and independence, we maximize the freedom and independence of the individual. Keeping in mind that our members are real people, with sock puppets readily available to preserve anonymity and maximize communication—people adopt personas for many reasons, and one of those reasons is to tell the truth to power. You’ll be able to participate in a way that ensures that no one will ever know it was you. You’ll be able to communicate in real time with similarly-minded, freedom-loving individuals, and you won’t even need to know their real name.

I’ve already described how moderation works, so this anonymous network is also guaranteed to be completely safe. We use end-to-end cryptography and conversations are permanently available to everyone involved, so everyone can keep in touch and know what’s been going on. (Don’t worry, if it turns out later you need to, with one click the entire thing can go away, permanently, because we don’t keep any backups.)

We’ve got some really great features for families that help keep us safe and find new things. Theme Park Mode lets you share a detailed, 3-dimensional topographical map overlaid in real time with the exact location of every member of your family. Augmented reality features let you scan the horizon and immediately see visual markers telling you where your family members are—just like a quest in a video game.

Need to tell the twins to head to the roller coaster, while Dad needs to pick up some snacks and then meet somewhere else, all at the same time? It’s super easy to split out little groups like this and still keep everyone in sync. Real time push-to-talk; live task assignment, update and completion (“make it chocolate!”); instant note-sharing; inventory tracking (“who has the baby wipes?”). And voice-activated mode for smart assistant earbuds, for the inevitable times when your hands are full. Active noise cancellation lets you hear your family even in the middle of crowds.

Naturally, Theme Park Mode works with all kinds of groups, not just families. It’s going to be fantastic for church groups, or field trips, or even just heading down to the mall with a few close friends. This is something else that we took from metafilter, it turns out people like to meet up, even if they’ve never met. Getting together in real life—socially distant, of course—to talk about things you care passionately about, even if you’ve never met, well, that’s a special human connection that we’re proud to help enable.

Along with Theme Park Mode, we’ve got big plans for a little thing that internally we’re calling Quest Mode. We are going to empower anybody to build an augmented reality game. You’ll be able to build your own treasure hunts, and pretend spy thrillers, secret monster hunters, you name it. We’re partnering with top physical geometry partners to ensure that we’ve got full, high-resolution, 3-D maps of every street, every sidewalk, every park, and every building in major cities across North America. We’re launching with a salute to every state capitol and every major metropolitan center, which means you’ll be able to lay out your puzzles and goals using real buildings, real doors, real windows.

And because anybody can make one of these games, and anybody can participate, practically anything can happen! You can even update your game in real time, change things up to keep your players on their toes. And our patented algorithms will help your players, your families, your friends, your neighbors, even thousands of people you’ve never met and will never meet again, all come together to participate in something amazing.

We’re still in the early stages of the branding, but right now the emphasis is on mobile. Think mobility. Flexibility, maneuverability. Being at the right place at the right time—hundreds of places, all simultaneously. Staying in connection with everyone and everything around you, yet still able to focus, and move. Mobile. Motion. Mobile.

Mob. Join it!
posted by bigbigdog at 12:51 AM on October 25, 2021 [4 favorites]


bigbigdog: But did you guys get permission from the Pokemon Go developers before copying their source code?
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:43 AM on October 25, 2021


bigbigdog: you are an evil genius, please contact me at whichever of my respective identities' emails or phone numbers you scrape first when your system is in place

Oh, whoops, I think I reported you. Damn little buttons on this phone
posted by SystematicAbuse at 8:02 PM on October 25, 2021


tronc?

trumpc
posted by rhizome at 3:35 PM on October 26, 2021


Mod note: Oh, whoops, I think I reported you. Damn little buttons on this phone

No worries, flag duly ignored.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:42 PM on October 26, 2021


Just got back from another zoom, about real world moderation for Mobs. Turns out self-driving capable cars like Teslas are just bristling with sensors, and you don’t need to be sitting in one to make use of it. People are going to love how safe this makes everything, even when your kid’s cell has run out of battery, you’ll be able to locate them anywhere—even if they’ve gone behind closed doors, you’ll know just where those doors are. And it’ll be so easy to send someone trusted to pick them up and escort them right where they really belong. And because humans look out for each other, it’ll be easy to tag houses in your neighborhood so everyone can see where to get the good candy on Halloween, or who needs an extra little watching after. It’s going to be everything you love about America, turned up to 15.
posted by bigbigdog at 9:50 PM on October 27, 2021


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