Instagram+Twitter+Tinder = Plague
December 26, 2014 8:30 AM   Subscribe

Plague is a new social networking app that spreads information like a contagious disease. You see a post from someone who is geographically close to you. Swipe up to spread it to the users nearest to you, swipe down to not share it. The more fun part is posting your own content and watching it travel around globe. These articles explain with more detail.
posted by Fig (21 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
To be honest, right now the content is kind of meh (nature pictures, things pulled from reddit, neat gifs, etc), but it's pretty new, and occasionally there are interesting links and whatnot. I personally like that you can't follow any user, so whatever you see is going to be a mixed bag.

It does get very very addictive to swipe through - be warned.
posted by Fig at 8:36 AM on December 26, 2014


A social networking app where being judgmental is required rather than a side feature? This is apparently much more appealing to me than I would have imagined.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:51 AM on December 26, 2014 [6 favorites]


I might try this. Do you have to share a real location, or can you set a fake 'home'?
posted by Going To Maine at 8:56 AM on December 26, 2014


Real location.
posted by shortfuse at 8:57 AM on December 26, 2014


Location based sharing, huh?

First a picture of my neighborhood, next a picture of my house. Then my house at night with a bunch of shadowy figures surrounding it. A picture of my empty living room through the picture window. Pictures of the inside of my house. A picture of the closed door to my computer room. The final picture, of the back of my head through the slightly opened door.
posted by Literaryhero at 9:04 AM on December 26, 2014 [12 favorites]


Why won't people in Madagascar share my stuff?
posted by Foci for Analysis at 9:04 AM on December 26, 2014 [14 favorites]


Thanks for this.

Happily infecting/inoculating - Instagram gamified

posted by mmrtnt at 9:55 AM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]


I can't decide if I'm surprised or not that there's nothing for me to spread or stop in the SF peninsula suburb where I'm currently staying for the holiday.

The concept seems kind of irresistible. Almost honest for a social media app.
posted by R343L at 10:53 AM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]


So far, it's mostly buzzfeed type pretty pics. I've uploaded a picture of the cat to see if he attains internet stardom. Given that there are four users in my area, might take some time.
posted by arcticseal at 11:04 AM on December 26, 2014


I'm not quite getting it... everything I see is from far away places all over the continent, nothing remotely local (not even the large cities within 100km).
posted by Emanuel at 11:13 AM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]


It Began in Afrika
posted by oceanjesse at 11:24 AM on December 26, 2014


So after it sat a bit I got "viral" posts from further away. The overwhelming majority fall into these categories (approximate by volume): pretty / amazing pics usually unsourced or captioned and obviously not taken by the poster; image memes I'm sure aren't new; random inspirational quotes; street art; sexy lady pics; then the rest of the stuff sometimes included stuff originating from the poster in some real way. Sigh. The first category bugs me the most.
posted by R343L at 11:36 AM on December 26, 2014


This sounds like fun, but I'm worried that somebody would figure out how to write smartphone malware and embed it in a picture of a cute kitten. It would be propagated all over the world effortlessly.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 3:18 PM on December 26, 2014


Hey, I had stuff to do.

Now I am making plague doctor jokes that nobody likes.
posted by louche mustachio at 4:24 PM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]


On iOS it wants access to your location at all times, even when not using the App. What's up with that yo?!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:27 PM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]


Interesting concept, seems they're also still in that phase where they care about attracting users and the experience itself. I will see how original stuff spreads, I have tons of drawings and art shit I make all the time. Mostly so far I've just seen beautiful but generic landscapes and that sort of fluff. Can't really stand "quotes" very much ,especially with no context, so I auto swipe down on those turds.

If this catches on, though, I imagine they'll be feeding us ads and harvesting our data and whatever. A devious thing to do would be to just serve ads through the normal system and let users propagate it. For every militant anti-advertising user there is, there would be 100 people who are totally fine with or or maybe even love ads. Plus, gaming your own system to promote ads would be trivial.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:09 PM on December 26, 2014


Please upload your drawings and art shit. I am so lonely.


Seriously, I haven't seen ANY drawings except my own.


I fear this is going to turn into a way for people to spread their hysterical fearmongering email forwards even faster than before.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:24 PM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]


This would be super useful dealing with minor disasters, traffic, transport breakdowns etc.
We had a power outage last year and local twitter stuff was the best source of info.
posted by bystander at 3:54 AM on December 27, 2014


I would love this for happenings and restaurants and gigs and street art and things, why is this not that?!
posted by Iteki at 4:23 AM on December 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


Brandon Blatcher: "On iOS it wants access to your location at all times, even when not using the App. What's up with that yo?!"

Looks like it's doing the same thing on Android as it's 36% of my battery usage for today.
posted by zinon at 9:47 AM on December 29, 2014


I hate this app.It has sucked my brain, but it really doesn't have much good content,just people patting themselves on the back about how awesome everything is.


Also, I just encountered someone who seems to think it is Tindr. DUDE. NO.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:14 PM on January 7, 2015


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