User-generated content
User-generated content, not to be confused with original content, is a defining feature of Web 2.0 that allows big corporations to make money without even having to make any effort to do so, because ordinary people do it for them. Typically, the website hosting user-generated content will lure new users in who contribute their content, without any pay, and then the user gets fucked over by The Man. There are many types of user-generated content, ranging from poor quality academic reference work to poor quality porn. Although these may not seem like they have much in common, the one thing they do share is that they are being used by corporations to make money out of the work of idiots.
Sites that have UGC
Most Web 2.0 sites have user-generated content. This includes Encyclopedia Dramatica, Wikipedia, and YouTube; porn sites such as Megarotic Video, Motherless, YouPorn, and Pornotube; and image boorus. News websites, personal websites, search engines, and even social networking sites are not traditionally included within the realm of UGC. This is because personal Web 1.0 websites are controlled by the owner of the site, and the "content" generated by social networking websites is so shit that nobody on the rest of the internet, other than pedophiles, is interested in it.
How it works
You get an academic, an aspiring film maker, or a pervert, and you sign them up to the relevant UGC service. With UGC, the users surrender all copyright to the content, which means that not only can anyone on the site use the content, the site can make money from it by spreading it elsewhere on the internet. In the case of the perverts making amateur porn, they can be further pwnt by the site by the potential for their family, friends or employer finding out about it, treating the user with no mercy, with the porn in the public domain for an infinite amount of time, possibly long after their death, centuries from now, if the internets is still around. You can epically pwn a woman by including a hidden camera taking video in your bedroom while you're having secks and put it on one of these sites.
With Wikipedia, everyone who contributes UGC there gets nothing, and loses a lot, while the organisation itself benefits. This is rather similar to Scientology, and meets all the criteria for being a cult!!! This is a clear sign that providing user-generated content, unless submitted for the lulz and for the lulz only, is akin to asking to be raped in the ass and contracting AIDS without getting paid for it. Also those who provide user-generated content may also face legal threats for it, while the website it is submitted to may not, resulting in epic pwnage of retarded innocent newfag internet users.
How to stop it
- Not visiting UGC sites;
- Scribbling in your SuperMemo instead of others' computers;
- Deleting system32.
The options are somewhat restricted. It looks like UGC is here for good. However, this was recently challenged by Virgin, for moar information see the Virgins vs Virgin page.
Good things about UGC
External links
