Last night for no apparent reason I joined Instagram, which is another social media website for me to waste time on. This one is more concentrated on photos rather than links or other stuff. However Instagram is tied into the whole Twitter lingo of hashtags and so forth, so last night I also spent time brushing up on twitter. I feel surprised to say the least to find something from way back in April. But after the initial panic I realized it’s okay even though odd.
On twitter I guess I never clicked on the @ column of my profile. Now I realize anytime someone mentions you in a tweet, it’ll show up in that tab. I’ve blindly put the @ symbol in front of companies or pro skaters that I blogged about. But I guess I never put two and two together that on one’s profile you need to click on that tab to see if anyone mentioned you. I got a few mentions from blog posts, and a library related post. Then I saw something mentioning my blog name in kind of a quirky way.
This person who on twitter goes by slashway (I will try to @ him on my twitter posting of this) basically made a fake okcupid profile with my photo on it. Reading it however it’s total farce. It’s a photo that I have longer hair and a beard. I guess it sparked his imagination. My gut reaction was a little on the paranoid side. But reading it, there is nothing about me personally, and there is no bashing of my blog. I’ve linked it to this blog entry at the bottom, so take a read, and I think you’ll agree it’s not a personal attack on me. He may just be suggesting I get a haircut, and change my style. Also, according to twitter I should have seen this last April, so the guy tried to share it with me. So he wanted to start a dialogue, or at least wanted to share his creative side with me.
Even though I’m not offended, it does show that having a blog for all to see can make one vulnerable to criticism. He put a photo of mine and created something around it. If I didn’t approve of it, I couldn’t do much. My blog name is not mentioned, and if he didn’t share it with me, I most likely would not come across it. If the post was nasty in nature, and bashed my blog, I still couldn’t do anything about it. Having a thick skin is crucial for anyone that wants to blog regularly.
Other things I can take from this, is that using twitter, instagram, facebook and social media sites more effectively can only help. For promoting my blog it could help, and being familiar with technology trends could be beneficial for my career too. Lastly, about a month ago I joined okcupid and I have a real account. Now I have to wonder, how many of them are farce? Ripping photos from online and then creating a fake profile for one’s own amusment would be easy to do, and perhaps fun.
For your enjoyment, here is the fake okcupid profile: Fake okcupid profile with my picture.
Mallisonwhat's Blog 
im having this problem right now. i have no idea what to do or how to get it off. the person is using the name LadyMachine.
it says February 22, 2010… but still its kind of creepy
I’m sure you can contact okcupid about fake profiles. The site most likely doesn’t want fake profiles on there, as it defeats the purpose of online dating. The contact is probably on the homepage, and it’s probably email. Copy and paste the link of the fake profile in your email to them. I’m sure they’ll take it down.