Skip to main content

BlockChalk offers anonymous location-based messaging

Feldmans Market Center
Image by shainelee via Flickr
The other day, I stumbled across BlockChalk.com, a website that interacts with your mobile phone's GPS. Unlike Twitter, Foursquare, BrightKite, and others, BlockChalk allows you to message with others; but you do so anonymously. At first, I was not sure what to think of it. After all, what's the point of it? Of course, I had the same reaction to Twitter.



The gist of BlockChalk is that it allows you to see messages from other people based on location. So, you may see messages from the guy next to you, from somebody a block away, or maybe a few blocks away. You don't know. The messages change according to your location. Most interestingly, the "chalk marks" are anonymous; which allows people to share what they really think rather than be guarded.

I think that all basic messages get posted to your neighborhood. You can add an exact GPS location by putting [here] in your post. This way, if somebody is near the location, they will see that message. It could be your opinion of a restaurant, your notes about a landmark, or announcing a special offer or event at your shop. Just because the message posts anonymously doesn't mean you cannot identify yourself in some way.

The service is described as being like a lamp post papered with flyers where you can see somebody is searching for a lost dog, having a yard sale, announcing a concert, and all manner of information. In addition, you have the ability to reply anonymously to somebody's chalk.

What really sets BlockChalk apart is the anonymity. There is no need to let people know who you are. You never have to log in.
Related articles by Zemanta


Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Before Getting Out of the Gate

Tonight, I was working on a new blog project. Google and Blogger have been good platforms for me in the past. I was able to get the domain pointed and was working on the layout and template. Suddenly, the website was blocked. I had searched for ways to publish that were not subject to censorhsip. I wound up on the Hive blockchain. It's great for censorship resistance, but it's not without its problems. In any case, I was thinking that maybe I was being too paranoid. Now, before getting out of the gate, I have a blog censored. I'm trying to think of what I could have posted, reposted, or even been associated with that could have caused the blog to be blocked. I can't think of anything. If this doesn't pan out after review, I may need to look for an alternative hosting option. I was already looking at Publii as an option. It only requieres simple FTP updates. I prefer not to use Wordpress as experience has taught me that you an customize a theme and add plugins ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blogger blocks excessive posting

A while ago, I tried uploading a blog post via Android App. The upload kept failing. Not to be deterred, I deleted the app and reinstalled, to find no better success. I thought that perhaps I could email the post to Blogger. That did not work either. The email bounced back with the following: Technical details of permanent failure: You have exceeded the the allowable number of posts without solving a captcha. This happened because I imported quite a few blog posts from another blog I discontinued just yesterday. It has been less than 24 hours since the import. It makes sense. I'm rather certain the captcha speedbump is also why the mobile app refused to publish my posts. The problem can be circumvented if you post directly on the Blogger site and solve the captcha. This problem will likely resolve in the next few hours and all will be right with the universe once more.
Post a Comment
Read more