Klout's Score Drops to Zero as It Announces Plans to Close Down (gizmodo.com) 44
Once upon a time, Klout had 100 million users, Gizmodo reports. But now...
You probably haven't experienced the crippling anxiety of thinking about increasing your Klout score in quite some time. As of May 25, you won't have ever have to do it again. On Thursday, the social ranking company announced to its 708,000 Twitter followers (meh) that it will be shutting down.
Klout was founded in 2008 as a way for social media users to gauge their "influence." Through some algorithmic voodoo the service would snoop through your social media presence and spit out your "Klout Score" -- a number between 1 and 100 that determined how much you are worth as a social human being.
Lithium Technologies (Klout's parent company) annouced that their acquisition "provided Lithium with valuable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities but Klout as a standalone service is not aligned with our long-term strategy."
But Lithium also announced plans to launch "a new social impact scoring methodology based on Twitter" sometime in the future.
Klout was founded in 2008 as a way for social media users to gauge their "influence." Through some algorithmic voodoo the service would snoop through your social media presence and spit out your "Klout Score" -- a number between 1 and 100 that determined how much you are worth as a social human being.
Lithium Technologies (Klout's parent company) annouced that their acquisition "provided Lithium with valuable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities but Klout as a standalone service is not aligned with our long-term strategy."
But Lithium also announced plans to launch "a new social impact scoring methodology based on Twitter" sometime in the future.
Funny thing (Score:1)
The funny this is this is the first time I've heard of Klout or a Klout Score. So I guess the influence measuring organization did not have a lot of social media influence.
Re:Funny thing (Score:5, Insightful)
People who have influence know it, and don't need to measure it. People who don't care don't care. The market for Klout was a small sector of people who wanted influence but had no fucking clue how to get it. Almost any activity you can do, including posting on Slashdot, would be more beneficial than the time wasted checking your Klout score.
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People who have influence know it, and don't need to measure it.
It would be more precise to say, "People who have influence have so many good ways to measure it that Klout score is crude and ineffective in comparison." If you can write a tweet and make 30,000 sales, that is information that is far more relevant than a crappy startup can provide.
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Then when most people realized they didn't have much clout
Speak for yourself. My Slashdot Karma is huge. *Trump mode engaged* It is like... the biggestttttttttttt .... the besttttttttt *Normal mode engaged*.
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"So I guess the influence measuring organization did not have a lot of social media influence."
That's how measurement instruments are supposed to work, isn't it?
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-- a number between 1 and 100 that determined how much you are worth as a social human being.
I'm not on any (strictly) Social Media, does that mean my life is worth nothing?
Now watch someone point out that Slashdot is Social Media... Fine, I'm on a half dozen forums but I use a different name on each and none is my real name.
The funny this is this is the first time I've heard of Klout or a Klout Score. So I guess the influence measuring organization did not have a lot of social media influence.
Neither have I, so Klout is thankfully as worthless and pointless as it must consider me to be.
Who? (Score:1)
You probably haven't experienced the crippling anxiety of thinking about increasing your Klout score in quite some time.
Indeed, because is the first time I've heard of it.
Redundant System (Score:2)
It's so much easier to just use China's ranking system.
Services ... more services... world-domination (Score:2)
Services ... more services... all aiming for world-domination while us plebs key in their data.
Public 'social' impact matters little. In fact, let me correct that -- public 'anti-social' impact matters little -- many (maybe most) social posts are vacuous posing. Their net benefit to society is negative.
How about 'IRL (in real life) public social impact'? Does anything measure it? Also, I'd like to know the impact of my local network. About the unknown barista who makes good coffee (not *says* he makes good
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So you prefer having propaganda only from large corporations, not individual people? (propaganda is sometimes called ads)
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No, the opposite actually. How'd you figure that ?
The Chinese do this on an official level (Score:2)
Yes, in China now, you are assigned a social score based on this and that, and you can have a hard time if your social score falls too low.
Maybe China will buy it (Score:2)
https://news.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
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Seriously, /. you gave them this much press when they were still a thing, maybe they wouldn't be shutting down.
Forget a sarcasm tag? It’s cute that you think Slashdot is even still relevant.
That's some Grade 'A' Marketing Bullshit (Score:2)
That's some Grade 'A' Marketing Bullshit right there:
not aligned with our long-term strategy
That's MBA-ese for 'We be laying some bitches off!'
Somewhere there is an exasperated coder trying to get his resume in order.
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I suspect it is more GDPR and not wanting to tell people what they have on them.
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shut down rather than attempt to comply with GDPR
Aha! So the GDPR has more clout than klout.
Power of Positive Thinking (Score:3)
It's not about the Klout score, it's about the girth.
I realize I was never their demographic (Score:2)
But I have never heard of Klout.
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But I have never heard of Klout.
Huh...Who?
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But I have never heard of Klout.
Huh...Who?
9-3 E-S-C-O-R ... oh, wait, were you referring to Klout?
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I have. They usually beat Engrand at football.
Social media score based on twitter? (Score:3)
In my case, I hope they have figured out how to handle divide by zero errors...
Happy GDPR Day! (Score:3)
This happens on the same day as the GDPR goes into effect. Put two and two together and you see what Klout was most likely doing with its users' data.
Black Mirror (Score:2)