118100 - has the UGC gone too far?
And in this case, I mean “User Generated Content”.
To the story: there is an online and mobile “yellow pages” service here in Sweden called 118100. Send a name or number there, and hopefully you will get some additional information. These services are a dime a dozen.
But these guys are going out and in TV commercials claiming that “we can answer ANY question”. So I gave it a test. I asked them if all Boeing 747-400 variants had winglets.
They got it wrong.
So here I was, having payed for a service and not gotten what was promised. I went to their website and soon found that anyone can sign up to become an “expert”. I signed up, and instantly I was put into the middle of their incoming stream of questions. I could pick any question and answer it. (Their system is somewhat buggy, but it seems as if all answers are moderated first.)This was incredibly addicting. And difficult. And disturbing. Many seriously depressing questions, many seriously dumb questions, and a huge amount of impossible questions.
But there I was. Answering like a madman. And then it hit me: this is UGC defined. I am donating my time and service to make them money. Awesome, right? But then I started to think about the fact that there is absolutely full transparency here. Although I can not see who sent the question, it does not take a detective in many cases. People leave their numbers, names. Questions like “I have cheated on my husband. Should I tell him?” signed by a real name and number.
Do people who send their questions expect this? I think not. Is this the only way to get a service like this to work? I think so.
Give it a try! Swedish only, I’m afraid!
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