mullet strategy posts

Filed under: Business, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Mulletocracy : Business in the front, party in the rear

by Grant Robertson Jul 27th 2007

User generated content is all the rage, but only the best user generated content is worthy of real ad sales. So what's a user-gen web startup like Digg, Youtube or Myspace to do? Let the users fight, argue and generally make asses of themselves in the back room, while pro-level editors keep the front page all nice and shiny.

Buzz feed points out a string of articles on this phenomenon and explains, "The mullet strategy is here to stay because the best way for web companies to grow traffic is to let the users have control, but the best way to sell advertising is a slick, pretty front page where corporate sponsors can wistfully admire their brands."

If you'll pardon us, we're going out back to shave our heads.

Tags: mullet strategy, MulletStrategy, user generated content, UserGeneratedContent, web 2.0, Web2.0

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

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