SKORKS » internet

Interview With The ‘I Drink Your Milkshake’ Snorg Tees Girl

Alan Skorkin — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:11:19 +0000

Well, the internet definitely works in case anyone was wondering. A few months ago I wrote a post about snorg tees girls, the idea was to let the internet and social media find some snorg tees models for me so I could interview them. The post didn’t go popular on any social media (although it seems to be doing well on Google now :)), so I pretty much gave up on my idea and moved on. But, the web works in mysterious ways and a few months after the post went live I was able to get in touch with Tara (I won’t bore you with the details) who was one of the 5 girls in my original post (#4 to be precise). She was nice enough to agree to do an interview with me.

Of course being a bit burnt out on blogging (and really slack) I didn’t post the interview for ages, but eventually I decided to write it up and so here it is, my interview with the ‘I Drink Your Milkshake’ snorg tees girl.

1. Are you a vegetarian, vegan or predator?
I’m a predator. I grew up on a livestock farm, so not eating meat would be cause for a catastrophic meltdown in my family.

2. What is your favorite
Color?
I’ve always been partial to blues and greens…but I wear a lot of black.
Food?
I think I could eat Thai and Japanese food every day. And chocolate. I’m a chick…duh. OH! And bacon.
Movie?
The Exorcist is my favorite. I have lots of others in my top 10, but that wins hands down.
Song?
There’s no way I could choose a favorite song. I love so many different types of music.
Band?
Haha, again…see above. I adore Bjork, Radiohead, Ani Difranco, Tori Amos, At the Drive-In, and many more.
Sport?
I played volleyball for four years in high school, so I suppose I’ll go with that.
Celebrity?
I’m going to break the rules and name a few. John Malkovich and Kevin Spacey.
Desert?
The Sahara? ;o) Just kidding. My favorite dessert is anything involving chocolate and caramel.

3. What is 2+2*2?
It’s 6, right? Because you multiply first and then add. Ah…the things one learns in middle school and forgets by adulthood.

4. What do you do for a living (besides being a snorg tees girl :))?
Well I was a full-time model/actress for almost six years. It was really fun and I was lucky to support myself with it. I recently decided to get a full-time job in the events industry, so I work for a furniture company that rents pieces to huge corporate events, weddings, fashion shows, and more. I also write for the music section of a local alternative magazine. I still take some print, runway, and voiceover jobs here and there. Like Snorg!

5. Do you enjoy it?
Yes, I love everything I do!

6. Are you a good dancer? If yes, are you clubbing good, or good-good?
I’m a terrible, terrible dancer. I even took belly dancing classes, and I still fail.

7. What your ideal Christmas present?
Something that the person obviously put a lot of thought into, big or small.

8. What country would you most like to visit? Why?
I really would love to go to Australia (nudge nudge) or Ireland. Mostly for the beautiful scenery and culture.

9. Did Greedo shoot first?
I actually just went on Wikipedia to figure out what the hell you were talking about haha. So…I’ll have to bow out of this one.

10. Are you a “whats on the inside counts” or an “image is everything” girl?
What’s on the inside counts. Always. Because if you’re lucky enough to live to be 80 years old, you’re not going to be much of a looker. So you might as well be a rad person.

11. What would you consider a perfect night out?
I like to do lots of different things. Go out to dinner, hang out at the bookstore, go to see bands play….but lately my favorite thing to do is come home, make dinner for my boyfriend, and watch a movie. I’m getting old.

12. Dogs or cats? If dogs, big ones or small ones?
I’m more of a cat person (I have two). But I like dogs, too. My friend (who’s a total country girl) said something really witty one day that I always held very true. She said, “If a dog can’t jump up into the back of a pickup truck…it’s not a dog.” So yeah, small dogs usually suck.

13. A week at the snow or a week at the beach?
I hate being cold…so the beach.

14. Do you believe in karma?
Indeed I do.

15. Who is better Kirk or Picard?
Picard is better for the series. Kirk is a fun character to make fun of.

16. What is your favorite city? Why?
I love Chicago and Portland. They’re both so alive with culture.

17. Were you popular in school and which subculture (if any) would you have put yourself into (jock, goth, muso etc.)?
I went to a very small school…so being “popular” was out of the question. I mean, everyone knew each other anyway. I definitely wasn’t considered the “hot chick or anything.” I had spiky blue hair, played in a rock band, and was really active in clubs like Drama, NHS, Academic Team, etc. So I was kind of like a nerdy…punk? Hahaha.

18. In your opinion were/are you a tomboy, girly-girl or something in between?
I was always a tomboy. I played a lot of sports and never really wore makeup. Though I definitely embraced my girly side as I got more involved with modeling. I love funky fashion and think it’s fun to dress up….even if everyone else is in jeans hahaha.

19. Do you have any siblings? Do you get along with them?
I do and I do. I have a brother who lives a couple hours from me. We definitely have different interests, but we get along really well (another part of getting older). I was very close to my sister, but sadly she was killed in an auto accident a couple of years ago.

20. Do you like to read? If so what kind of books? What is your favorite book?
I do like to read. Though, reading for pleasure hasn’t really been in the cards since college (English majors are forced to read…a lot). I’m just now getting it back. My boyfriend updates his comic collection pretty frequently, so I poke through those often. I’d have to say my favorite book isn’t really a novel, but I can read it again and again. It’s called “The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction”….it’s basically all sorts of wacky short stories from the ’70s-now.

21. Where do you see yourself in ten years time?
I would hope and assume to be happy and healthy. It would be great to freelance full-time again, or possibly own my own business. I intend to stay in the entertainment industry in at least a small capacity ’til the day I die. And I’m sappy and full of estrogen…so hopefully I’ll be married and have my own little screwed up family haha.

22. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome in your life so far?
I tend to overflow my schedule with a variety of jobs and hobbies. That’s tough enough without adding additional stress. So when my sister died almost three years ago, I felt this horrible strain between maintaining my normalcy and taking the time to heal. It was hard juggling school, work, band, modeling, acting, relationships, and everything in between…and doing it all with a smile on my face despite being in the worst state of my life. On top of that, I felt a responsibility to take care of my family and help keep us all tight during such a devastating time. I did try my best, and I made it through, but it was beyond difficult.

23. Is there something about you that no-one would ever be able to guess just by looking at you?
I would assume there are MANY things. I don’t like to be predictable. J Here are a few:

I can make myself burp.
I’ve castrated two pigs in my life.
I’ve spoken in front of about 1,000 people on multiple occasions.
One thing that makes me really happy is driving with my music cranked up eating fast food without wiping my face after every bite. (I know, it’s terrible).
I have a hard time saying the phrase “butt cheeks” without laughing.
The thought of going to a chiropractor makes me feel faint and nauseous.

24. What are you really passionate about? Why?
I’m passionate about expression. I think that’s a big part of why I became a model, actress, and musician. Those arts allow me to put a little bit of myself into every project, photo shoot, etc. And nothing burns me up more in life than feeling like I cannot express myself, say my piece, or show how I feel. I am a big advocate for affirming people’s emotions and opinions, whether it’s directly or through art.

25. Being American, how do you feel about Obama as the president, good, bad, don’t care? Why?
I care. I care a lot. I almost cried happy tears when he was elected…I think I didn’t stop smiling for days. I know that he’s no messiah, and there will be lots of changes he’ll HAVE to make in order to get us out of this mess. And unfortunately, I think people will blame him for it all…but I feel that ultimately, all of his decisions will be made in order to help his country. I don’t know the guy, but my gut says he has good intentions. I don’t think Americans have had that piece of mind in a very long time.

26. And now for my patented Lazarus Long human being test (well i guess Lazarus patented it, but since he is fictional I figure I got dibs):
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a sonnet, balance
accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an equation, analyze a new
problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.“ - Lazarus Long

Hehe, the funny thing is, when I read that quote it made me think of my Dad. I think he could do all of those things if he hasn’t already. (Besides the dying one…thankfully he’s still alive, and he’s not allowed to die for a long time haha).

So hmm…

I have never changed a diaper, but I’ve seen it done, so I wouldn’t be too worried about it.
I could totally plan an invasion if it was something I was passionate about and took the time to really plan it. Otherwise I might get hasty…because I tend to just jump in and do things, then figure out the rest later. UNLESS I really care about it, then I’ll take the time. OK, now I’m getting redundant.
I haven’t butchered a hog, but I’ve seen it done (I was on the meat judging team in school for a while)
I would leave the building designs to the experts. Haha.
Con a ship? Heck yes. Let me at it.
I was an English major in college, so I had to write many-a-sonnet.
Balancing accounts isn’t fun, but I can do it.
I could build a wall. But I’m not really into manual labor, so I wouldn’t do it by choice.
Set a bone? You mean like…first aid-style? Eeeeeeh…I would do it if I was stuck out in the woods. By no means would I enjoy it. I’m pretty good about “sucking it up” and just doing something if it must be done.
I think I’m pretty good about making people comfortable…so I hope I could make someone feel at ease in their last moments.
I don’t like taking orders, but as I get older I’m learning how to. I think it’s all in how the orders are given. I don’t like being barked at…but if I’m told or asked to do something in a respectable way, I don’t have a problem with it.
I think I’m good at giving orders because I don’t like to do it…so I’m extra polite about it. Honestly, I’d rather just do everything myself.
My cooperation skills are above average (not perfect….above average).
I tend to want to work alone, even if it means losing sleep and sanity.
I used to be pretty darn good at math, so I can solve an equation or twelve. But I had a really good math teacher in high school (Hi, Artigas!)
I over-analyze every problem…ever.
I’ve pitched some manure in my day (grew up raising livestock)
I’m no computer genius, but I can program some things.
Of the meals I cook, some are tasty, some are not…but all are edible.
I’m pretty good at fighting with words. Until my current boyfriend, many people I dated hated fighting with me because I’d back them into corners with their own quotes. That was fun. But now I’m dating someone super smart, so I can’t do that haha. I haven’t really had to be physical with people…but I think if I was fighting, I’d be really pissed, and thus I’d just see red and start swinging. Efficient? Perhaps not. Effective? You bet your ass.
I haven’t died yet (surprise!). Dying gallantly would be fine….but I’m not going to go out of my way to do it. As long as I don’t die a coward or a numskull, I’ll be content with my demise.

And that, as they say, is that, hope everyone enjoyed it.

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How NOT To Run A Social Community – Subject Digg

Alan Skorkin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:05:08 +0000

Photo by luisar

When I first started my blog a few months ago, I leaned very quickly (as I am sure many people have before me) that social media was a great way to give a new blog some much needed exposure. Digg, being the undisputed social media leader (at least as far as traffic is concerned), was therefore the natural choice for me to get involved in. It was perhaps a selfish reason to join the community, but that was how I got my first taste of social media.

I soon started learning the ropes and getting more and more involved. I made some friends, started digging more stories and even started submitting some stories of my own. It is perhaps a testament to the shaky foundations that Digg is built on that it didn’t take me long to notice that all was not peaches and cream in the Digg community.

Pandering To The Establishment

As a fairly new Digg user, it was glaringly obvious to me how over-represented the established news sites were on the front page. Digg was never my only source of news, so it was a little bit annoying to come to Digg expecting something different, but seeing the same stuff I just saw on Slashdot, the major papers and a bunch of other places. Perhaps I should have come to Digg first, maybe that was my mistake, but then again maybe the onus should have been on Digg to make sure I did get something worthwhile from my visit.

I certainly get why all the major sites feature on the front page. They are known to be reliable and authoritative, people are happy to vote for stuff they recognise, but that does not mean the content is always what everyone wants to see. Rather than pandering to the establishment Digg should have been coming up with ways to give smaller niche sites equal opportunity to feature. It’s not like people didn’t complain about seeing the same stuff on the front page over and over.

I don’t know what Digg could have done, after all, the community drives the news and if they keep voting, the major sites will keep hitting the front page. However, I could probably come up with some ideas if I think about it and so could the rest of the core Digg community (the active users). Which brings up a good point, nobody asked!

Not Consulting With The Community

It is all well and good to listen to the community, after all you can’t avoid it since they are right there talking, but establishing a dialog with the community is a whole different kettle of fish. I did not see this happening with Digg.

A while after I joined there was a big uproar with some people complaining that others were digging too fast and not clicking through to read the stories. Some of the biggest Digg users were ‘implicated’. Of course the other side of the coin was that people were claiming that Digg was a social community and that in the interests of helping out your friends it is alright to Digg without looking at the story. After all, you trust your friends not to send you dross. This is all just part of how Digg works, right?

Both sides of the argument have some merit and it would certainly have been worth the time to establish a dialog and find a compromise that both sides could have been happy with (or equally unhappy but prepared to live with). Instead, one day, out of the blue, a tacky javascript appeared on Digg that limited the speed at which you could Digg stories. No warning was given of this, and it was implemented badly to boot, with some people being unable to Digg for almost 24 hours.

This was no way to improve the situation, it seemed like exactly what it was, a knee-jerk reaction to some complaining by the more vociferous Digg members. It seems to me that someone with some clout at Digg HQ agreed with one side of the argument, so they decided to do what they felt like to ‘fix’ the situation in their favour. That is not the way to behave in a community, that is a dictatorship!

No Transparency

This one has been an ongoing complaint since long before I joined Digg. Nobody knows exactly how to succeed on Digg. That’s not such a big deal, since people are happy to work the rules out and share with their friends, it can only be good for the community spirit. However, in the case of Digg, the rules seemed to change on the fly. Stories would hit the front page with a pitiful number of Diggs (well under 100), while other would languish in obscurity with several hundred votes under their belt. There are certainly ways to explain this, some people would say, maybe the other story got buried several times and therefore needs way more votes or maybe something else happened.

Well, maybe is the operative word here. Noone know for sure. There is no formula for success, not even a guideline. Quality of content doesn’t matter, you submit a story, you share with your friends, and then you cross your fingers and pray. This actually sounds curiously similar to how the iPhone app store is run, and they’ve been getting loads of positive press lately, right? See what I mean about transparency.

This is not the only problem, for a newbie, even the rules of conduct are unclear. By the time you work out the etiquette, you could easily have been banned or simply made a bad name for yourself in the community. Sure you can read the TOS (not like it is prominently displayed or anything), but not all the info is contained there. Some of it is in the FAQ and who reads that unless they actually have questions, it is not like it’s called README.1st.

Regardless, if you don’t want a confused and angry community with rampant misunderstanding, you need to have more transparency, it is the same in business and it is the same in politics. If you deliberately or accidentally misinform your community or simply keep it in the dark, it will only come back to bite you in the end. But, what does a dictatorship care about what the people think?

My Pet Peeve – No Respect

One day I finished writing what I thought was a particularly nice post on my blog and decided to submit it to Digg. I was only peripherally aware at the time about the ‘rules’ around submitting your own content (good old transparency working like a charm). Imagine my surprise when I get a message on submission telling me that my domain has been banned for violating the TOS. Well I certainly wasn’t aware of violating anything, surely it must have just been a mistake. So, I sent an e-mail to Digg, asking them politely to explain what happened.

Next day I got a somewhat terse reply, telling me that my domain was reported as spam and that in the interests of the community it will not be unbanned. My little blog? Spam? I personally hand crafted every single one of the handful of posts I had on my blog, they most certainly weren’t spam. And what about violating TOS, was someone gonna explain about that? So, sent another e-mail, once again politely asking Digg to please elaborate on how exactly my domain has violated TOS and to please point out to me what part of my blog constituted spam. Maybe I did something wrong unwittingly, who knows?

Well, after waiting for 2 days with no reply, I sent the e-mail again with the same result, no reply. Now, that’s just rude. Firstly a warning about doing something wrong would have been nice. Secondly, is it too much to ask to provide an explanation as to what you did wrong, if only so you don’t make the same mistake again somewhere else? The funniest thing was, my account was not banned, so what the hell was going on.

To this day I am still in the dark. Although getting my blog banned stings a little, what annoys me much more is the way Digg responded to my concerns. It shows a complete lack of respect for the members of the community when e-mails go unanswered. Even if the answer is an auto-response (I can certainly understand being busy), it is still better than nothing. The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth.

Lessons Learned

Digg was one of the first social media sites, they blazed the trail and tested out the rules. But, that time is long past. The rules have evolved, the people are more savvy and social media is an ever changing landscape. Digg however has become a dinosaur, unable to adjust. It is not at the forefront of innovation any more, the model it operates under is outdated but it doesn’t know how to refresh and become more relevant. Due to all of this it can’t keep up with the younger players. Sure, it is still the biggest and baddest, but the air up there surely must be getting thin by now and soon it’s gonna be hard to breathe.

These days if you want to be successful in the social web, you need to engage positively with your community, that is the essence. I know it sounds like psycho babble, but it doesn’t make it any less relevant. You have to listen to your people but you need to talk to them as well. Nobody wants a faceless overlord, but a charismatic, friendly leader is respected and loved by all. You still have to play nice with the big boys to some degree if you want to succeed, but don’t ignore the smaller players. Everybody loves an underdog, so if you get a reputation for giving the little guy a go, it will only do good things for you in the long run.

You have to make sure the rules are clear from the start. Explain to the people how the system works, a frustrated and confused community is not a happy one. Finally and most importantly, treat your community with respect, each and every individual. No matter what you do, use respect as your motto. Even when you have to ban users, do so with an explanation and do so politely and tell them what, if anything they can do to get into the good books again. Finally, no double standards, treat your lowliest newbie in exactly the same way as you would treat your most active power user. Most people have a pretty finely tuned sense of fair play, don’t try to be too smart for your own good.

Follow these rules and you’ll set a very solid foundation for success for any online social community. The only other things you’ll need are a unique blend of personality and a concept that people just can’t resist. If you have all of that your community is bound to go far. Fail to do any of the above and your community is likely to turn into another Digg and I don’t think anybody wants that, least of all you.

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