TheStwanger

What is this all about?

In late August [ 2010 ] I was walking a puppy while listening to the Spark podcast from the CBC. Gizmodo's Joel Johnson was discussing with Nora Young about his experiment to diversify his Twitter list filled with "white middle-class tech dorks" by following a random woman who seemed to be different than him. Joel described his experience on Gizmodo in July [ 2010 ].

This got me thinking about a way to make it easier for people to find strangers on Twitter, and how to make it fun. So in a nutshell, that's theStwanger.

[ Now it's 2019. Some time ago theStwanger stopped working due to API changes but now its working agin, in all the original glory. Some improvements and focusing is on the way, but for now, relive the old days.

At some point, the story got passed on to the team at Definatly not the Opera. They have me a call and featured theStwanger in the November 13, 2010 episode titled "Strangers in the Night", give it a listen if you're interested. ]

How does it work?

When you authorize theStwanger to access your Twitter account via Oauth, it will give you an easy way to find and - if you wish - follow more-or-less random twitter users and open yourself up to whatever you may find.

When you follow a Stwanger, via theStwanger, that action is recorded and points are added so that we can turn this into a sort of game. Skips are recorded too and points deducted, so keep that in mind.

As your points increase, you're awarded new and outrageous mustaches, because there is nothing creepy at all about somebody you don't know looking at you from the shadows past a bristly stache.