Bloggers Can Be Fakers

Time Magazine is running an article titled "10 Things We Learned About Blogs". One of the things they learned was that "Bloggers Can Be Fakers." They write:
Plain Layne, a highly personal blog supposedly belonging to a Minnesota lesbian named Layne Johnson that drew thousands of fans over 3 1/2 years before mysteriously disappearing, was revealed to be a hoax. Hundreds of fans helped track down the real author, Odin Soli, 35, a male entrepreneur from Woodbury, Minn. Later in the year, fake Bill Clinton and Andy Kaufman blogs became hits.
Congratulations to Odin for getting his name in Time Magazine. But I've also got to point out that Time has one of its facts wrong. Neither the Andy Kaufman nor the Bill Clinton blog became a hit 'later in the year'. They were both around well before the unmasking of Plain Layne's identity. (Nit-picky, I know).

Websites

Posted on Mon Dec 20, 2004


Comments

They may be fake,you don
Posted by Evey  on  Mon Dec 20, 2004  at  04:07 AM
and what 'bout this site. Can it be supported by Chinese ministry of propaganda?
Posted by Loxx  on  Mon Dec 20, 2004  at  10:42 AM
But they didn't become "hits" until later in the year.
Posted by Ric  on  Mon Dec 20, 2004  at  10:52 AM
Did it really take Time this long to figure out that it's really easy to lie on the internet?
Posted by James D  on  Tue Dec 21, 2004  at  01:20 AM
Yes James. It took Time this long to figure it out.
Posted by Dany  on  Tue Dec 21, 2004  at  12:13 PM
A website I have frequented for about 5 years, http://www.opendiary.com, has more then its fair share of fake diaries. Yet, its still hard to convince people who post on that website that people actually make things up on the internet! Amazing.
Posted by Lisa J.  on  Sun Jan 23, 2005  at  10:53 PM
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