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PCR deputy editor Laura Barnes shares her views on the new social media website that’s just secured a six-figure investment.
We all know the frustration of trying to squash your very important tweet down to just 140 characters. Now imagine if you were only allowed three words.
That’s the premise for new social media site Natter.
Described by its developers as a nano social networking platform, ‘Natter.com was conceptualised as a three word networking service to allow friends to connect through short and snappy messages offering a new social experience’.
“Natters tend to fall into one of three types: deeply considered and thought provoking three word statements, often with a sense of mystery, a simple check in such as ‘in the pub’ or those looking for the challenge and fun that comes with sharing their views in just three words,” comments founder Neil Stanley.
As an avid user of Twitter, Facebook and the likes, I couldn’t resist giving Natter a go.
Reading through the posts that were already on the site, I started to think hard about what I wanted my first three words to say.
After a few drafts, I gave up trying to be witty or mysterious and went with the very unimaginative “hmm, not sure”.
As dull as this first status was, at least I was very honest. There’s something about this concept that I was indeed not quite sure about.
Roughly two minutes later a light bulb flickered. A few hyphens here and there and it turns out that there is one major flaw with Natter – you aren’t actually restricted to three words.
My second (and last) post technically has seven words, and that’s not including any hashtags – which don’t count towards your final word limit. But from an AI point of view, the system still sees it as three words because of where I’ve cunningly chosen to place hyphens.
A quick scroll back through other posts reveal that I am not the genius I thought I was 30 seconds before hand. Some have been quite creative with replacing spaces with full stops and other punctuation marks.
I’m by no means giving up on Natter just yet. I find the idea an interesting one. If the developers can figure out a way to stop lazy cheaters like me tricking the system I’ll happily give my brain another workout. And hopefully next time I’ll write something a bit more creative.
