This article was published on August 6, 2013

BlinkLink: Post a picture, tweet it, then watch it disappear until it’s tweeted again


Chainlink

http://www.thinkstockphotos.co.uk/image/stock-photo-chain/76750003/popup?al=166185938,200356316-001,164550851,166114224,76750003,164548236,164196714,122552736,164318071,117203883,93376507,147281391,94080459,139243459,148424609,72969191,168728315,146749547,79215270,167573686,84516538,167330784,55909938,139379145,122399254,168854824,78364920,137945628,91442169,158744573,131580637,87346454,113462029,75493146,90911837,152139943,90926892,152888055,155451622,79077378,90635578,153548085,116126620,156979600,140456395,74039758,118500011,78324829,105937461,87151788,167169731,78161108,105937462,134168661,105937483,95180441,71262635,114440479,94394685,93141042&sq=links/c=431,158,253,632,254,93,28,177,34,260,263,13,176,621,648,579,528,590,151,268,515,586,64,663,641,165,734,477,623,215,445,637,144,675,282,744,740,2,452,451,109,277,161,588,626,68,700,591,460,291,696,344,629,614,732,647/f=PIHVX/s=DynamicRank

BlinkLink is an experiment from software developer Clay Allsop that allows anyone to post a picture via Twitter that disappears once a certain number of people have viewed it, but there’s a twist.

Once the links have disappeared from view, they aren’t lost forever, but will only become visible again if someone tweets the link again. A single tweet of the link is good for another 1,000 views, a balance that Allsop says was hard to strike.

“The barrier for a user tweeting something appears to be very high: I had to gradually increase the tweet “bonus” for my HN [Hacker News] blink to +1000 views before any tweets appeared. I think there’s a very interesting risk/reward dynamic going on,” Allsop wrote on his blog.

For a more detailed overview of Allsop’s initial assessment of the idea of disappearing links, check out his BlinkLink post-mortem.

BlinkLink

Featured Image Credit – Thinkstock

 

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