Combining elements of Digg with the micro-blogging format of Twitter, Truemors lets users “post rumors, news, and sightings” so that “anyone with web access can read and rate them within minutes.” The site which was co-founded by ex-Apple evangelist and VC, Guy Kawasaki, accepts submissions via email, SMS, online, and — pehaps most interestingly — voicemail. With regards to the latter, voice messages are automatically converted to text for publication on Truemors.
When I heard about the service, two things immediately struck me. First, like Twitter, it really lowers the barriers to participating in the social web, as messages have to be within a 250 character limit, and can be posted from numerous communication devices. But I also thought “this could become a honey pot for libel”, as the site provides a very efficient way of potential misinformation to be spread by digital ‘word of mouth’.
From the site’s terms and conditions:
Please don’t defame or threaten people; infringe on intellectual property; use vulgar or profane language; make bigoted or hateful statements; or advertise products or services.
To that end, there is a certain amount of accountability for users who post a ‘truemor’. Email addresses have to be verified, and phone numbers used for voice mail and text messages are recorded.
Truemors is an interesting and fun idea which is also very simple to use and grasp. My only complaint is that as a ‘truemor’ can encompass anything; the top ‘truemors’ are very eclectic. There are categories for sport, entertainment etc, but these don’t seem to have their own RSS feed, so I can’t drill down and subscribe to one area of interest. In contrast, sites like Digg do a much better job of catering for particular interest groups.
