Intermission: who wants a work email the day before the long weekend
Season 7: The 4 day weekend starts now
đŹ In this issue:
TikTok drops an economic impact study amid the potential US ban
A deep dive into the growth strategy of an indie game
Speaking of games, LinkedIn wants to make the next Wordle
Yahoo, Ya-who? is launching a new platform for creators
People are using Google Forms to make digital escape rooms
Seize the long weekend, Mehketeers
I am a kind newsletter writer, who doesnât want to clog up your inbox with deep thinking topics the day before a four-day-extra-long weekend, and itâs my gift to you to present these short topics and my hot takes on them, as a way to welcome the weekend and hopefully four days of chilling out.
For my non-Australian Mehketeers, condolences on not having a four day weekend!
I actually took Friday off last week to have a faux long weekend and stayed in a tiny cabin. And that has nothing (everything) to do with why this weekâs issue is an intermission. Enjoy!
The TikTok ban
The upcoming ban (or change in ownership) in the US is a hot debate. Itâs getting so hot, in fact, that TikTok commissioned Oxford to do an economic impact study. Theyâre claiming TikTok contributed $24 billion to the economy, but the links are pretty stretched if you ask me.
For example, 224,000 jobs were supported by SMBs using TikTok as a platform to grow and expand their business. Jobs supported isnât the same as jobs created. Did they count people who posted one TikTok and then never posted again as a job supported? Wonât Instagram have this same claim if itâs just âsupportedâ? Basically any social media platform could say they have a finger in this pie.
đ„My hot take đ„
Itâs not so much that I support the ban, but I do support divesting TikTok from China. The people who are claiming itâs a freedom of speech impediment probably have no idea how much data TikTok (and therefore China) is actually harvesting.
Iâm not anti China per se, but I am anti-government-harvesting-my-data-especially-if-itâs-not-my-own-and-I-donât-agree-with-that-either.
There was huge outrage a few years ago when the documentary The Great Hack came out about Cambridge Analytica and how much data Facebook was harvesting⊠whereâs all that outrage gone? Has the general public forgotten so quickly?
File this under âevidence weâre living in a capitalist dystopiaâ
Want more on this topic?
A consumer report revealed that a sample of 709 Facebook users had data about them sent to Facebook from 186,892 companies.
By collecting data this way, the study was able to examine a form of tracking that is normally hidden: so-called server-to-server tracking, in which personal data goes from a companyâs servers to Metaâs servers. Another form of tracking, in which Meta tracking pixels are placed on company websites, is visible to usersâ browsers.Â
Using exclusivity and community as a growth strategy
A fun one after that doozy:
In the first year, the game went through a full redesign, received new visuals, and the open alpha was replaced with a closed beta. It was invitation-only, and the main way to grab a key was through contests held on our Discord, or through the newsletter. To help grow the Discord community, we also ran what we called âbeaver brainstormsâ âdiscussions focused on a single topic such as âWhat should be the next beaver faction?â
This is about a Sims-like game, but you play as a beaver and construct a city. Really interesting read and might be a fun game to play over the weekend.
LinkedIn is losing its mind
TechCrunch reported that LinkedIn wants to hop on the Wordle train and create its own puzzle games. Employees will contribute to their companyâs rankingâŠ
Exhibit B for capitalist dystopia.
Yahoo announces a comeback
Yahoo for Creators is a recent announcement from the purple internet company, claiming to give mostly text based creators a publishing platform that will share up to 50% of revenue with them.
It honestly perked me right up to see because I create long form content, but after reading the announcement I think this is aimed at lifestyle and consumer bloggers. Remember the old Blogger days? Or Tumblr girls who would post their vintage fashion hauls? Yeah I think weâre about to see the 2020s version of that.
đ„My hot take đ„
It says the vast audience of Yahoo News but who are we kidding here. Does Yahoo have the audience to pull creators over? And do creators have the need for this enough to encourage their audience to follow them over?
The idea of a new platform where organic growth is possible, but this is giving me Medium 2.0 vibes. Just wait for the AI content to hit and ruin it.
Look, Iâd like to see it succeed.
Need some more fun?
You might not know this but in 2020 (I think before I created Mehdeeka) I created a murder mystery dinner game, but specifically it was covid-themed, political, and was designed for playing over Zoom. Oh the memories of lockdownâŠ
Anyway, I made it all on Google Docs, and I recently found out people have made similar games using Google Forms (with much lighter subject matter)
I havenât play tested so wonât vouch for quality on these:
This one is themed around rescuing Pikachu, inspired by escape rooms, and is kids-friendly
This one is also structured as a digital escape room, but is Harry Potter themed and was made by students in the UTS Quidditch club.
đ„My hot take đ„
Not really a hot take, but linking this back to the Yahoo for Creators platform, my covid game got 110k views on Medium and through the Medium Partner Program I got a grand total of $88.05 from it.
đ„Long weekend rapid fire hot takesđ„
Donât check your emails over the long weekend
Donât do work over the long weekend
Resting, recovering, and enjoying leisure IS being productive
And lastly, touch grass
Bisous, Kayla
This felt like a fever dream đ Next up, TikTok brings out business mode trend for people (read middle-aged white male) to make boring speeches that get automatically dropped into the top of everyone's FYP