Confession: I am Rodney Hide
The university exam period. Attempts at study quickly decline into mindless procrastination. Many an hour is wasted away on otherwise pointless tasks.
Everyone has their favourite. Tidying one's room; constantly checking one's emails; alphabetically arranging one's CD collection. But when I need something to distract me from study I simply become Rodney Hide.
When I say "become" I really mean 'pretend to be'; and when I say "pretend to be" I mean it in a slightly satirical sense, not a creepy idolising/stalker way.
Yip, I am the Myspace incarnation of Mr Rodney Hide. "Sad" you might say, and I'd actually agree with you, but as I said above one takes desperate measures to ensure as much time is wasted during times of supposed study as possible.
The idea came to me when I noticed the growing number of people creating Myspace profiles for their favourite celebrity or icon. I thought 'why not turn this around' and create a profile for arguably the most hated member of parliament and see what happens.
So I present to you:
A Guide to Myspace Identity Fraud: Rodney Hide
1. Originality
Its hard to be original nowdays, but when choosing someone to create a profile for it is best to make sure someone else hasn't beaten you to it. Fortunately Rodney Hide was profile-less, and I was able to proceed to step two...
2. Sign up
If you already have a personal Myspace profile you won't be able to use the same email address to sign up for another profile. Why not go a step further in your identity stealing and make a new email address too? I chose rodneyhide@gmail.com
3. The Profile Photo (or 'pic' as the kids call it)
Google image search is a great way of finding most of the pictures the internet has to offer of your chosen victim. Non-press shots will make it easier to pass your profile off as the real person, but in the case of Rodders I thought an Act party publicity shot would do the job.
4. Getting the right feel
There are countless profile editors on the internet that generate code to manipulate the feel of your profile. People subconsciously make decisions about a person's worth based on the colour of their background and the song playing. I went with the Act Party colours of yellow and aqua, and chose Van Morrison to serenade readers.
5. About "you"
So you've constructed a feel you think is consistent with your victim's tastes, now comes the hard part; writing about them in the first person. This may require a little bit of research if you're wanting to get personal. However, good old Google (or GOG as this phrase has often been abbreviated) is here to help. We now live in an age where you can find out your local MP's date of birth, address, hell even their favourite food, simply by doing a bit of Googling.
6. Get yourself some 'scenester' friends
Indie kids are the best way to make instant friends, after all Myspace was apparently created to foster independent music. Browse Myspace until you find a local indie kid who looks like they use Myspace like air and request their friendship. When they accept make sure you post a "Thanx 4 tha add" comment. Not only is this Myspace etiquette, it helps you gain more friends through exposure. I utilised the immense picture editing capabilities of MS Paint to create a re-usable "Thanx 4 tha add" picture:
7. Sit back and enjoy your new-found identity
The hard work is over. You can now relax and wait for the friend requests to come flooding in. Be sure to thank every person that adds you as a friend, and reply to comments in a manner that neither confirms or denies your real identity.
Rodney now enjoys the friendship of 283 myspacers, receiving around 5 friend requests a day. Some of the comments he has received have been hilarious. For some people the thought that Rodney Hide might maintain a myspace profile and reply to comments and messages is in no way ridiculous.
Apologies for the long post.
PS... Here's a link to Tim Selwyn's blog from inside prison that the National Party tried to get shut down. Note that most of the posts on the blog are by Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury so you'll have to scroll down a bit to find Tim Selwyn's own posts.
Everyone has their favourite. Tidying one's room; constantly checking one's emails; alphabetically arranging one's CD collection. But when I need something to distract me from study I simply become Rodney Hide.
When I say "become" I really mean 'pretend to be'; and when I say "pretend to be" I mean it in a slightly satirical sense, not a creepy idolising/stalker way.
Yip, I am the Myspace incarnation of Mr Rodney Hide. "Sad" you might say, and I'd actually agree with you, but as I said above one takes desperate measures to ensure as much time is wasted during times of supposed study as possible.
The idea came to me when I noticed the growing number of people creating Myspace profiles for their favourite celebrity or icon. I thought 'why not turn this around' and create a profile for arguably the most hated member of parliament and see what happens.
So I present to you:
A Guide to Myspace Identity Fraud: Rodney Hide
1. Originality
Its hard to be original nowdays, but when choosing someone to create a profile for it is best to make sure someone else hasn't beaten you to it. Fortunately Rodney Hide was profile-less, and I was able to proceed to step two...
2. Sign up
If you already have a personal Myspace profile you won't be able to use the same email address to sign up for another profile. Why not go a step further in your identity stealing and make a new email address too? I chose rodneyhide@gmail.com
3. The Profile Photo (or 'pic' as the kids call it)
Google image search is a great way of finding most of the pictures the internet has to offer of your chosen victim. Non-press shots will make it easier to pass your profile off as the real person, but in the case of Rodders I thought an Act party publicity shot would do the job.
4. Getting the right feel
There are countless profile editors on the internet that generate code to manipulate the feel of your profile. People subconsciously make decisions about a person's worth based on the colour of their background and the song playing. I went with the Act Party colours of yellow and aqua, and chose Van Morrison to serenade readers.
5. About "you"
So you've constructed a feel you think is consistent with your victim's tastes, now comes the hard part; writing about them in the first person. This may require a little bit of research if you're wanting to get personal. However, good old Google (or GOG as this phrase has often been abbreviated) is here to help. We now live in an age where you can find out your local MP's date of birth, address, hell even their favourite food, simply by doing a bit of Googling.
6. Get yourself some 'scenester' friends
Indie kids are the best way to make instant friends, after all Myspace was apparently created to foster independent music. Browse Myspace until you find a local indie kid who looks like they use Myspace like air and request their friendship. When they accept make sure you post a "Thanx 4 tha add" comment. Not only is this Myspace etiquette, it helps you gain more friends through exposure. I utilised the immense picture editing capabilities of MS Paint to create a re-usable "Thanx 4 tha add" picture:
7. Sit back and enjoy your new-found identity
The hard work is over. You can now relax and wait for the friend requests to come flooding in. Be sure to thank every person that adds you as a friend, and reply to comments in a manner that neither confirms or denies your real identity.
Rodney now enjoys the friendship of 283 myspacers, receiving around 5 friend requests a day. Some of the comments he has received have been hilarious. For some people the thought that Rodney Hide might maintain a myspace profile and reply to comments and messages is in no way ridiculous.
Apologies for the long post.
PS... Here's a link to Tim Selwyn's blog from inside prison that the National Party tried to get shut down. Note that most of the posts on the blog are by Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury so you'll have to scroll down a bit to find Tim Selwyn's own posts.
posted by Hayden at 2:47 pm
3 Comments:
The Rodney Hide myspace is pretty impressive. "Who you'd like to meet: You." is absolute genius!
So how many of your/Rodney's 283 friends know it's actually a hoax?
and
What do you reply back to them(those who think you are in fact Rodney Hide)?
I mean don't you have to keep up a level of authenticity by how you answer things?
-Elaine
Until today I haven't told anyone that it was me. Lots of my friends (real life friends, hah) thought it was me at first but changed their minds when i denied it.
I think some of Rodney's myspace friends probably presume it isn't real, but they think its fun to play along. However, when you look through the comments there are an alarming number of people who seem to truly believe they're talking to the real Rodney Hide
I generally try to answer as generically as possible, so not to make it obvious that it isn't Rodney, but also not to put forward any opinions that I don't know Hide himself holds. At first people asked why [Rodney] had a myspace profile, to which [Rodney] explained that he wanted to get more in touch with youth opinion.
I would sometimes sign the end of comments with "Love, Rodders" to test the lengths of people's naivety. No one has said anything about it yet...
I think this is a perfect example of "identity theft" in the sense that you can't always trust people. For example you guys who use MySpace to keep in contact with your favourite bands, how do you really know it's them? It may just be another examperiod-anxietystuck student...?
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