This post is dedicated to those who have searched for truth in my words. This is my real life story.
I am Bolton James Groenwald Deventer and I was born at 8:53:58 PM on Monday 8th October 2007 – this is my final post. As soon as I was born, I knew I was going to die.
I am the Guy Mclaron parody net-site that turned into a major social experiment which now forms the basis of my ever popular W-TEP presentation. I was brought into this blog-world to see if I could create some cyber-success and I have some interesting results to show.
My mission was simple:
1. See if I could get successful in a short space of time.
2. Test local social media sites to see if using them would help my mission.
3. Try to create a fake persona on Facebook and see if people would bite.
4. Could I start a net-war / net-discussions?
5. Disprove some acceptable web standards.
I enjoyed my short, but fulfilled cyber-life. I am sad leaving this place which is filled with such cynicism, and terror, however hints of comedy. Now, since I am reflecting on my life, I ask the question: How did I do?
1. Success
Between Monday evening and Friday evening WordPress reports 2,448 hits to the site which is around 600+ visits a day and my best day was Friday with 848 hits. I posted no less than 40 blog posts and generated 199 comments to this net-site. Other bloggers also wrote a total of 15 net-articles (that I could find) that spoke directly of me.
I think it’s safe to say that I have made a big noise and have received some mild success. Knowing this lets me rest in piece. Simple!
2. Social Media Sites
On Monday I joined Afrigator and on Wednesday I joined Amatomu. Here’s some quick stats from each net-site:
Amatomu
Ranked 62 overall on Amatomu
Traffic from Amatomu = 223
Page views = 2,886
Unique visitors = 137
Afrigator
Ranked 130 overall on Afrigator
Traffic from Afrigator = 202
Page views = 2,012
Unique visitors = 462
My experience with Muti was the best though (thank you Muti) because I could drive all my content to the site to an open audience. I managed to submit 13 items to Muti before getting banned and due to multiple accounts I was able to get my articles in the top 5 almost every time. It seems that if you get 4 votes you’re guaranteed a top 10 spot on Muti – it was a good feeling, being in the top 10 for the first time in my life.
MyBlogLog didn’t provide any traffic to my net-site but it was fun creating a profile and adding as many users as possible.
Overall I think the real winner here was Muti. It gave me a platform to get my name out into the “elite” circle of SA bloggers and that’s all I needed to get the ball rolling. It seems they wait in anticipation for someone to rock up with a whacked sense of web to pounce on.
3. Facebook
I loved this one as I’ve learnt so much about Facebook and the fickleness of it that this was a very rewarding task. Setting up a FB profile wasn’t easy and creating a fake persona proved complicated to say the least. However, by Monday evening I had a total of 57 FB friends of which I knew the sum total of ZERO.
The interesting thing I’ve learnt is that if you can get one random person to add you as a friend you can almost be guaranteed to get all of their friends as well because people don’t really think about the connection between friends on FB. This was the key to my success on FB. It’s quite scary to think some people actually believe they know me and have also worked together with me in the past. Having 670 FB friends probably means absolutely nothing about you.
4. Net-war / Net-Hype
I’m not sure if I can call it a net-war but I certainly generated hype. By baiting key bloggers in South Africa I was able to increase awareness of myself and I think the fact that I’m stopping now prevents this from turning into a net-war. While this has all been largely fun-and-games (F-A-G) I certainly got worried when people in the blog-community started accusing other people of fabricating me. I can tell you categorically that you really have no idea who I am and your accusations were completely misguided. I am who I am, Bolton Deventer, simple!
5. Web standards
I was meant to upset people with my ridiculous theories (which I did) but I also wanted to see if “innocent” people would believe my W-TEP, Sex-sells, N-L-P and other classic theories. Sadly, it would seem, the net-surfers on my site knew better. Except for Ermelo Tiles of course…
In conclusion:
While this was a F-A-G experiment I think what this does more seriously highlight is that the SA blog-community is so small and insignificant it’s scary. Within hours I was one of the most widely spoken about people in the “community” and had this been a larger community, with more clout, Bolton would never have even existed let alone survived.
By using the social net-sites I proved that all of them can be used to manipulate results and be abused to my advantage. There is no fool-proof way of preventing abuse of these systems and they certainly provided a platform for me to launch myself from.
The one real positive from a SA blog-community perspective is that all of you could tell I wasn’t who I was claiming to be. I scared a few people at the start with my theories but towards the end of my life it wasn’t about whether I was real or not but simply – who was Bolton James Groenwald Deventer.
Now I know some people feel cheated by my death. But my time with you all was great – I enjoyed, laughed, and swore, with you along the way. Please don’t be sad, since to die will be an awfully big and new adventure.
Good bye friends.
“We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.”
P.S. Catch me if you can!
Hidden: Sex,Porn,Legs, Breasts,Tits,Playboy, Angeline Joli, Britney Spears, Bolton Deventer, Barbara Deventer
12 Comments
RIP, Dear Friend…
Bolton, we will miss you
Farewell Bolton – we hardly knew you.
Bolton, I feel like I’ve started to get to know you and you’ve been taken away from us so suddenly. You will be missed my virtual friend!
RIP!!!
Well played!
Sad to see it all end! Very funny though.
I love the fact that it was a FAG experiment… hilarious!
All I can say is brilliant, clever concept. Thanks for the hysterics. We will eventually find out who you are…. I think I have a pretty good idea now anyway
Well Done Bolton – I love the “PS” you’ve added at the end …!! There is just no end to you. Sad to see you go – Stii & I shared a couple of very good laughs because of your blog.
How, why, but most importantly … who. I think that one thing is the main focus for most people. No matter what you have achieved, whatever research or learnings etc etc. Once the hype is gone and the next story comes along, the who is the thing which lives on.
Bolton, I’m still a gutless fag.
If I had any balls, I come clean and identify my cowardly arse.
You have no respect for the anonymous cowards who hide in the shadows.
I’m a scared, little boy. Scared to show my face.
I pity me and my type.
I’ll receive no accolades from me.
What everyone wants is WEB TRAFFIC
“To be noticed” Some choose more ethical methods that others. Some people will do
anything for a dollar, I guess they figure no one will know. Or worse yet No One
Will Care.
I have just stumbled upon your site and sad to hear that you have passed
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