wykop.pl is a Polish social networking internet service, founded on December 28, 2005. It is modeled after the American website digg.com (wykop in the Polish language means a dig out). The basic idea behind wykop.pl is the collection of potentially interesting internet-based information and making them available to users.
ReadWriteWeb described wykop as a "clone" of Digg. As of 2006, Sebastian Kwiecień, owner of the blog web20.pl, said that it was probably Poland's most popular Web 2.0 website.[1]
Other part of service is a microblog[2] based on hashtag system, which can be subscribed.
Nicknames of users have different colors. After registration user's nick has green color, which after 30 days changes into orange color. Special colors are: claret for 1,000 users from the top of user ranking, blue for the sponsored users, black for the admins and silver for the banned users and users, which deleted their accounts.
Statistics
According to data from April 2008 the service was getting 650,000 users monthly, of which around 30,000 were registered users. By September 2008 the number of visitors rose to 900,000, of which 60,000 were registered users, and there were 13 million views. Currently Wykop.pl has more than 110,000 registered users, 3.1 million unique visitors and around 58 million views.
Trivia
- Wykop's microblogging service attracted notable people, e.g. Lech Wałęsa,[3] Hanna Zdanowska,[4] Przemysław Wipler.[5] Wykop.pl is also often used to promote enterprises and media such as RMF24.pl, Radio Zet.
- Wykop.pl often organizes AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions with famous people, e.g. Cezary Pazura,[6] Jerzy Owsiak,[7] Bohdan Smoleń,[8]
Controversies
- In September 2009 database containing nicknames and hashed passwords of around 100,000 users was leaked.[20][21]
- In early 2010s dozens of short movies claiming that Pope John Paul II was a child molester were uploaded to YouTube. Some of those clips were described as originating from Wykop.pl. In early 2011, the Łódź Voivodeship website was defaced with offensive and pornographic pictures of the Pope. Attackers claimed to be from Wykop. Shortly after this incident users from Wykop discovered that movies and pictures containing anti-papal content might be created on local mutation of 4chan, Karachan. Michał Białek, chairman of Wykop.pl, notified prosecutors about the hate campaign targeting the Pope and Wykop.pl.[22][23][24]
External links
References
- MacManus, Richard. "Top Polish Web 2.0 Apps (including Coke's 43Things!)." ReadWriteWeb. 1 August 2006. Retrieved on 8 August 2011.^
- Mikroblog^
- Lechwalesa - profil w Wykop.pl^