What is a “Shout”?

We’ve noticed a little bit of confusion around the term “Shout” on Shizzow, so I wanted to take a little time to clarify the action and talk about how that term came to be.

We use the term “Shout” to signify the declaration of your location on Shizzow. The basic idea is that when you find the Place that you are currently at on Shizzow, say Green Dragon, you will Shout or Shout Out (we Shizzowers jokingly call it a Shizzout) to all of your friends that you are currently at Green Dragon. All of the friends who are “Listening” to you, are really listening specifically for your Shouts through Shizzow and will be notified of your current location every time that you shout.  In a data sense, a Shout connects a Person to a Place at a specific time, so make sure you navigate to the place page for your current location, or locate your current location in the search results, before clicking Shout, otherwise you’ll Shout from a Place that you’re really not at.

Back when we first began development, we had a hard time finding verbs to signify the actions that took place on Shizzow. We instinctively began using Twitter’s “follow” vocabulary, but we quickly found that to be a really creepy verb to use when discussing people and their locations. We also explored using Facebook’s “friend” vocabulary, but when we began talking privacy, friending a person who may not necessarily want to be your friend back really starts to create an awkward user story. So, when we started playing with the term “Shout”, it seemed like a stalker-free term that would make a really good fit for declaring one’s location.

We’re currently looking at ways to clarify the term and make the user exprience a bit more friendly when you first sign up with Shizzow. If you have any ideas for us, please let us know through Get Satisfaction.