I’ve had a meebo widget running for about a year and a half now, and for the most part, it is an incredibly useful tool. The widget is wonderful because you can embed it in a variety of places. Like here, or here, or here, or here. For virtual reference, the meebo widget is a very effective tool for students and patrons to reach a librarian. However, you may have the occasional patron who stops by your site and goes nuts for some reason or another. I suppose the concept of anonymity can be misused and may even be empowering to some. I just got back from my lunch-time workout and found the following:
I apologize if the language this person used offends you. Honestly, it offended and angered me, but writing this post has helped me feel a little better. I felt that I should share this so that others could see that with advances in technology, you sometimes have to take the good and the bad. I pray that this person has gotten this out of his system, and now will only spread joy to those around him for the rest of the day.
March 6, 2008 at 3:02 pm
We’ve experienced similar problems with our Meebo widget. Someone this semester has figured out they can change the name from meeboguest123 to something else. The person is using the nick “liburrylova” and has asked on multiple occasions what we are wearing and what we are into.
I had similar experiences with the OhioLINK Chat with a Librarian service. Some students knew they could screw around with us by putting in fake names and email addresses. Looking at the IP address didn’t help because all I could tell was that they were indeed at an Ohio campus in a computer lab wasting time in between classes.