Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/15/public-video-portal-between-new-york-and-dublin-shut-down-after-tits-flashed.html
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So, I guess you could say that the whole portal project went tits up.
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I’m largely expecting Captain Kirk to go back in time through it, fall in love with Joan Collins and then have to let her die to preserve the future.
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“Flashing tits” shouldn’t be a crime or even just a “big deal” anywhere.
How could they have not anticipated that this would happen?
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Yeah I’m failing to see the problem here. Yes it was done to get a rise out of people but that’s not bad. If a man had raised his shirt would they have shut it down? Based on that question alone our city has decriminalized tits and somehow we’ve survived.
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My understanding is that they don’t have breasts in Dublin, and the Irish authorities were understandably concerned that the exposure (so to speak) of these aesthetically-striking body parts to the Irish people might lead to feelings of alarm, despondency and bewilderment among the naturally modest inhabitants of Hibernia.
Of course, I may have been misinformed, and in any case we don’t know whether the breasts went from New York to Dublin, or the other way around. Or both. It’s possible that the Irish (or the Americans) feared being drawn into an international breast-off from which only one nation could emerge victorious.
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Are participants just supposed wave? If there is audio, it probably only takes a few seconds to go from “hello” to talking smack. Not like they’re going to swap recipes and become lifelong friends.
Seems like it would be fun for a few seconds and quickly become tedious. That is, unless it was “spiced up.” The fact that it was only tits is surprising. Human nature being what it is.
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So… this portal thing … it’s just a Zoom meeting with two large monitors in different countries. This has been done many times before, right? Not an original idea. How did the others end?
What I want someone to do is a portal thing but instead of linking to a far-off city, you are actually looking through simple Plexiglass at someone 8 feet away on the other side. Give them the finger or something else obscene, they come around and punch your stupid face. I bet the behavior would be better.
The portal thing is social media in a nutshell. Emboldened people will act rude with no personal ramifications, move on to the next thing when site/portal closes.
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People on the Dublin side have also held up pictures of the World Trade Centre attack, because of course.
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Is the portal HDR? Seems like that needs HDR.
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The funny thing about it is that it’s obviously this fantasy of people Just Waving and Smiling and being Brought Closer By Technology. How absolutely out of touch do you have to be to think like this in 2024? Just think of all the stuff that they didn’t and won’t shut it down for.
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Last night Stephen Colbert joked that when you combine New York City with Dublin you get Boston.
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Thank you for keeping us abreast of the situation.
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Seems like the simplest solution would be to just bring OnlyFans on as a sponsor and be done with it.
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Really? You set up a video portal where you can see people on the other side of the planet, who you will most likely never meet, and you don’t expect some flashing to happen?
I dare say it’s human nature to do that.
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I recall a Ripley’s believe it or not attraction that had a funhouse mirror on the way in. Of course everyone is making stupid faces in it, as you do.
On the way out you discover it’s a two-way mirror, and the people leaving were watching you make a fool of yourself as you were entering.
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Given it’s right beside where the religious hawkers and anti-choicers frequently set up in Dublin, I wholeheartedly endorse this product or event
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I would think the tit flashing is the point. Are we so prurient? I mean, really.
Then again, I’m sure there was much worse. So what?
I thought this portal was a cool, completely frivolous, fun thing. And I’m sad it’s gone.
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It’s almost as if they never heard of Omegle. Writ large and in public.
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It seems kinda silly a single flash would shut it down. But also, I could see it get out of hand… especially if it becomes some social media “challenge”.
The whole portal concept is kinda neat, but I could see the novelty wear off real quick. I have a picture in my head of it just streaming people walking by, a whole different world through the window, and it’s being completely ignored.
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