10 Memeburn articles you went crazy for in 2015

With just a few days left to go in 2015, it’s time to sit back and reflect on a year which has seen rapid evolution in the roles technology and social media play in our daily lives. Perhaps the biggest shift to happen this year is the rate at which people in previously underserved markets are coming online. With more than 3-billion internet users around the globe, every event now happens online as well as in the real world.

That this is increasingly true of South Africa where around half the population has internet access, is evident when you look at how many of Memeburn’s top articles of 2015 relate either to social media or its reaction to real world events.

Here are the top 10, with the most read piece appearing at number one.

10. ShowMax: 7 things you should know about Naspers’ new VoD service

Naspers today officially launched its ShowMax video on demand (VoD) offering. The Johannesburg launch followed more than a week of media reports around the product, which is aimed at the South African market.

Despite the best efforts of the country’s tech journalists, it did manage to keep some details of the launch under wraps. Read more…

9. 29 incredible photos from the #FeesMustFall march on the Union Buildings [Update]

On Friday, the #FeesMustFall movement saw its largest instance of mass action yet wit tens of thousands of protester gathering in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The gathering is the culmination of more than a week’s worth of protests which have rocked university campuses across the country, as well as the parliamentary precinct in Cape Town. Read more…

8. This text message called the ‘Unicode of Death’ will crash your iPhone

The scariest line of characters on the internet right now makes absolutely no sense, but will crash your iPhone nonetheless.

Word on the web is that Apple’s CoreText API can’t render a specific string of non-sensical characters, so whenever an incoming message containing the mysterious text is displayed as a banner alert or notification, the system will restart.

Read more…

7. The case against non-technical managers

Software development has an image of nerdy people with poor people skills. Whilst luckily not true in most cases, the stereotype probably contributes to companies often appointing non-technical managers to run IT departments.

Think about this in terms of your accounting department. Let’s say that you had a great manager, who has come up through the ranks from some discipline other than accounting. You decide to make them Chief Financial Officer. This person must now lead a function where a mistake can cost your company a lot of money. Read more…

6. Instagram plagiarism scandal: Skye Grove apologises, deletes herself off internet

Amid a barrage of criticism and a bit of support on social media on Tuesday, top South African Instagrammer Skye Grove has literally deleted herself off the internet, after “owning up” to a plagiarism scandal as reported by Memeburn on Monday.

Posting on her official Instagram account to her 40 000-something followers, she wrote: “I would like to unreservedly apologize to the Instagram community as much as to the artists whose photos I used. I am sorry that I disappointed you. I have learned and will continue to learn. I would like to thank the countless of people who sent me messages of support. I understand the angry and condemning messages too. I will continue my own journey, both as photographer and as human being.” Read more…

5. Mxit: the rise and collapse of ‘Africa’s largest social network’

Flashback to 2010. Naspers is still a majority shareholder in Mxit, at this stage Africa’s largest social network and instant messaging client with 27-million registered users. It is the darling of the South African technology space, proof that a digital African company can play on the international stage. Perhaps even more importantly, it is an inspiration to any number of mobile startups in South Africa and Africa as a whole. Five years later, it’s changed ownership, undergone wide-scale retrenchments, and its user numbers are believed to have fallen even lower than it’s willing to admit. Read more…

4. Top South African Instagrammer accused of plagiarism, fraud

South Africa has its own collection of “celebrity Instagrammers”. Skye Grove is among this group. She has more than 40 000 followers on Instagram and has had her photographs featured in exhibitions and on television. Grove also sells her images online. The Expresso Show, a popular daily morning show, featured Grove on 29 June 2015 on its Social Media Trend segment as “Someone to follow on Instagram”. Read more…

3. 61 astonishing photos of the #MuizenbergFire shared on Twitter

Over the past 24 or so hours, South Africans have been avidly following the progress of a devastating wildfire raging across Cape Town’s Southern Peninsula. The massive blaze, which started in the early hours of Sunday morning, was fanned by strong winds, causing it to spread rapidly.

While initially the fire was contained to a section of Table Mountain National Park, it spread rapidly throughout the day and night eventually becoming a threat to a number of suburbs including Noordhoek, Muizenburg, Fish Hoek, and Tokai. As winds picked up throughout the course of Sunday and into the early hours of Monday morning, the efforts of those battling the blaze were severely hampered. Read more…

2. 34 hilarious Tweets from Mmusi Maimane’s #AskMmusi Twitter Town Hall

Opening yourself up to Twitter is a risky business at the best of times. But when you’re a recently elected South African political leader dealing with one of the most cynical Twitter communities on the planet, then things can go very badly wrong.

That’s the lesson DA leader Mmusi Maimane’s had to find out the hard way today. Read more…

1. Cape Town restaurant shows the world how to deal with racist online reviews

Online reviews can be a tricky business, especially in the restaurant trade. In between picky customers and the ego needed to make an eatery sustainable things can get very messy very quickly. That said, sometimes the customer is just plain wrong. And in the the last couple of days, one Cape Town-based restaurant showed the world how to deal with those customers.

Massimo’s is an eatery in the seaside village of Hout Bay renowned for its authentic Italian pizzas. Read more…