Knuddels
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| Cuddles the chat : Chatting. To flirt. Play. | |
| languages | German |
| operator | Knuddels GmbH & Co. KG, Karlsruhe |
| editorial staff | Holger Kujath, Mathias Retzlaff, Mirko Strauss (shareholders) |
| Registration | necessary (anonymous) |
| On-line | September 9, 1999 |
| https://www.knuddels.de/ | |
| Knuddels | |
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| Basic data
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| developer | Knuddels GmbH & Co KG |
| Current version | 10.1 (November 2017) |
| Current preliminary version | 10.2 |
| operating system | independently |
| programming language | Java, Objective-C, JavaScript, React, Go |
| category | Chat |
| License | proprietary |
| German speaking | Yes |
| www.knuddels.de | |
Knuddels is a web-based online service that essentially offers a chat for people aged 14 and over. Around 4.1 million members were registered by February 2010. Knuddels describes itself as a "chat community" for mostly young adults, their market area is the German-speaking area. The name Knuddels is also the name of the corresponding chat software, which is written in Java . An iOS app has existed since 2010, an HTML5 -based mini-chat and an app for Android-based devices since 2013 .
Origin and career
The project started in summer 1999 was founded by Holger Kujath (idea and chat ) to improve the technical possibilities and entertainment value of the chat systems on the market. Mathias Retzlaff ( chat client , photo gallery and homepages) and Mirko Strauss (design) completed the founding team in 2000. At that time, Kujath and Retzlaff were computer science students in their third semester at the University of Karlsruhe . In September 2002 the company Knuddels GmbH & Co. KG was founded with Kujath and Retzlaff as managing directors, who act as developers and operators of the site.
In spring 2002, Knuddels was selected by CAMPUS in the Cyberforum for CAMPUS funding. On December 4, 2002, Knuddels was presented with the NEO Award for “the most popular website” at the Netnight in Stuttgart . The operators of Knuddels obtain financial income from advertisements and various premium services (Smiley subscription, Smiley purchase).
From mid-2005, following severe criticism, both in the media and internally, new measures for the protection of minors were gradually taken. In 2014 the company had 30 employees.
Knuddels' online marketer has been netpoint media GmbH since the beginning of 2016 . In 2018 there were just over 300,000 active users per month.
construction
In addition to Knuddels.de, there is also the website Knuddels.at (mainly responsible: Mathias Retzlaff). Knuddels' German chat community is the larger of the two.
In addition to chatting, you can take part in games and competitions within the offer. A forum and a photo gallery are also available. After a while, particularly active chatters even received a homepage and a guest book . However, these were switched off in the course of modernization measures. Chat meetings are organized regularly, in which interested members can participate.
Technical background information
The chat system is based on a Java server. Messages are exchanged on a principle similar to that of IRC .
There are several clients developed by Knuddels:
- Applet ( Java ) - in the browser since 1999 (deactivated since March 2017)
- iOS app ( Objective-C ) - since 2010
- Android app ( Java ) - since 2013
- HTML chat - ( HTML5 , CSS3 , JavaScript ) - in the browser since 2013
- Standalone app (modification of the Java applet for self-installation) - since 2016
The chat system
Various chat rooms are available for chat users, for example for thematic focal points or regional references.
Some administrative functions of the community are carried out by elected administrators and moderators who are otherwise also users of the platform.
Various games are integrated into the system.
Membership status
A total of 12 tiers (0-11) are planned in the chat system, of which only eight are currently used.
You start after registering as a member (here: Newbie , corresponds to status 0). It is already possible to design your own profile (called WhoIs ) and upload a photo that can be viewed both in the profile and on the website. The non-visible private friends list is limited to 40 people. The size of the public friend display within the new profile is unlimited, but the other user must actively consent to the publication of his name on the profile (friend request). The introduction to the functions and rules of the chat takes place gradually via the tutorial lessons or private tips from the virtual butler James .
The mandatory information when registering is your nickname, password, age and gender. The specification and verification of a valid e-mail address is not required at the time of registration, but will be enforced after a while.
The next achievable status is family member (status 1). He can be reached after 30 days at the earliest and requires previous active participation in the chat. The private friends list is expanded to 60 people. Other additional functions are the award of hearts (the other nick is displayed with a heart symbol in your own profile and the profile of the other person), the creation and design of a cuddle-internal website (adjustable via HTML / CSS) and a guest book , and the establishment of a private chat -Channels (called MyChannel ), which can also be published, as well as writing rights in the chat's own forum. A “career” is also created in which the most important events are recorded (for example the date of registration, when status changes took place, but also other information).
Around 10% (according to the operator) of the most active nicks become regular chatters for one month at the beginning of the month (in short: Stammi , status rank 2). In addition to very active participation, this also requires friendliness and compliance with the rules. However, this status is withdrawn again when you are less active - in contrast to a family member. The selection of the Stammis is made solely by the system, the exact calculation methods and requirements are kept secret.
With this status, the chatter can also give away a virtual rose to another chatter every week, choose a favorite MyChannel and a favorite channel ( LC ). In this one, after a completed month, you can actively participate in the elections for the honorary channel moderator ( CM for short ) and, after two months of channel membership, be voted for yourself. The elections generally take place every two months on the 20th of a month, they begin with a three-day nomination phase and end with a four-day election phase. For the office of CM the Stammi must be nominated by a chatter with equivalent status from the same favorite channel. In order to accept the nomination, it is absolutely necessary to complete a CM test to determine aptitude. The channel moderator documentation (rules and behavior) is provided as an aid and guideline for behavior as a CM . Your own nick will only appear on the nomination list after it has passed. The number of channel moderators chosen depends on the number of chatters who have chosen this channel as their favorite channel.
After at least three periods (or six months) as the chosen CM, there is the possibility of becoming an admin (short for administrator ; status 6). Their tasks are to look after the chosen CMs, monitor the channels and impose sanctions such as temporary or permanent blocking of nicknames. In addition, all users with a corresponding status (regulated within the team) and the necessary requirements can be included in teams, such as the youth protection, homepage or anti-extremism team.
Former administrators (those who were not re-elected) and chatters who were appointed by the honorary committee (e.g. through special achievements, particularly in the mentoring program) are named honorary members (status 3).
The following are also used: Status 5 (unofficial administrators and members of the cuddle team who are assigned special tasks by the chat operator), Status 9 to 11 for programmer and chat manager, and the butler James (a bot ).
signing off
A deletion of the nickname can either be requested by the user himself (using the / deletemynick NICK function) or takes place automatically due to insufficient activity. If you initiate the deletion yourself, it will be carried out automatically after a security period (2 months) has expired, as long as you no longer use the nickname within this period. In the event of inactivity, after two months of non-use, the user will be sent an email to his stored email address , in which it is announced that his data will be deleted if he does not "appear again soon". When a deletion takes place depends, among other things, on previous activity in the chat and the status achieved so far.
This does not apply to user accounts that are permanently blocked due to violations - these are usually deleted by the operator at irregular intervals. Users with the status of honorary member (status 3) will never be deleted as long as they have not lost this status due to negative behavior or initiate the deletion independently.
control
Initially, only the administrators were intended to control and monitor the entire chat . As the number of active users increased, more instances had to be created. In order to prevent too many administrators from viewing non-public, internal chat information (registered email addresses, IP addresses , etc.), so-called channel moderators were used . Their area of responsibility is limited to exactly one channel. Likewise, they do not have extensive rights, but can only prohibit nicknames from public speaking within the channel or remove them from there. These sanctions are limited in time to the daily server restart at night. Elected channel moderators were appointed for the first time in March 2003. At the end of June 2013 there were around 1,800 channel moderators in the entire German chat system.
For some years now, administrators and honorary members have had limited control. However, these are sufficient to be able to carry out your administrative activities in the chat without any obstacles.
Until 2008, community members could send a text-based call for help to the administration. As this could not be provided with evidence or evidence was often falsified by those affected, which led to misjudgments of situations and complaints, the reporting system was fundamentally revised. Channel moderators and administrators can now use a function to view the last three minutes of the public messages in the channel. In addition, a clearly visible emergency call button was introduced at the beginning of 2008, via which the FAQ help system and also the emergency call system (NRS for short) can be reached.
Complaints about a user or received messages can be reported using a category system, with the corresponding content (chat message, user profile, homepage, photos) being saved by the system in an unalterable manner. Based on the content and type of the reported violations, the system automatically assigns the emergency call to an agent and saves it under an emergency call ID, which can be used for later inquiries.
In addition, the chat has various word filters. These automatically monitor the written texts and censor offensive, inappropriate words in public messages. Special youth protection filters monitor private conversations based on age and can end dialogues.
Protection of minors
Education and prevention
- Newly registered chat participants under the age of 16 have to take a (repeatable) youth protection test after two hours in the chat, which includes questions on the topics of personal data, anonymity, communication with parents, meetings in real life, harassment, the chat function for ignoring and dealing with Messenger programs included. If the test is not passed, a stricter text filter takes effect and communication with adult members is restricted or impossible.
- Newly registered users aged 16 and over are asked to take a media competence test after two hours. On the one hand, it asks for knowledge of how to deal with one's own data and security measures for the personal protection of users, but also correct behavior in dealing with children and young people in order to raise awareness of this topic.
- Since November 5, 2007 Knuddels has been working together with the chat providers RTL interactive and Lycos Europe in the “Selbstkontrolle Chat”, an association led by the FSM .
- Age and gender have been required when registering since the beginning of 2010 and are clearly visible in the profile. Previously existing nicks without entered age or with hidden information remain unaffected as long as you do not even enter this information in the future or display it again.
- In June 2011, a cooperation with an online contact point for children and young people, save-me-online.de, was agreed, in which the protection of the younger chatters in Knuddels is intensified. This is done by linking to the children's and young people's advice pages, which can be accessed via the home page.
- At the beginning of 2013, Knuddels reacted to the changed user structure and raised the minimum age for new registrations to 14 years. The previous "channels" for children were dissolved and Knuddels made it clear that it was not an offer for children.
Technical measures
- Conversations between adults and children are monitored using a word filter. As soon as content harmful to minors is discovered, conversations between these two chatters are blocked.
- Knuddels has had a contact filter since November 2012. With this, users can set the age or gender at which they would like to be contacted. Your own friends and administrative users are excluded from the contact filter. The contact filter is automatically preset for users under the age of 16 so that only contacts from young people are allowed.
- In channels with age restrictions upwards and downwards (especially in the categories Over 20 and Under 18 ) there is a separation of generations and age groups. Although there is a technical ban on being able to change the age of a nickname arbitrarily or permanently, this does not prevent you from registering other nicknames and specifying a different age here.
- Age verification is required for some chat rooms. This is done by entering the data from the machine-readable area of the identity card . In cases of doubt, for example if a false verification of the age is noticed, a copy of the ID will be requested (first name, surname, photo and date of birth, the rest blacked out), otherwise the user may be blocked.
Help for users
- A clearly visible emergency button enables violations to be reported quickly and guarantees that evidence is saved so that attacks can be punished within a few minutes and the relevant user accounts blocked. → See also: Control
- A volunteer youth protection team looks after the channel moderators and controls chat rooms, especially those that are particularly popular with children and young people.
- The channel moderators of the channels for young users receive training every two months from the voluntary youth protection team and are made aware of problems and dangers.
- A youth protection officer can be reached via an online form .
Anti-extremism
In order to keep the political activities of any extremists among the users as low as possible, an “anti-right team” (ART for short) was initially set up, to which admins, regular chatters and honorary members belonged. This team has specialized in banning right-wing ideas from the chat. The team was later renamed the “Anti-Extremism Team” (AET for short), which now monitors all forms of extremism, and the channel moderators are also informed and involved.
On October 11, 2012, a fundraising campaign for more tolerance was launched. Together with the Amadeu Antonio Foundation , they wanted to set an example for more tolerance and acceptance among the population, against right-wing violence ( right-wing extremism ). During the roughly four-month collection period, the user community raised a total of 5,392.24 euros, which the chat management topped up to 10,000 euros.
Knuddels is also a member of the website www.soziale-netzwerke-gegen-nazis.de , which stands for democratic coexistence instead of racism and anti-Semitism.
Chat games (selection)
Mafia & Mafia 2.0
Along with Mix and Hangman, Mafia is one of the first games on Knuddels.de. The aim of the game is to find out the assigned game roles (citizens, detective, mafiosi) of the other players through observation, intelligent communication and tactical skill and to nominate the opposing party in a game phase by voting from the game. In 2009 a new, more complex variant of the game appeared: Mafia 2.0. In contrast to the first version, Mafia 2.0 accommodates significantly more roles. In addition, different rules, roles and game processes are used in different game channels. An extensive tutorial explains the game in 67 lessons. After successfully completing the tutorial, the user will receive an exchangeable Mafia smiley.
WordMix
WordMix was one of the first games in chat. The aim of this game is to put the words in the correct order so that a complete, grammatically correct sentence is created.
At first, the faster the sentence was solved correctly, the more points there were. At the end of 2009 the system was changed so that so-called cheaters have less chance of scoring many points during the night. From then on, the distribution of points has been dependent on the number of participants in the game. The more participants play WordMix, the more points there are.
quiz
Quiz is a chat game that is about answering knowledge questions as quickly as possible. A wide variety of topics are dealt with. These questions and tasks have to be solved within 15 seconds in order to get a point and advance to the next round. The game includes around 50,000 questions, with a team continuously adding new questions since 2009.
Fifty!
Fifty! is a virtual dice game in which the aim is to roll the dice as close as possible to the number 50 in three rounds. Each player only has a certain number of dice available for this.
In each of the three rounds you can use any number of dice to hit the specified number. If you exceed the given limit, you are eliminated. The numbers given in the three rounds always add up to 50 (hence the name of the game). If you hit the required number exactly in each of the three individual rounds and finally come to 50, you win a jackpot . In the event of a tie between two players, there is a playoff with a random limit, which is won by the player who comes closest to the limit.
User apps
Since the end of 2014 there have been so-called "user apps" in various MyChannels . These are self- developed programs in JavaScript , often mini-games. The offer ranges from role-playing games to dice games and tricky mind games . For the programming is an API - documentation available.
Modules outside the chat
Smileycode subscription
Since the end of December 2010, a mobile phone subscription for smiley codes has been offered. The user purchases a smiley code for a monthly fee, which he can redeem in the chat. The subscription can be canceled on a monthly basis, special security measures are designed to protect young people from having too many contracts concluded at the same time.
Websites, photo, photo album, guest book
In addition to the option of creating a photo page (comments and ratings can optionally be allowed), from status 1 onwards, every member has the option of setting up a website that can also be accessed outside of the chat. However, this is limited to one page with specified elements (display of the nickname, footer of the chat operator), whereby users can also completely change their design using CSS . Since August 2010, members have had the opportunity to create photo albums.
Knuddels Wiki
The so-called Knuddels Wiki is an encyclopedia created especially for the community , which can be edited by voluntary users, compared to Wikipedia . The so-called Knuddels Wiki team takes care of maintenance, care and new creation of articles. There is a function with which you can start a search in the chat encyclopedia directly in the chat. Direct article links are also possible throughout the chat.
Chat meetings
Many members not only wanted to meet in the virtual world, but also wanted to meet in real life. This led to different meetings between users. Such so-called Chattertreffen have become increasingly popular, so the chat line is now organizing official meetings. These take place mainly in the west-south area of Germany, where the majority of the users come from. The very first official chat meeting was on December 2nd, 2000 in Karlsruhe. Around 140 people now take part in the two-day meetings in youth hostels.
Knuddels Nightlife , which does not take place regularly, was set up in 2008 especially for adult users . This is an evening event, usually in a disco . In contrast to the two-day chatter meetings, participation here is not allowed from 14 or 16 years, but only from 18 years.
Video blog lol * ipop
In the period from November 1, 2006 to August 10, 2008, a video blog called lol * ipop was produced and made available three times a week on the Knuddels website and a specially set up page on Clipfish . The mostly three- to five-minute programs in which video clips were shown contained a quiz question displayed directly below the video, which could win cuddles if it was answered.
The video blogs Knuddels-News and Game Show were discontinued prematurely after 2 and 16 episodes respectively.
criticism
Critics warn that the risk of addiction from Knuddels is higher compared to other chats , since it is not just about a communication option as usual, but "a society of its own" is being built.
As with other chat offers, there is also a risk with Knuddels that adults use the platform to establish contact with adolescents. However, this can only be avoided by personally registering with the chat provider, stating his identity, or if a moderator reads all messages (including private ones) and subsequently releases them, as is the case in some children's chats. Due to the size and the focus on teenagers and adults, this is not possible, in contrast to children's chats.
There have been repeated crimes, including murder and specific abuse crimes in connection with the use of Knuddels.
2018 data theft & GDPR breach
In September 2018 it became known that 1.8 million data records were copied by Knuddels without authorization (so-called data theft ). These data records included the name, place of residence, email address and the unencrypted password of the user. Saving passwords in plain text is a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation , so the company had to pay a fine of 20,000 euros.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.knuddels.de/press/press-index.html , accessed on May 5, 2013
- ↑ Knuddels.de: Users mainly young adults. Knuddels.de, January 30, 2012, accessed on May 5, 2013 : "No children's chat: Germany's largest chat platform changes its profile"
- ↑ http://www.netpoint-media.de/portfolio/916/knuddels-de
- ↑ "Do you want to chat?" - After 15 years I signed up again at Knuddels.de , Vice , July 13, 2018
- ↑ Knuddels: Closure of the sub-forum homepage & guest book - Knuddels.de forum. Retrieved September 2, 2018 .
- ↑ current version at http://www.knuddels.de/cmdoku/
- ↑ Report to Heise Online
- ↑ Save-me-online.de and Knuddels.de: Together for Youth Protection on the net , June 22nd 2011, retrieved on May 22, 2013
- ↑ Promitalk with Holgi from April 4, 2013 on knuddels-wiki.de, accessed on June 23, 2013
- ↑ http://forum.knuddels.de/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2526262 Official announcement of the chat line
- ↑ The official website of the anti-extremism team , accessed on December 26, 2010
- ↑ Official announcement of the chat line's fundraising campaign , October 11, 2012
- ^ End of the fundraising campaign for the Amadeu Antonio Foundation on February 18, 2013
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Knuddels part of the network against Nazis
- ↑ http://forum.knuddels.de/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2708654
- ↑ http://developer.knuddels.de/docs/
- ↑ http://www.knuddels-wiki.de/index.php/Hauptseite , official Knuddels-Wiki page
- ↑ Die Knuddel-Kinder , Tagesspiegel of July 2, 2007
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↑ cf. z. B .:
Spiegel.de: murders to chat flirt: "What do the knuddels.de now about me in?" , from January 14th, 2009.
Stern.de: Longing and Dying on the Net , from January 14th, 2009.
Stefan Wette: Sex perpetrators used knuddels.de. In: www.derwesten.de. Retrieved September 28, 2016 . nordbayern.de, Nürnberg, Germany: Two years imprisonment for sexual abuse on the Internet. In: www.nordbayern.de. Retrieved September 28, 2016 . Investigators testify against Silvio S. in the trial. Retrieved September 28, 2016 . Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen, Germany: Waiblingen: District Court: 15-year-old abused. Retrieved September 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Chat community: Millions of Knuddels access data in plain text on the net - Golem.de . ( golem.de [accessed on September 8, 2018]).
- ↑ heise online: Passwords in plain language: 20,000 euros fine according to DSGVO against Knuddels.de. Accessed November 27, 2018 (German).
