By 10am this morning, a friend of mine had already taken two movie quizzes and a trivia challenge - as faithfully reported by Flixster's PublishActionOfUser. I wonder what happens if her co-worker and FB friend, who might not like her too much shows her FB profile to their boss. It's one thing to let people waste time on your site - it's quite another to tell everyone exactly what they did and when they did it.
Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
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Re: Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
i think the trend is only with the tech-crowd, we'll see if this spreads to non-techy people, but i think the myspace crowd enjoys where facebook is at right now - self expression, maximum friend count etc... you can get value out of facebook, just add the friends who are truly in your inner-circle, or those that were and moved away. you can also prevent yourself from being searched for, so when someone else says i c…
Hmm... Facebook is full of techie crowd. All those college people are quite competent when it comes to using the Web. All you need is one: "X purchased [porn dvd] from Y" in your feed and all your 'friends' are gonna laugh at you and ridicule you and it will leave you with sour feeling in your mouth. Or they'll criticize your tastes and judge you by the crap you buy. Exodus from FB has already begun.
Pfft. Anyone who would ridicule me for buying porn is right to do so. Porn is freely available on the internet.
Seriously, though: I could care less about what shows up on the feeds. Anyone who would criticize or judge me for what I buy isn't among my friends, in real life or on facebook. Worried about your boss (as Doctorow says, you pretty much have to friend this one if they come a-courtin') seeing too much? Just twiddle the privacy settings so he or she only sees the most innocuous of updates.
While there are many valid criticisms of facebook, I have never worried once about the ones you listed.
Just my 2 cents.
Re: Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
#13I've never understood how Facebook got to be so big in the first place with their policy of requiring to sign up to do anything. I've never needed to see a Facebook page that badly that I'd want to spend the time signing up for yet another website that I never use. (And why is Facebook banned from BugMeNot?) Facebook is the new AOL... hadn't thought of it that way, but it does seem like an appropriate analogy.
Facebook the new AOL?
Absolutely the best analogy.
Re: Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
#14This is the best anti-social-networking article I've read yet. Choice quote: You'd think that Facebook would be the perfect tool for handling all this. It's not. For every long-lost chum who reaches out to me on Facebook, there's a guy who beat me up on a weekly basis through the whole seventh grade but now wants to be my buddy; or the crazy person who was fun in college but is now kind of sad; or the creepy ex-co-wo…
May be you should just not friend them? It's as easy as friending them.
It's only as easy when you look at it from the technical side (two buttons - click one). From a more social point of view there's a big difference (how big depends certainly on each person).
Re: Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
#15Corey Doctorow is a tool.
OK, that's argumentum ad hominem, so let's look at why he's being a tool this particular here time.
Bullshit argument. If you don't want to hear from the guy who beat you up, don't add him -- or better yet, write back and say "you beat me up, and you're lucky I don't track you down and let the air out of your tires every day for a week."
Social networks are not for pussies. They're for people who are ready to face society and its weirdos.
Perhaps Corey Doctorow isn't just a tool, but also a pussy.
Re: Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
#16This is the best anti-social-networking article I've read yet. Choice quote: You'd think that Facebook would be the perfect tool for handling all this. It's not. For every long-lost chum who reaches out to me on Facebook, there's a guy who beat me up on a weekly basis through the whole seventh grade but now wants to be my buddy; or the crazy person who was fun in college but is now kind of sad; or the creepy ex-co-wo…
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Re: Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
#17I still prefer MySpace...more fun to use...
Re: Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
#18Corey Doctorow is a tool. OK, that's argumentum ad hominem, so let's look at why he's being a tool this particular here time. Bullshit argument. If you don't want to hear from the guy who beat you up, don't add him -- or better yet, write back and say "you beat me up, and you're lucky I don't track you down and let the air out of your tires every day for a week." Social networks are not for pussies. They're for peopl…
Having been on lots of social networks (DeadJournal, LiveJournal, Friendster, uJournal, Plogs, MySpace, and Facebook, in that order), Doctorow's basically right-on when it comes to what real people do. I've had friends tell me, several times, "We're all on (GreatestJournal|MySpace|Facebook) now; come join us." Mass migrations between social networks are not as rare as people who are on their first social network tend to think.
Maybe ordinary people are pussies too.
Re: Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
#19Corey Doctorow is a tool. OK, that's argumentum ad hominem, so let's look at why he's being a tool this particular here time. Bullshit argument. If you don't want to hear from the guy who beat you up, don't add him -- or better yet, write back and say "you beat me up, and you're lucky I don't track you down and let the air out of your tires every day for a week." Social networks are not for pussies. They're for peopl…
Having been on lots of social networks (DeadJournal, LiveJournal, Friendster, uJournal, Plogs, MySpace, and Facebook, in that order), Doctorow's basically right-on when it comes to what real people do. I've had friends tell me, several times, "We're all on (GreatestJournal|MySpace|Facebook) now; come join us." Mass migrations between social networks are not as rare as people who are on their first social network tend…
"Mass migrations between social networks are not as rare as people who are on their first social network tend to think."
Is that what Corey is complaining about? I read that he hates being stalked. I think he likes complaining about hating being stalked. Regardless, the fear of social networking because the "wrong" people might find you -- that's what makes Corey a pussy.
What difference does it make if your friends move to new social nets? No one is forcing you to do anything. Politely tell them you're giving up social networking.
In any event: much ado about nothing.
Re: Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
#20I've never understood how Facebook got to be so big in the first place with their policy of requiring to sign up to do anything. I've never needed to see a Facebook page that badly that I'd want to spend the time signing up for yet another website that I never use. (And why is Facebook banned from BugMeNot?) Facebook is the new AOL... hadn't thought of it that way, but it does seem like an appropriate analogy.
Easy. Facebook was seen as the in thing on campus. If you had a Facebook profile, you were hip and cool and cutting edge. After a few months in 2004 it got to the point that not having a profile meant people simply forgot who you were (because they couldn't read your profile like they could everyone elses). Obviously it influenced none of your close friends, but people you just met would judge you by your profile and decide whether or not to include you in the future.
It was also a great way to find your friend's hot friends and set up a meeting somehow.
The fact you had to give them your college email address and a password was no barrier. Heck, not having to choose a user name or design your profile yourself made it easier to sign up.
(I can answer this since I was in college at the time it got started.)