So recently (like last month) I set up a facebook page. I think it is a testament to how bored I get at work that I did so. Since then like a virus I have added and sneaked friends here and there and I realize I have several WiGBers that have recently been added as friends.

Here is the rub.

I have no idea who some of you people are.

I mean I know you.

Before I met him though I knew Justy as just that, Justy. Now I realize who he is. Now I find myself flipping through pages of people who seem very nice and have cool interests and we have other wigber friends in common. Unfortunatly I have no idea who they are on the board.

So is there a way we can communicate this without posting our full names here in the open as I know many are not really down with (me included)?

I think the process by which we recommend other wigbers to one another on Facebook works OK... then there's just a little detective work when an unfamiliar name appears to figure out which wigber it is. I think there's always the option of asking if you're not sure... few of us are 18 year old scantily clad females who just happen to have webcams, if that's a useful filter.

Social networking sites must either be embraced with all orifices gleefully lubricated, or ruthlessly eschewed. Once you've agreed to accept *one* friend, there will be NO middle ground. These sites are the embodiment of the concept of "viral".

Either delete your account, or bleach your bunghole and suck it up.

Choose. Now.

I think that bleach might sting if I put it there.

Although I hear anal bleaching is like a real thing.

I guess for people who don't like their badge rusty?

You are wasting time. Bleach or delete. NOW.

But it's already too late.

You're so right. I thought I could do just the tip, but it doesn't work that way. And now I'm really regretting it. And no amount of lube can repair the damage.

I try to comfort myself by being really hateful every time I have to go on facebook, but I know it doesn't help. And I can't delete my account now because my siblings use it to keep in touch with me. At least I was able to kill my friendster account, and I'm not on myspace either. I wish tribe would go back to not sucking; I actually kinda liked it.

On the other hand, I'm going through a second honeymoon with LiveJournal. I love me some LJ. And actually, I think that I'm going to join Twitter in a couple of months when they add group filtering. (group filtering is the mentholated after-rub for social networking assrape)

I think I have a Facebook account. I seem to remember setting one up and getting an Indiana Jones Widget over the summer.

I was reluctant becuase of the MySpace cam-Whore experience.

Are there any social networking sites for grown ups?

Linked In?

quote:

Originally posted by RUR:
Are there any social networking sites for grown ups?

Yeah, Linked In and I believe Facebook was supposed to be the grown up MySpace.

Social networking can suck my nuts after I've play a two-hour game of table tennis.

Table tennis, you play table tennis?

New vistas of your personality disclose themselves daily, Lith.

i have facebook.
i'm sure that surprises no one
keep in touch with people i know far away easily...
i really only update once a day, sometimes not even that much. read my homepage...
i have edit, Arkan, and theminx in my friends list.

Facebook: A Legitimate Surveillance Tool!

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
Table tennis, you play table tennis?

New vistas of your personality disclose themselves daily, Lith.

He didn't mention he combines his love of table tennis with SCUBA diving.

Don't laugh; you people have no idea how long it took to get it so that those little balls don't keep floating to the surface.

quote:

Originally posted by Kradlum:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
Table tennis, you play table tennis?

New vistas of your personality disclose themselves daily, Lith.

He didn't mention he combines his love of table tennis with SCUBA diving.

I'd often wondered how that idea for the end of a snorkel came about.

I've got a Mares with some fancy tip that does absolutely bugger-all for keeping the sea water out.

Great for channeling it straight into your lungs, if you're into that thing.

Should've listened when they said Mares make fins, Aqualung makes breathing gear.

[credits fade; lights rise slowly to reveal a silhouetted profile, features obscure. A digitally disguised voice speaks]

"Well I suppose it all started with the Sierra Network, back in, what? '92? I mean, as a kid, I'd played around with BBS but it was more just because my friends were doing it, and I could kinda take it or leave it, just once in a while, you know? But when I got my own place - and remember this was in Europe - people were using Compuserve. It seemed, I don't know, kinda hip. Man, I remember sneaking out my wife's credit card to re-up my account! Ironic that now that seems so innocent.

"But like just about everybody back then, I started hearing rumors about something called Mosaic and the World Wide Web. One night, I finally went to Amsterdam and after a lot of drinks, found a grizzled old UNIX guy and talked him into coming over to my place and, oh god, it's so shameful; we spent hours and hours reconfiguring my networking settings and my modem. The sound of dialing in, that 'boooooo....beeeSCREEEEEEEEEEEE beeee boooooo, COOooooooo' still sends my adrenalin surging.

"I suppose at that point I knew I was hooked, but I didn't care. I needed it. Then the java came and suddenly you could chat without IRC or a walled garden and I *became* digitalprimate, maybe in '95? In my defense, I did clean up for a while, but I was traveling in mostly third world countries for 9 months, and even then I'd stop into the seediest cafes just to hook up, just a little email, you know? I thought I was, well, not exactly quit, but finally the mythic, 'casual user.'"

"And then I moved to New York. Big fucking mistake. It was '99 and the damn stuff was everywhere, in just all kinds of flavors. I remember when Yahoo hit the streets; DAMN that was some good shit. And I told myself I was just using it for business, that every one was using it for business, so it was ok. Even those internet fora and Napster. It wasn't even the pr0n, although god knows the streets ran with it in those days. Just, you know, it was the zeitgeist.

[A pause. The crack of a Zippo. An exhale]

"You know, 9/11 really did change everything. I suppose the crack down on the dotcom cartels kinda made it hard to score for a while, but it seemed like after 9/11 everyone just seemed to *need* it, need something? And after the cartels fell apart, after AOL and all them got taken down, the new gangs and the foreign gangs moved in and started getting creative. I guess it was about then I went started playing around with some of the first stuff again, the BBS, but this time it was different. GUI, persistent identity, it was sort of a cocaine-to-crack thing. There was this one 'author's' board. I tell you, after I found that, I kinda don't remember much for the next couple of years.

"The new gangs did everything better. Chat. Fora. File sharing. Gaming. And throughout it all, they kept cutting it with the social networking. But I bet they figured it out pretty damn quick. Kept us coming back even when we'd sworn to our children and spouses and bosses we wouldn't. Looked like the Feds might crack down there for a while after the whole cam whore stuff (save the children! yeah, right, like those kids didn't love every second of it just like we did when we were kids), but by then Google blew everyone's minds and went legit, went legal, and overnight the new gangs morphed into legal mom and pops shops and new cartels.

"If I think back on it, I always told myself that blogging and LinkedIn would be good for my career, like social drinking or smoking. And hell, why isn't my band on Myspace? Eveyone else is doing it.

[a sigh]

"I tried a few of the social, social networking sites, but they were hard to get a hold of reliably until Facebook came along. A couple of hot shot business people I knew were using it and invited me to try it. I thought, well, ok, just for business.

[a small sob]

"And now my *mother* is on it! My sister and brother, even my father! Almost all my friends are there, every day. And the gang doesn't even care anymore. They'll code the buggiest software on the planet, the lowest quality shit around, and we don't care, we just gotta have it; will take whatever they offer us. Fuck, if I could just go back to '92 or '93 with a time machine or something.

"Of course, Facebook and LinkedIn aren't enough. You always move on, always find the harder shit. Yeah, I'm doing Twitter now. I'm not proud of it. But that instant hit. I mean, it's over right away, but it's so easy to get another.

"One day I'll quit. I swear. I just hope I'm not a broke furry blowing Republicans for dial up before I hit bottom."

[Screen crossfades to Announcer]

"Next week we'll take a look at the supply side of the equation and talk to an online cartoonist. Parental discretion is advised."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: digitalprimate,

*WILD APPLAUSE*