simra.net Doing stuff since 1973

http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/05/problem-with-facebook.html

FSJ hits the big fat elephant-in-the-livingroom-nail on the head.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/31/myspace_fb_comscore_drop/
http://creativecapital.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/its-official-us-social-n...
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/02/el-reg-facebook-is-over.html

... and while we're on the topic of Microsoft. Anyone with half a brain could see this coming- all you had to do was look at Myspace's dwindling visitorship and linger times.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/secret-crush-fa.html

Ok, I'm not exactly closing my account, and I'll still peek in from time-to-time, but whatever was once good about facebook is clearly over-and-done. I reconnected with old friends, caught up, and reminded myself that I'm still as much of a spaz as I was when I was 12.

A while back I posted about privacy on facebook, or the total lack thereof when it comes to third-party apps. This latest story about Secret Crush confirms my suspicions- never, under any circumstances, will I ever again accept an invitation to add a new application. Facebook was once a handy social site for chatting with your peeps. Now it's total junk.

No doubt, at the moment the company is making money hand-over-fist, but I don't see any kind of sustainable business model when this kind of crap starts driving people like me away. On to the next fad, everyone!

... and then there's the whole Scoble fiasco. FB can't seem to figure out the difference between useful hacking and harmful hacking.

I had to laugh today. How nostalgic to get this message in facebook, which reminded me of the heyday of ridiculous email chain letters. Just replace Zuckerberg with Bill Gates, and Facebook with Windows95 and you've got 1996 all over again.

Attention all Facebook membeRs.
Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated,
There have been many members complaining that Facebook
is becoming very slow.Record shows that the reason is
that there are too many non-active Facebook members
And on the other side too many new Facebook members.
We will be sending this messages around to see if the
Members are active or not,If you're active please send
to other users using Copy+Paste to show that you are active
Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks,
The user will be deleted without hesitation to create more space,
If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations but until then send this message to all your friends and make sure you send
this message to show me that your active and not deleted.

Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg 

But in far more serious news: Black Hole Blasts Neighbor Galaxy with Deadly Jet [via slashdot]. Before you make your donation to facebook, please consider contributing to my charity drive to send a thousand free AOL CD's and 50 Bic lighters to the hapless victims of system 3C321. Where is FEMA when you need them?

http://www.ideashower.com/blog/block-facebook-beacon/

Beacon is part of Facebook's new ad system. It reports web sites that you visit back to facebook. And things you bought online. And trips you took, etc, etc. In the link above, Ideashower shows how to block Beacon altogether.

My first reaction to this system is that it's way over the top, but thinking about it further, I'm pretty sure google gets this info from its major adwords customers, too, only they don't tell you that they're sharing...

http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/09/08/want-some-quechup-on-your-ra...

Mathew Ingram discusses the latest social networking villains, Quechep and Rapleaf. Note to friends: don't sign up with Quechup unless you want to spam me and all your other friends. :-) ... and don't sign up with Rapleaf just because... if you know what's good for you you won't.

Social networks are the new crystal meth. Some thoughts...

Everyone knows myspace is a spammer/scammer's paradise, catering to dumbasses the world over, so we'll ignore them for the moment. Facebook was supposed to be the smarter, classier social network, and for several years it has done a good job at servicing the needs of North American college students. But now that Facebook has an open API and the vultures are circling, we're seeing more and more invasive apps. I've got a handful of unanswered 'requests' from apps that friends have installed, that I know, once I open them they will a) install themselves on my profile page, b) ask permission to access my information (uh oh), and c) start spamming my friends with whatever inane crap they have to offer. As much as the Scobleizer thinks facebook is the wave of the future, the cracks are starting to show and I'm ready to give it a big thumbs down- it's falling into the hands of the same people who give myspace a bad name. It's fun to get in touch with old friends. It sucks to facilitate spamming old friends.

A big problem with Facebook is the illusion of trust. Facebook has this lovely, clean institutional-looking interface. Everyone's page has this nice organized feel to it- no animated Xena-warrior-princess backgrounds, no gawdy scrolling banners, etc, etc. Every third-party app developed for facebook follows the same design guidelines. This is a really big problem. When you install an app on your profile page, you click a little box that says, "Yes, please share my info with this app". The problem with this, is that not only are you sharing your info with the app, but you're sharing your info with that app's developer, who is not employed by facebook and who for all intents and purposes does not have your best interests at heart. No doubt most of the facebook apps out there are harmless, and their developers are kind-hearted hackers, but you have just admitted a stranger into your inner circle of friends. You know-- the only people you're really willing to share your profile info with. Do you post pictures of your kids? Their school? Your house? If you're inviting third parties into your circle of friends, take a close look at your profile and decide whether you're sharing a little too much.

For about a month facebook was the next big thing. Between spam and privacy issues, soon it will be yesterday's news. Pass the nachos...

People were incredulous that the Scobelizer could stay on top of 622 rss feeds, but here are my stats from google reader:
From your 95 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 7,440 items, starred 0 items, and shared 56 items.

Forget 30 days, that's two weeks since I actually started using the reader. The difference between Scoble and me is that it's his full time job. Here's a shot of my time of day stats:

You can tell when I get home from work. ;-) Of course, things will change a little when the family gets back from T.O.

A handful of those 95 subscriptions are high-volume technorati searches- low signal-to-noise ratio but the source of a) rare gems, and b) new subscriptions!

The truth is that working with the reader lets me get my browsing done fast. If you're a power surfer like me (in some circles I think the nomenclature is 'addict'), a good quality reader can leave you wondering what to do next- read a book, get some sun, etc. All I need now is for facebook to provide rss feeds on all my friends' profiles. W00t!

When you're ready to try it out, don't forget the most important feed of all. ;-)

What an enormous timesink.