(Anti)social networks

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Zur

Zur

surrealistic mad cow
Jul 8, 2002
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Don't you just hate it when someone blacklists you when you visit their profile ?

This practise is apparently frequent on netlog which, as some people know, has quite a large proportion of members that are only interesting in one thing.

But what is really bad about this is how superficial these people must be to have developped such a reflex. You don't even need a photo up and you'll get blocked just the same if your profile doesn't meet their criteria.

The worst of this is that social networking is far from new. There's actually an ancient social network at parano.be which got things right from the start. For example, there's a series of "tribes" you can join so you can avoid having brushes with people that have no common interests. Of course, the public is far smaller and it just goes to show that popularity doesn't rhyme with quality.
 
J

Jackal

Crapass
Nov 13, 2003
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Somewhere Over The Rainbow...
www.beyondunreal.com
cat-wut.jpg
 
Zur

Zur

surrealistic mad cow
Jul 8, 2002
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But, but, but ... you have no idea how funny it is to read comments life in a student flat ;p

Al said:
I gotta agree with Jackal on this. Wat?
Click to expand...

Ok, let me explain things clearly. On netlog you can see who's online and click on their avatar to visit their profile. This is exactly what I did. The other person doesn't know me, has never exchanged messages with me and didn't even know I existed until I visit their profile. It took approximatelty 10 seconds to decide that they wanted to blacklist me. Wtf ?!

Unfortunately Jimmy, I hid ya. You post too much on Facebook :)
Click to expand...

Not a problem. I think BillBadAss did the same. I've been using the site to collect links to study material and will give you a sign when I'm finished in a few months time :p .
 
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Zur

Zur

surrealistic mad cow
Jul 8, 2002
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Are or aren't ? What's the point in having a public profile if you don't want to come into contact with strangers ? Anyway, my pessimistic side says that this guy somehow assumed I was homosexual or something. If that's the case, I wouldn't be very happy about it and I'd probably be happy to blacklist such a narrow minded idiot anyway.
 
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Sir_Brizz

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
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I have a high school friend on FaceBook. I commented on one of her photos after being friends for several months and she immediately blocked me from seeing everything in her profile. Okay...
 
BillyBadAss

BillyBadAss

Strong Cock of The North
May 25, 1999
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Tokyo, JP
flickr.com
I keep my Facebook page private because I use it to keep in contact with friends. That's the point of Facebook I think. Not everyone is trying to be the next internet social whore.

A lot of times people add me whom I don't know, or went to high school with, but didn't talk to, so I just refuse them. I am not short on friends and it seems odd just to start talking to strangers.

I think social networks that are designed around meeting new people like Flickr etc. makes it much easier to meet new people.
 
Zur

Zur

surrealistic mad cow
Jul 8, 2002
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Well, I hope I'm not too much of a bother BBA ;p . I added you because Japan is something that always caught my eye as a country. This is since a Japanese guy came to visit the Royal Wolverhampton School to do a little presentation when I was a kid. Besides that, you have a good sense of humour and an attitude to careers that I'd like to adopt :p .

As for social networks in general, I think the way they're designed right now reflects too much of an analytical viewpoint. In fact, if I was to produce a site like this according to requirements it would probably work the same way as an existing one.

As you point out, a site like Flickr is a great way to meet new people if you're into photography, the arts or anything that is visual. Where social networking goes wrong is when you start mixing close ones and complete strangers together. It's unnatural and, imo, there should be some options added so you can have a few circles like in this diagram:

circles-of-relationships.gif


Sir_Brizz said:
I have a high school friend on FaceBook. I commented on one of her photos after being friends for several months and she immediately blocked me from seeing everything in her profile. Okay...
Click to expand...

Wow, that's even worse. Could your message have been misinterpreted ? It's so easy to click the button and block off people like that. It's unpleasant too because you can't help feel rejection of some sort and the lack of feedback is a total letdown with an impression that people are being overly fickle.

Also, I brought this topic up because it's relevant to the presentation I'm going to do on the berlin wall. It turns out that there's tons of walls out there where people on each side have decided to break all form of communication.

If you look at things that way, you begin to see walls everywhere. There was an article in the newspaper last week saying that local authorities regretted that more and more people were putting high wooden fences around their gardens. At first I thought that it was none of their business and people had right to their privacy but the more I do research on the cold war and the more it becomes clear that lack of communication is a bad thing in the long term. This is because you know nothing about your neighbour and will be tempted to assume that he's just an asshole if something happens that displeases you.
 
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Sir_Brizz

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
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Azura said:
Wow, that's even worse. Could your message have been misinterpreted ? It's so easy to click the button and block off people like that. It's unpleasant too because you can't help feel rejection of some sort and the lack of feedback is a total letdown with an impression that people are being overly fickle.
Click to expand...
Heh, I have no idea. It was like a picture of her family and I said something like "Wow, great picture, who took it?" and BAM! I'm out.

I agree that it's a weird form of rejection like "the friendship we had was over a long time ago" or something along those lines, so every time I see her (which is occasionally due to use living in the same neighborhood) it actually feels pretty awkward.
Also, I brought this topic up because it's relevant to the presentation I'm going to do on the berlin wall. It turns out that there's tons of walls out there where people on each side have decided to break all form of communication.

If you look at things that way, you begin to see walls everywhere. There was an article in the newspaper last week saying that local authorities regretted that more and more people were putting high wooden fences around their gardens. At first I thought that it was none of their business and people had right to their privacy but the more I do research on the cold war and the more it becomes clear that lack of communication is a bad thing in the long term. This is because you know nothing about your neighbour and will be tempted to assume that he's just an asshole if something happens that displeases you.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I had never thought about that before but you are totally right.

I'd love to read this paper when you've completed it.
 
Zur

Zur

surrealistic mad cow
Jul 8, 2002
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And I shall block you in retaliation in pure cold war style ;p .
 
shadow_dragon

shadow_dragon

is ironing his panties!
Apr 26, 2000
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"The cold neon research lab of your betrayal"
Sir_Brizz said:
I have a high school friend on FaceBook. I commented on one of her photos after being friends for several months and she immediately blocked me from seeing everything in her profile. Okay...
Click to expand...

I have had that aswell, twice. I found it odd because i oddly remembered i'd made the posts and wondered why i never got a response so tried to find them manually only to find them no longer on my friends list or visible on Facebook at all. So they either left facebook all together or removed me. :s
It bugged me for a few days because i was only being polite but i'm getting over it.

Facebook is quite handy for keeping up to date with actual friends but the "extended network" of distant acquantances should be added to a relative list. They're not really your friends and they'd drop you if you ever show up posting on their stuff lest their actual friends make a connection between you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTpP770n8aQ&feature=youtube_gdata
 
Kaligraphic

Kaligraphic

Charles leChaud is my hero
Oct 22, 2002
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Everywhere.
www.google.com
I have a bunch of people in my facebook friends who I've added for fb games, and sometimes I comments on their posts. Experiment suggests that the average person will simply respond.

Perhaps, though, it's more common for people to comment back/ignore. The people who have problems seem to be those in the sort of acquaintance middle ground. (deleting comments, etc)
 
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